Column/Commentary by HaydenBlaney

Only weeks into the new school year and people are already reminded of the dangers of just being a student. 

In Minneapolis, on Aug. 27, middle schoolers from Annunciation Catholic Church had to rush their younger classmates out the doors of their church, confused and scared. Arms around their terrified classmates, they hurried out the doors to run from a shooter. They didn’t know which of their friends had gotten out, which ones were still under the pews, and if any of them had been hit.

It was the first week for the school and they were just getting started with a beginning-of-the-year Mass when the chaos broke out. 

The shooter began firing from outside the building, shattering glass windows and sending bullets through the openings. Many kids ducked under the pews in the church to avoid injury. 

According to CNN, two children, ages 8 and 10, were killed in the tragedy. There were 14 other children and three adults also injured, with seven children rushed to the hospital in critical condition. 

Multiple children have been on TV, social media and the everywhere else the news comes from, their voices unwavering as they tell their stories. 

They have told stories of friends lying on top of them to protect them, of seeing classmates’ bodies on the floor and of seeing their peers wounded. 

Despite the horrific experience, they want to tell their story. 

Many officials have called the actions of both the kids and teachers heroic as many of them not only got themselves out but the people around them as well. 

The effects of school shootings on children, teachers, parents, and the community as a whole is always devastating. 

Children are left with trauma and become scared of going back to school and, in this case, church as well. 

Teachers deal with the guilt of thinking they could’ve done something more. Parents grieve the loss of their children. Communities are shaken to their core. 

Children are sacred. 

They are the next generation and the hope of the previous one to not only grow up into happy, successful people, but to make the world a better place. 

Those futures were ripped violently from them and the people around them.

Every Marian girl who was at school on the day last year when it went into a lockdown can remember how they felt. 

They can tell you exactly what classroom they were in and where in the room they huddled with their classmates. 

It’s a shock to their system to hear that their school is going into lockdown. 

For Marian’s situation, students knew there was no one in the school and the police just wanted to be cautious, but for many girls, emotions still ran high as stories of school shootings are widely known. 

This should not be normal. 

Not for grade school, not for high school, and not for college. Education needs to be a safe space. 

At Marian we have many people who keep us safe. 

Mr. Chuck Coolidge is one of these people who handle our safety here at school, especially in the mornings. 

“What I do is I’m out there and I walk the grounds and drive around the area,” he said. 

He is the smiling face that greets students as they walk into the building as well as the person who monitors who is on school grounds. 

“I’m looking out for everything and just protecting everybody,” he said. “[Students’ safety] is very important.” 

As the Minnesota community reels from the chaos, a message of hope shines a bright light. 

Annunciation Catholic Church’s principal, Matthew DeBoer, had chosen the theme for the school year prior to the shooting: “hope for the future.”

While a painful thought after the tragedy, that theme reminds us of what is necessary to move forward. 

Hope can be found through the kids that guided their classmates to safety, by the teachers who put their students’ safety first, and the first responders who didn’t hesitate to run headfirst in to help these kids. 

Love and unity rather than hatred and division is what is needed in times like these. 

Tragedy, though endlessly painful, unites. 

Like Annunciation Catholic Church’s theme for this school year, we have to have hope for a better future. 

That starts with love.