“I don’t want to be an only child,” Evelyn Dieckhaus’ sister cried out. Evelyn was one of the schoolchildren slain at The Covenant Presbyterian Church School, a private Christian school in Nashville, Tenn. Little Evelyn, a third-grader, was at school that fateful Monday morning of March 27 when Audrey Elizabeth Hale, a 28-year-old white woman, entered her school freely and snuffed out her life in a mass shooting involving five other people: two other schoolchildren and three staff members.
This is the latest in the series of mass shooting incidents in the U.S.—the 89th shooting on elementary school grounds this year alone, and the 130th across the country this calendar year. It is simply unacceptable that our children are subjected to such gun violence, and we need to take a stand and demand that our children are protected.
Gun Violence Leaves Emotional Scars
“Our children deserve better,” as First Lady Jill Biden said at a meeting of the National League of Cities. It is unfortunate that there were no police officers at the school at the time of the shooting—a very sad development, which Don Aaron, a spokesperson for the Metro Nashville Police Department, admitted to, saying that no Nashville police officers were assigned there because a church owns it.
Active shooter Audrey Elizabeth Hale was armed with three guns, including this rifle, and significant ammunition, Metropolitan Nashville Police Department reported on Twitter. Photo courtesy Metropolitan Nashville Police Department
Recall, however, that the shooter shelved her plan of shooting up a different school in Nashville due to what she described as “too much security.” So, if there had been the same level of security at The Covenant School, this tragedy could’ve been averted, saving the victims’ lives, including that of Evelyn, whose life was cut terribly short.
Our children deserve better to save them from the emotional and physiological trauma that often comes with school shootings. School shootings leave emotional scars in the hearts of our children and continue to haunt them, even into adulthood. For example, the statement from Evelyn’s sister, where she said that she doesn’t want to