Philly teacher: ‘This should not be normal’

Driving to school on Wednesday morning, I cried.

My commute is typically a joyful one. I teach fifth and sixth grade, where each day is an opportunity to learn, laugh, make mistakes, and grow. For me, school is almost a holy place. While our halls aren’t revered spaces, we have a daily chance to gather, to wonder, and to try to learn from each other. Maybe we don’t do those things every minute of every day, but we do them. My commute is my chance to plan for them and to set an intention for joyful learning.

But in the car on Wednesday morning, I felt far from joyful. “This should not be normal,” I said to myself.

I have coffee each morning with a group of teachers who are also friends. Generally, we giggle and share. On Wednesday, we were somber and sad. How many more times will we have to navigate tragedy with students?

This should not be normal.

“In America, we innovate and we solve problems — but not if those problems are caused by guns.”

Around midday, I met with a group of students whom I mentor. I had gathered some resources about the shooting — nothing too graphic — to share with them. I wanted to make space for them to learn, but mostly I had questions. How are you? How is your family? What do you know? What do you wonder? What are you afraid of today?

This should not be normal.

My students are not that much older than the 19 fourth graders who were killed on Tuesday. But they are old enough to have some experience with talking about mass shootings. They knew that it is easy to get and carry a gun in Texas. They knew that bullying plays a role in school shootings. They knew that there was a mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., in 2018 (when they were in second grade).

To keep my own composure, I had my computer open to articles and statistics during our conversation. Kids talked and shared. They opened their own computers to research more information. In the space of 20 minutes, we had learned about the timeline, the response, and some of the victims. Absorbing link after link after link, we were all feeling sad, scared, numb, worried, hopeless, overwhelmed, shocked, horrified ...

This should not be normal.

» READ MORE: Don’t be ‘horrified and heartbroken’ at Uvalde. Get mad as hell and do something.

A fact that struck our class was shared by ABC News: There have been 213 mass shootings in 2022. It’s May. We are roughly 150 days into the year. That is more than one mass shooting per day. This should not be normal.

Later in the day, the School District of Philadelphia shared a document called “Support for Educators in Response to School Shootings.” I appreciate the resources, but we shouldn’t need them.

This should not be normal, and yet it is. Families send their children to school knowing that safety drills and luck are the only things between their kids and an active shooter. Teachers come to school knowing that even the highest form of heroism might not save all the kids in their classes. And kids — especially in our city — come to school knowing that there really is no place where they are safe from gun violence. This is the everyday normal that all of us face.

Everyone has lots of words about what happened at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, but no one is doing anything. In America, we innovate and we solve problems — but not if those problems are caused by guns.

I am a teacher — not an expert on gun violence. I am not a policymaker. On a good day, I teach kids math and help them when they are confused or sad or angry. In short, I do the job I am expected to do — as do most teachers, parents, and kids. Many lawmakers, it seems, do not. Mass shootings will always be normal as long as the response to them is just a statement devoid of any action that prevents people from killing more children.

This should not be normal.

Nancy Ironside teaches sixth grade at Science Leadership Academy Middle School.