Published in the February 28 – March 13, 2018 issue of Morgan Hill Life

By Caitlin Robinett Jachimowicz

Caitlin Robinett Jachimowicz

I was a senior at Live Oak High School Sept. 11, 2001. Like many of you, I remember that day vividly. I remember the look on Dad’s face while we watched the news together as United Airlines Flight 175 hit the southern tower at the World Trade Center. I remember the teachers who tried to stay strong for us. And I remember that someone draped American flags on the freeway overpasses in Morgan Hill.

For that all too brief time, we were united as a country. No matter how flawed our response in retrospect, we came together. We grieved and wanted justice together. We wanted justice for the 3,000 souls lost, 6,000 injured, and assurances that it wasn’t going to happen again. George W. Bush’s approval rating soared to 90 percent in the immediate aftermath. But that always happens when we feel vulnerable in times of war or violence, we focus on what makes us the same, what makes us Americans.

That hasn’t happened in the slow, prolonged attack on America’s school children. A day after the Parkland, Fla., school shooting, statistics are rolling in. The Washington Post reports 150,000 students have experienced a school shooting since Columbine in 1999. The New York Times reports there have been 239 school shootings in the time since 20 elementary school children (and six adults) were killed in Newtown, Conn. Parkland’s 17 souls can be added to the 138 who have been killed in school shootings in the past five years.

But when researching these statistics, I found even the numbers are politicized. We are wasting breath arguing on what constitutes a mass murder, rather than focusing on the fact we all agree it’s happening too often. Imagine what it must feel like to be the parent of a student gunned down in school, only to be told your child’s death shouldn’t count because they were the “only” one killed. Our newsfeeds are filled with blame and political jargon instead of Americans reaching out to each other with compassion and to find solutions. No one is hanging flags in memory of the victims or writing patriotic songs. I understand this threat isn’t coming from the outside, it’s a sickness within America, but it’s one I believe Americans are strong enough to fight.

There isn’t going to be one bill, or law, or theory that is going to fix us. We need a comprehensive approach that addresses all the underlying causes of this epidemic.

No matter your political affiliation, or what you believe is the cause of the upward trend of school shootings, I’m willing to bet you are probably right. Because issues like this one are huge and complex. We need to look at our policies on civilians with assault rifles, how to better address warning signs, the mental health of our young men, better parenting and community support, depictions of violence in the media, and the security of our schools. There’s never just one reason. It feels like we have been slowly under attack over the course of years, but it hasn’t been enough to shake us awake. It’s time for us to start finding common ground to decide how we will conquer this issue as a country, together.

I hope you’ll join me in encouraging our elected officials to put aside political differences and start listening to each other. And I hope in our own conversations, we are willing to do the same. We are yearning for solutions to all the underlying causes of this prolonged and painful tragedy. Nothing should be off the table, because the very survival of our children, and the future they represent, depend on it.

Caitlin Robinett Jachimowicz is a Morgan Hill City Councilmember an attorney and a mother.