"I'm okay, mom. I'm safe. Hope you're busy working and not watching the news. Love you!" 12:07 p.m. 04/17/25
That was the first of an avalanche of texts I received while in a Zoom meeting yesterday. Everyone in my life who knows my son works at FSU texted to tell me the news of the active shooter.
I know the campus well. My son earned both his bachelor's and master's degrees there and now works for the university. My daughter earned her bachelor's and started her master's degree there. It has been a second home for us for a decade. Literally, I co-own a condo with my son in Tally.
Over the the next few hours I learned that:
* my neighbor's son was locked down in Bellamy, a kid I have adored since he was in diapers, texting my son how terrified he was but didn't want his parents to know.
* one of my daughter's friends was in Oglesby at the time of the shooting texting with her in Boston to try to stay calm. She didn't realize she had peed herself until the police got them out. The kid on the floor next to her, a stranger holding her hand, had been at Parkland.
* one of my son's close friends had classes with the shooter (He's in the TSC political discourse group the media is mentioning - they sent me screen shots) and immediately identified him as a white supremacist who worships Trump. He introduced himself to his International Relations class by saying "multiculturalism and communism is destroying America."
There are a few other connections I won't mention that meant I was getting information well before the media. Which leads me to my plea.
My sister has a friend who is a trauma/tragedy junkie. She was constantly sending information being pushed out by an internet media outlet in our area of the state over 300 miles away. They reported things like:
* four dead, five injured
* more than a dozen casualties
* at least two shooters, there may be a third
well before anything concrete could be determined. She was pissed because the police waited until 4:30 to have a press briefing. I blocked her.
I know I am preaching to the choir here, but have to say it anyway. Our 24-hour media circus plus immediate communication capabilities has created a horror show of instant demand for info regardless of the veracity and validity.
Every shooting angers me. Every shooting depresses me. Every shooting rattles me. Some shootings hit me in ways I don't see coming. And for reasons I can sometimes never figure out. I know why this one had me sobbing in the shower this morning. I got ""I'm okay, mom. I'm safe. Hope you're busy working and not watching the news. Love you!" Too many Americans get texts like this one and way too many get the last text from their loved one that they'll ever receive. No one should get texts like these ever!
I have no words for how much I detest the NRA, the Republican party, white supremacists, Trump and Trumpism, gun manufacturers, and gun fetishists right now. A primal scream may be all I can manage. I'm so angry. So sad. So hopeless. Sunday marks 26 years since Columbine. 26 years!!! That's longer than so many school children have been allowed to live because of spineless greedy politicians.
I don't even know how to end my rant so I'll just stop here.
= new reply since forum marked as read
For years I've seen comments from people I know IRL that "all the mass shooters are Democrats."
This propaganda is pushed out every single time. And the response is the same:
Republicans: It's happened again! Democrats are violent and crazy! Whatever Trump is doing we have to support him. Save America!!!
Way too many Democrats: Well let's see... I'm not sure what to believe... He said this... but then there's this...maybe he's mentally ill? I heard he's a left winger?! Gosh. I guess maybe he was a Democrat?!
The rest of us: 
What a stressful time you've gone through, I was wrung out after just reading it. To think that there were kids from Parkland (or any other) there, it's just heartbreaking. I know I'm not the only one here sending you and yours love and hugs!
But you are so right. The 24 hour news cycle, the internet, the shortened attention spans and the demand for instant gratification - be it be news, information or entertainment - has been so destructive for us as a nation, as individuals. When I'm asked if we're going in the right or wrong direction, this is one of the places my mind goes. It's a far deeper and more serious issue than many realize or are willing to admit.
I want the whole NRA, the whole gun-humping culture, to burn in the hottest circle of hell for all eternity. Repuglikans too.
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Which initially are frequently wrong. If the folks investigating get it wrong . I can see why statements are later than we would like.
Shocked and thankful you and yours are OK. My kids are grown and have their own opinions about this shit. Both being teachers. I see their concern and fear first hand. My heart just breaks for them.
I have had some input in their career choice. Constantly on edge about this advice.
I think teachers should get Hazardous duty pay and the kids they teach? WTF, the kids, dumbfounded.
Pacifist Patriot, I/we are with you in spirit.
I came home from teaching my 1st graders. I had many emergency drills that I did for myself and my class, not the school. The administrators at both schools where I taught for over 15 years did not even KNOW that the doors only lock from the outside until I brought it up at staff meetings. Did they do anything at all about it? NO!!!!!!!!! They do not give a shit! If it involves $$$$ on the school's part forget it! They did NOT care that my classroom door only locked from the OUTSIDE!
I'm not a moron and I said Fuck You! I went back to school 4 weeks later (year round schedule) and left teaching forever 3 weeks later. Best decision I ever made.
When you are a teacher and have to plan for a shooter when you are in a bungalow classroom you are a sitting duck. I planned to use the fire extinguisher to knock the shooter out as he entered my class, then I would use the jump rope to tie him up while I'd get the teacher in the connecting classroom's door to take then with her class and I'd boil water in my classroom microwave and pour it into the shooter's face and then I run like hell.
This is insanity! I didn't spend a ton of time and money training to be a teacher for poverty wages, no respect, constant shit from the admin and district. On top of that crap I'm supposed to prepare for an emergency shooter without any help from anyone?!? Fuck that shit!!!!!
