Sharhonda Bossier: “The status quo is unacceptable.” Statement on mass shooting at Robb Elementary in Uvalde, Texas

I wept this morning on my walk. I cried for the lives we have lost to gun violence in this country. I cried for the 10-year-old version of myself who lost her first classmate to a shooting. I cried for the 19-year-old version of myself who had to bury her childhood best friend after he was shot and killed. I wailed from a place of deep helplessness and anger that our communities are again grieving the loss of loved ones whose lives were taken because of inaction on the part of our leaders. 

I join so many educators and other colleagues across the country in mourning the devastating loss of innocent lives, and wounded ones, to yesterday’s horrific mass shooting at Robb Elementary in Uvalde, Texas. I offer my deepest condolences to the families suffering extraordinary grief and trauma as they grapple with the unimaginable tragedy of a world in which a place reserved for hope and optimism could become the subject of their worst nightmares. 

Between the targeting of Black people in Buffalo, the violence aimed at a Taiwanese church community in Southern California as they worshipped, and now the incomprehensible loss of so many children and their educators in a mostly Latino community in Texas, people of color in America are once again in a state of deep mourning. As a Black woman educator and advocate, I’m overwhelmed by a sense of triggering grief at this moment, and recognize that no words are powerful enough to bring peace to the communities the shooters targeted, and to whom we all belong. 

Without a doubt, yesterday’s tragedy once again proves that common sense gun control in America is long overdue. Shamefully, Congress’s neglect to fulfill their responsibility to protect us all, especially the youngest and most vulnerable among us, has made school building places to fear in the public consciousness, a trauma that can only be overcome with deep investment in mental health support for educators and students. 

Schools across the country must adopt curricula focused on making young people feel they belong while telling the truth about our country's history. We have radicalized 18-year-olds because we have not won the war of ideas to foster a stronger democracy and more loving, inclusive communities. That work starts in the classroom. 

The status quo is unacceptable. Every one of us must work together to push Congress to prevent mass shootings at schools, or anywhere else, from ever happening again.