Whenever there's a shooting or a protest, whenever someone is killed or injured, I always think "but that will never happen here." The startling reality is that Townville Elementary School is only 12 minutes from Clemson University's campus. It happened here.
I don't know these little boys or their families and I've never met the teacher, but I was so scared for them as I watched the story unfold live. Sitting in my room with my roommate after a stressful day of classes, the show we were watching suddenly cut to the "Breaking News" screen and we didn't know what to think. We had no information at that point, just what was visible on the screen, and it was utter chaos. There were parents running towards the school, mothers crying to police officers, and deputies directing them away. As more information came in, we learned that it was a shooting by a teenager and the motive was unclear. We watched in terror as one 6-year-old little boy was airlifted to Greenville and the other little boy was taken to AnMed along with the wounded teacher, not knowing the extent of their injuries, simply praying that they were okay. These two young lives suddenly seemed so important to me. I found myself thinking over and over, God please, not them. They're too young. It wasn't long after the shooting that the children were loaded onto buses with law enforcement officers and transported to a nearby church where they were reunited with their panic-stricken loved ones. I will never forget watching as a mother was reunited with her rattled kindergartener, both crying as they embraced. I was emotional myself, so I have no idea what was going through that mother's head.
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Disturbing. Horrific. Devastating. Terrifying. Shocking. Heartbreaking. Yet completely normal. I can't even imagine what those innocent children were thinking as he rushed onto the playground and shot their two young playmates and the teacher they look up to. Can someone please explain to me why a 14-year-old thought it was okay to steal a truck after shooting his father? Why he had stolen a handgun? Or why he took that stolen truck and handgun to an elementary school? What is the motive there? Why would you even attempt to hurt elementary age children? Did he even think about the consequences? About how he would be emotionally damaging children he had never met before and how they didn't deserve this? Human life is sacred and he acted like it was something to just be toyed with. One of those little boys, Jacob Hall is no longer with us because of this. How can he be expected to live with that outcome?
This is just one instance of the chaotic insanity that is taking over our world. Shootings and brutality are normal and I'm not okay with it. I remember when the Sandy Hook shooting happened almost four years ago. I remember how shocked everyone was to hear that someone had walked into an elementary school with a gun and shot 20 children. We banded together and said we would never let this happen again; yet here we are again. We keep saying things will change and we won't let more lives be lost, but we're allowing it to continue. We want to change the outcome, but we aren't willing to change the process. Something has to change because I'm not willing to live in a world where it is normal for children to be injured or killed. Especially when the shooter is only 14 years old.
There is something wrong with this picture. This doesn't have anything to do with violent video games or abusive parents. It was bullies who pushed him to this point. His parents began homeschooling him following his expulsion from an Oconee county middle school after bringing a weapon to school, probably to try to scare his bullies off. There's obviously some mental instability at play in Jesse Osborne's life, but that's no excuse for this tragic act of violence. Something has to change. Whether it takes sending bullies and the bullied to counseling or screening the entire family of the person applying for the gun permit for mental and emotional instability. What is it going to take for Americans to wake up and realize that we as a country are falling apart? It's no longer as simple as adults killing adults or adults killing children. It's now come down to children killing other children. And I am not okay with that.
