By Elizabeth Flater
Every school day morning, parents across America do a brave thing. They send their kids to school. They entrust their children’s teachers to teach them well and keep them safe. Each morning before I send my kids to school, I make sure I tell them I love them. I do my best to have calm and peaceful mornings, because God forbid something were to happen, what if our last morning at home was hard? We are all painfully aware that while they are likely to come home safely from school that day, not every child will. And that reality is beyond unacceptable. This is what Gen X and Millennial parents think about every day.
This week we learned that our worst nightmares played out in Bend, Oregon. A 25 year old special education teacher was killed, along with three of her students. They were 5, 8 and 11 years old. Two others were wounded, and an entire community was traumatized. The shooter was a 16 year old, who had previously attended the school. The doors were locked. It didn’t matter. The locked doors did not keep this armed child outside. In the words of Sharon McMahon, “the school safety debate begins too late. It currently starts at the schoolhouse door. It should begin wherever teenagers get access to guns.”
There have been 52 school shootings in 2026 in the United States on K-12 and college campuses. That’s one school shooting every 5.5 days in America. The median age of a school shooter is 16. Black children are disproportionately affected. There have been 370 mass shootings so far this year in the U.S. Gun violence is the number 1 cause of death for American children - more than cancer and more than car accidents.
According to the Washington Post, as of 2025, 389,000 children have experienced a school shooting. Every time it happens, the media reports the wounded and those killed. What is underreported is how many students and teachers were hiding, terrified, and traumatized. What also isn’t reported is how many families and loved ones are waiting on the news of whether their child or teacher is ok. Students who go through this kind of trauma are forever changed, and are also victims of these shootings.
In addition to being a parent that sends my three kids to school each weekday, I am a special education teacher. One of our own was gunned down this week. In August of 2012, while teaching in the Aurora Public Schools, our first day of teacher inservice was all about trauma and supporting our students and families that were affected by the Aurora theater shooting. 400 people were in the theater that night. 12 victims were killed, 70 more were injured, and everyone who walked out of there uninjured was traumatized. One horrific event, thousands of people affected.
School security was heightened that semester, and we had several lockdowns. I remember being so afraid during one, and searching for information online to try and assess the danger, while keeping my students calm. Every time I had to knock on a locked classroom door to pick up students that semester, I was reminded of the threat that was always there. The last week of that semester, on December 14th, 27 first graders and staff were gunned down at Sandy Hook.
We had a safety meeting that week with a school security staff member. I’ll never forget a teacher asking, “when we are hiding, should we have all of the students hold a book in case we could all throw them at a shooter to defend ourselves?” You need to know, these are the conversations that happen in schools. Should we arm our children with books to try and save ourselves from a child with an assault rifle? How far we have fallen.
I have taken stock of my classroom, just like every teacher has, of what my plan will be should the worst come to our door. Could I get my students out the window if I had to? Should I get a key to that steel door that leads to the HVAC in my classroom? Where should the kids take cover in this wide open space? What could we use to fight back? Every American teacher has this on their mind.
The Columbine High School shooting took place in the spring of my sophomore year of college. It shocked us all, a national tragedy of the worst kind. What shocks me even more, is that these devastating tragedies that have continued over the last 27 years have hardly moved the needle in our national policies on gun control, or what we value most.
Confession: I used to judge single issue voters. When citizens used to run down the ballot and vote only on their anti-abortion views, I thought they were ridiculous. Why make that the hill you’re going to die on? It’s never going to change, I thought. Boy, was I wrong. And now here I stand in 2026, pouring over the Moms Demand Action resources to help me decide my votes for the midterms. One of my own children has run from an armed man being chased by police across their playground. How could I vote any other way?
The gun lobby would like you to believe that gun control reform is unpopular. The facts do not support that. According to Pew Research Center, 79% of Americans support raising the minimum age to purchase a gun to 21. Gallup found that 56% of Americans favor stricter gun laws overall, and 52% of Americans support an assault rifle ban. We have the numbers, and we need to get to work.
Every year, Moms Demand Action works with lawmakers across this country pushing gun reform in state legislatures. They are a non-partisan, grass roots movement that makes incremental gains every year. The arc of justice is long and we can’t lose heart. We need all the moms and dads, grandmas and grandpas, aunties and uncles to get involved. Vote for common sense gun control reform candidates. Since 2024, Colorado has passed 11 laws that increase the safety of citizens. We aren’t finished yet, but every law could save a life. We have to keep pushing.
This is the right to life fight I have become a single issue voter for. If you are as fed up and sad as I am about this, please turn out and vote for common sense gun reform candidates this month. Get involved in a Moms Demand Action chapter in your town. We cannot accept that this is just how it has to be. This is a singularly American problem, and it doesn’t have to be this way.
Find common sense gun reform candidates on your ballot:
Join the Moms Demand Action in Nebraska: https://www.facebook.com/MomsDemandActionNE/
Moms Demand Action Denver: https://www.facebook.com/MomsDemandActionCO/
Data: https://k12ssdb.org/all-shootings
Well written! Schools should be safe, protective havens where our students can go to grow and flourish. Teachers should never have to risk their lives!
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