We MUST Keep Our Children Safe

Disclaimer:  This post is fueled by sadness and anger.  I cursed.  I dropped the f-bomb.  You have been warned.
I am horrified today.  I am sick to my stomach.  Some people might call a friend and say, "Can you believe what happened in Connecticut today?"  But I am blogging about it.  I am typing quickly with shaking hands. 

Today I have two daughters in school.  I sent them there to learn under the expectation that they will be safe.  I can't even begin to imagine what the parents of children in Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newton, Connecticut are feeling.  My heart goes out to them.  I will keep them in my prayers.

This school houses over 600 kindergarten to 4th graders.  They are babies!!!  Why does this keep happening in our schools?  HOW does this fucking happen?

I have taught in schools...my children go to school.  I can tell you now that almost every single school that I have ever been in has an unlocked front door.  The parents or visitors walk into that door and are supposed to go check in at the main office.  Well do you think some crazed fucking lunatic would do that?  Why do schools feel like they can keep this front door unlocked?  Even if they say the doors are locked at all times, I bet the front entry of the school is not locked. 
Airports have all of these safety measures in place, especially since September 11.  There are no crazed gunmen getting on planes these days.  You can't get into the airport or even a courthouse with a freakin' nail clipper.  You walk through security and metal detectors.  Yet at schools there is nothing.  How many fucking tragedies will occur before schools put the same measures in place?  I know as a parent I would be perfectly happy buzzing the front office to be allowed entry into the school.  And I wouldn't give a shit if I had to walk through a metal detector.  If that meant my kids were safe, so be it!  How are schools not seeing the need for this.  Every damn year there is some unthinkable tragedy like this at a school.  A SCHOOL.  Full of innocent children.

Something has got to give here.  We MUST keep our children safe.  If they can't be safe playing outside and the can't be safe riding their bikes or playing at the park, at the very least they MUST be safe at school.

There is no fucking excuse. 

Updated 12/15/12:
Reading more about this massacre today, I am still so saddened.  I have a heavy heart.  I look at my children and think of those who will not see Christmas.  I think of those teachers who were taken from their families.  My heart aches for those parents who went to that fire house yesterday...and did not leave with their children.

I am still sick to my stomach.

Bottom line here is that something MUST BE DONE.  I am not about to make this some political issue.  I am not about to discuss gun control.  We all know that crazy people will get guns, regardless of the law.  This boy who committed this heinous act was reportedly mentally ill.

What the issue is here is that a man dressing in black, wearing a bullet proof vest, a black mask, and carrying 3 freakin' guns walked into a school on a Friday morning.  He got into that school.  It is unacceptable. 

There must be NO ACCESS to schools once the school day has started.  Period.

I will carry this families close to my heart and keep them in my prayers.