The Messenger's editorial board reflects on the effects of recent school shootings

Nethra Pai, Editor-in-Chief

On Wednesday, I woke up to the news that Apalachee High School, in Barrow County, fell victim to a school shooting. The first thing I did was scour the internet for the death toll (four people: two teachers and two students) and the number of injuries (nine people). The second thing I did was put Apalachee High School into Google Maps.

School shootings, for me, have always been a reality of life. I know they happen, and I know how often they happen. I just didn’t expect this one to be 51 minutes away. The thing about tragedies is that when they aren’t nearby, it’s easier to pretend they don’t exist. But this was different -- this was in my backyard. 

On Thursday, we pretended that life continued as normal, wondering why it happened and thinking of where to go if it happened to us. On Friday, Northview High School received a similar threat, causing half the school to stay home and entire classes to be terrified over a coincidental power outage. After all, who knows what could happen when you can’t see who’s walking through the hall, administrators are constantly opening doors, and any loud sound could be a warning sign. The school shooting that happened less than an hour away felt more real, somehow, and reminded us why we’re scared to walk through the school’s doors.

And still, within the week, it feels like we all forgot. School shootings have become so common that when JD Vance calls them a “fact of life”, he isn’t entirely wrong. Apalachee marked the 45th school shooting this year, and two days after, a shooting in Maryland marked the 46th. 

Wondering if we’ll be the 47th, I certainly can’t forget. It is exhausting to stay on guard every single day when you know nothing will change, and parents will send their children to school not knowing if they’ll come back home. It all seems hopeless, even though it shouldn’t be.

School shootings have been an American problem that only Americans can fix. Nothing will ever change if we don’t ask our local representatives at every level to help us. So go and ask. You can find your legislators by following the steps at https://georgia.gov/who-represents-you. And remember to vote in the upcoming election if you can, because every vote has power.

Schools should always be a safe place to learn, and we have the power to keep it that way.

Hritvi Ahuja, Managing Editor

As a high school student in Georgia, I’m deeply shaken by the recent shooting at Apalachee High School. It's heart-wrenching to see our community, and our peers suffer from such a devastating event. The phrase "thoughts and prayers" is often used in these moments, but it feels like a fake gesture when confronted with the real and raw pain of losing friends and classmates. It’s easy to say we’re sending our thoughts and prayers, but those words don’t bring back lives or heal the trauma. 

We need concrete actions and real changes to prevent these tragedies from becoming a normalized part of our routine. We need more than sympathy; we need solutions, support for affected families, and a commitment to creating safer schools. As students, we should come together, support one another, and advocate for the changes that will ensure our schools are safe and nurturing environments. It’s time to move beyond mere words and focus on real, impactful actions that will protect and honor the lives of those we have lost.

Everett Baumann, Copy Editor

Former South African president and activist Nelson Mandela once said that education is “the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.”

On Sept. 4, 14-year-old Colt Gray walked into Apalachee High School in Winder, GA and shot four people dead with a powerful weapon.

These days, it doesn’t feel like education is changing the world as much as an AR-15 is.

I saw the news about the Apalachee shooting at around 10:30 a.m. It was on Instagram, from an account that posts news about Georgia. Immediately, I closed Instagram and scrolled on my phone to CNN. On the front page was a headline about a potential school shooter, and that the school was on lockdown until law enforcement figured out what was happening. 

For the rest of the day, I stayed glued to my phone, refreshing for updates regarding the shooting. 

It has become an all-too-familiar tale in American society. When I read the news, I felt an all-too-familiar way. It’s a feeling of grief, sadness, and anger. Anger at the fact that school shootings persist as a black mark on our society. It’s easy to feel this way. The Apalachee High shooting was the 45th school shooting in America this year, an anomaly that reverberates around the world whenever a school shooting takes place.

However, this time, I felt a little different. An additional layer of emotion washed over me. This hit close, both literally and figuratively. Apalachee High School is less than an hour from where I live. Apalachee is also 20 minutes from where I used to live.

This was right in my backyard. Right in everyone’s backyards. For the first time in my life, a school shooting really hit home.

As Apalachee and the surrounding communities grieve, we must take a look in the mirror. School shootings aren’t a way of life. They aren’t something we should be used to. School shootings are a collective failure of society.

Parents will send their kids to school fearing they may not come back home. Students have to practice active shooter drills, and teachers have active shooter kits in their classrooms. This wasn’t always a reality, but this has been a uniquely American problem for years.

To you, the reader, I encourage you to do your own research. Research that will elect changemakers at the ballot box. Research that will put an end to this horrific trend once and for all.

School shootings don’t have to define a generation of students. Learning is sacred, and it should be kept that way.

Noah Daklouche, News Editor

Dear Readers,

Mason Schermerhorn, Christian Angulo, Richard Aspinwall, and Christina Irimie were four people who woke up, got ready, and went to school like any other day, not knowing that their families and friends would lose them by 9:45 a.m. What happened that morning should never have happened, yet there have been at least 45 shootings in the United States this year with 23 deaths and 62 injuries, as reported by CNN. Since the tragedy, I have felt overwhelmed by the misinformation on X, the empty posts on Instagram, the "rage bait" accounts defending criminals on TikTok, and the countless messages from group chats. As a leader of multiple school organizations, I feel obligated to offer my comfort to those who are afraid and send information out even when I am terrified of what happened and unsure of what the next steps are.

I, and no one else, should not have to feel that way. We should not be scared to be at school. We should not have to text our family members who work in the school system to ensure they are okay. We should not have to rethink the career choices we have been working towards. We should not have to do intruder drills every month, where we simulate these dangers to prepare ourselves for situations that we shouldn’t need to prepare for. What happened on Sept. 4 at Apalachee High School scared us, worried us, and caused us to rethink our futures. Yet, no one is ever prepared for a place where we spend eight hours a day, five days a week, for about 25 weeks a year to be overflowing with blood and gunpowder, no matter how many drills the schools make us do. For some students, they are at school more than they are at home, so why is it so unsafe?

I am tired and suffocating in the place I used to call my second home because I know that merely 50 minutes away, four people, who went to school every day like my peers and I, died. This is why I beg you to research what happened from credible sources, discuss with your family and friends how you all feel about it, support each other's emotional well-being, share information online that adds to the conversation, support your classmates and teachers, and email your state representatives to enact change.

Sincerely, 

A Petrified Student

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