Source: Maskot / Getty
The shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas has left the educators grieving and fearful. All loss of life is tragic, but there is something particularly heinous about the slaughter of children, especially in spaces that should be considered safe. Questions are still unanswered about how exactly the gunman entered the school and the police’s lackluster response to an active shooter. —And while citizens protest at NRA rallies, schools wait helplessly for solutions and next best steps around Gun violence. This wait only reinforces the idea that in this country students and teachers are on their own.
Seventh grade teacher Taylor Mora is more than aware of this. Mora recently took to TikTok to give a small glimpse into the safety measures she takes to create a semblance of safety in her classroom, according to PEOPLE.
The video shows Mora as she enters the school building. She preps her door by locking it and covering the door’s interior window. As the video pans to Mora lowering the blinds, she says that teaching is “loving natural sunlight but having to pull down your window cover so that no one can see inside your classroom.”
Sadly, she shows an empty storage closet, so she could hide in case of a threatening situation.
This is the reality for many educators. In a video shared by Twitter user RobbBeaux, an unidentified man shows viewers how to barricade a classroom door using a desk’s chair.
While these tips and tricks are helpful the pitiful truth is that an assault rifle cannot be easily deterred. The Uvalde shooter, who will remain unnamed, carried a DDM4 rifle which is likened to an AR-15, as reported by NPR. Rolling Stone describes the capacity of gun as being able to shoot bullets that “travel nearly three times the speed of sound.”
Eve Mireles fourth grade teacher at Robb Elementary died shielding her students from the gunman.
Closed blinds on classroom windows will not stop that type of violence. Republican politicians choose to turn a blind eye to the violence inflicted upon its citizens leaving educators scrambling to keep themselves and their students safe. Instead of tweaking lesson plans and organizing for the day, educators like Mora are fortifying their classrooms and praying they are not next in this, seemingly, never ending carnage.
Mora’s closing words in her video are “Being a teacher and student is scary right now but it doesn’t have to be this way.”
She is right.
RELATED CONTENT: Nah: Quinta Brunson Isn’t Addressing Gun Violence On ‘Abbott Elementary’
