GOP rep: ‘The system worked’ in Olathe East school shooting. What an abhorrent insult | Opinion

First, I want to applaud Grace Springer, a junior at Olathe East High School, for her courage to stand up and testify in front of Kansas state representatives this week. On Jan. 23, she spoke about her experience during the shooting that occurred at her school in 2022.

Springer testified on one of the biggest fears held by students and educators alike: a school shooting happening in your own school.

As a former full-time educator in Kansas City, Kansas, public schools and a current substitute in the Shawnee Mission School District, I have thought deeply about what would happen if I were in such a scenario. I grew up in the generation that had lockdown drills while seeing school shootings in the news seemingly every week.

My generation is entering the education field as professionals with vastly different experiences from those who did not grow up with such fears.

What sickens me even more, however, are comments state Rep. Adam Thomas, a Republican from Olathe, made in response to Springer’s testimony:

“The system worked. … The three people injured were the SRO officer who got shot, the assistant principal and the perp,” he said.

These comments are insulting to every single student, educator, principal and school staff member, for they demonstrate a deeply rooted ignorance of the ever-growing need to make our schools safe from gun violence.

No, Rep. Thomas, the system did not work, nor has it worked for an entire generation of students.

Had the system worked, as you claim, this incident would never have happened in the first place. Had the system worked, students would be guaranteed a safe learning environment every single day — one without the threat of gun violence.

According to the K-12 School Shooting Database, which documents incidents when “a gun is fired, brandished (pointed at a person with intent), or bullet hits school property,” the number of school shootings per year has skyrocketed since 2018. In just the years from 2018 to 2023, there was a total of 1,269 incidents on K-12 school property.

That number does not even include the likely thousands more lockdowns and incidents caused by potential threats.

On the day of the 2022 Olathe East shooting, I was a first-year educator, and I remember that event quite clearly. Though I had heard about the shooting toward the latter half of the school day, I still had to teach my lessons and function as if my neighboring district was not experiencing one of my greatest fears.

I’ve had to teach through partial lockdowns, and I’ve navigated keeping students calm during full lockdowns. Being an educator right now is traumatic for many reasons, but having to think every day about how to protect students and yourself from a bullet is traumatizing and exhausting.

H.C.R. 5020 is a proposed constitutional amendment that would recognize the right to bear arms as a fundamental right in the Kansas Constitution. It includes the possession and use of ammunition, firearm accessories and firearm components. Just like our free speech protections under the First Amendment, if this amendment were to pass, gun rights in Kansas would also be held to the highest level of protection.

I strongly encourage my fellow Kansans to reach out to their representatives and demand we keep guns out of our schools and our communities. H.C.R. 5020 poses a threat to basic school safety, and it’s time that our elected officials listen to their constituents and understand the seriousness of this threat.

Rep. Thomas, your comments during the Jan. 23 committee meeting were abhorrent. They were insulting and degrading to every student — and especially to Grace Springer, who had the courage to testify about her terror from that 2022 shooting and every day since.

Our students deserve a safe place to learn, and our educators deserve a safe place to teach. So, no, Rep. Thomas, the system is not working.

This story was originally published January 26, 2024 at 11:58 AM.