Host Sharon Hinton discusses recent school shootings, the staggering amount of school shootings in the US, mass shootings in MA, reasons that lead to school shootings, and more.
WBCA Podcasts
Black Teachers Matter
(upbeat music) - Good evening and welcome to another edition of Black Teachers Matter. I'm the producer and your host Sharon Eaton Hinton. We're on WBCALP 102.9 FM in Boston, Boston's community radio station. I gotta tell you, I had some guests scheduled for tonight and so we're not gonna have them. We're gonna have you. And I'd like you to call in. We have this new thing, it's called the telephone and being able to talk to our listeners and/or our viewers. The number is 617-70-832-11 again, 617-70-832-11. I wanna know, can you hear me? Are you with me? We get feedback when we get off of the air and some of the topics that we talk about tonight. We're gonna be talking about school shootings. School shootings, it's definitely, I don't wanna talk about, 'cause we're live here. I don't wanna talk about the debate, I don't. I put my DVR on, I'm gonna be watching it and probably thoroughly ticked off, maybe. I don't know, you know, Kamala, Kamala, Kamala, Kamala. Kamala may surprise us. Trump is definitely gonna be in the attack. We kinda know this is just gonna be a lot of more entertainment as opposed to politics, but there's political stuff. But what's really political is what's happening in our schools, this is black teachers matter. We don't just talk about black teachers or teachers, but education overall. And so if we're talking about school shootings, check this out. As of September 4th, and this is not the fourth, this is the ninth, the 10th, the 10th. The 240th day of the year, there have been 45 school shootings in the United States in 2024. Up until today, there have been 45 school shootings, 45. So there have been a couple in Georgia. Most recently, there was 16 in Georgia. And most recently, the last shooting was in Georgia. And then there's been shootings in Florida. When you look at how many people have died, the teenager that was accused of killing the people in the Georgia High School, he killed two teachers and he killed two students. And so, Colt Gray, who was the student at Appalachian High School, not only has he been charged with several different counts, but also his father. And so this is the second time in this country that a parent has actually been charged. And his dad was charged with knowingly allowing his son to possess a weapon. So he bought a son a weapon for a birthday present. No one, his son was an all there. Did we say that? He was angry. And his mom, about 30 minutes before the shooting, actually called the school, she said her son left to this message, sorry mom. And she was like, something's not right. She called the school, but it wasn't enough to stop the shooting. So since 2004, check this out, there have been 2,034 school shootings in total in American schools in '89 in Georgia. That's according to the K-12 shooting database. I mean, they have a database, really. And so, the guy, the student that went in there, Colt Gray, was only 14. So, legally, he wasn't even supposed to have a weapon. It's far the bad one for Christmas. He stands charged with four counts of murder. He's accused of using a semi-automatic assault style rifle. And he killed two students and two teachers in this week. And this is only the beginning of the school year. So, he's been charged as an adult and he's 14. But there's, I guess, in Georgia, it's against the, you can't give somebody under 18 the death penalty. So, he got the gun from his dad as a gift, Colin Gray, in December, 2023. So, he's had it for a while. And then, the mother of Marcy Gray, she pleaded guilty in December to second degree criminal damage of property and criminal trespass, family violence. So, you know, they got issues, families got issues. It's not just the kid, but also the dad. And, you know, the stepdad, the dad. And, you know, she was abused. The mother was abused. By her stepfather in her entire childhoods, it was sexual molestation. It's crazy that there have been 45 school shootings in the year of 2024. And when you look at this, it's like what is happening where people go into school. So, this guy says, they, they talked to him and bullied him because he was gay, 'cause they kept calling him gay and he was gay. And so, he couldn't take it anymore and he came back and he started shooting people. Seriously? So, since 1999, how many school shootings have they been? Totally. It's been 417 school shootings, according to the post-data. 417, that's crazy. So, when you look at another country, let's look at Canada, right? United States recorded 288 school shootings between 2009 and 2018. 57 times as many as occurred in six other G7 countries. So, those are European countries. Those are G7 countries that are in the Security Council, United Nations, and the G7 countries with the next highest number of school shootings were Canada and France, but they only had two apiece. They only had two, and then the next highest. So, and then you've had series of school shootings in the United States, Columbine, and it's just amazing. Nearly 50 people have been killed or injured in K-12 school shootings across the U.S. in 2024. 50 people. More than 20 schools across the nation have been impacted by gun violence since the start of 2024. In the Georgia High School, we talked about Appalachia has been the latest. That's K-12 campus. Nine people were actually injured, even though four people were shot. It happened on this past Wednesday morning, last week. And this is according to Education Week. And Education Week is a magazine that talks about also educational issues. It's one of the multiple organizations that actually compiles data about gun violence. But they only track incidents that fulfill a certain criteria. So, reported incidents where a firearm was discharged, where an individual other than the suspect or perpetrator has a bullet wound, resulting from the incident. It occurred on a K-12 school property or on a school bus, occurred while schools in session are during a school sponsored event. So in Boston, there have been events that happened around the school. It wasn't actually on the school grounds, but it happened around the school grounds. And the news media sometimes reports that as a school shooting, and it may or may not be. So, those factors in mind, 2023 had 38 school shootings, 15 more than 2024. So far, but we still have several more months and school just opened. And there have been approximately 205 school shootings since Education Week with that criterion began to track school shootings in 2018. So tonight, I wanna know what you think about this. Like, I'm old school and I do not remember in elementary school ever having to worry about someone coming in with a gun and shooting people, especially little kids. It doesn't make sense to me. 49 people being killed or injured as we saw there was a school shooting in 2024, 11 deaths, 38 injuries. There are total number of people, including children and adults, were either killed or injured in the school shooting since 2018, and I could go down the statistics, but I wanna find out what you think about this, six, one, seven, seven, zero, eight, three, two, one, one. You are here on Black Teachers Matter on WBCA LP 102.9, FM in Boston, where Boston's community radio station gonna take a short break and come back six, one, seven, seven, zero, eight, three, two, one, one, be right back. - When I was in the fourth grad, I had this teacher, Mrs. Schumacher. Whenever I'd fool around in class, she'd say, "Mr. Alexander, you are quite the actor." And she was right. Here I am today, quite the actor. You know, teachers really do make a difference in our kids' lives, and the more support we give our teachers, the more they give our kids. I wonder what Mrs. Schumacher would say if she could see me today. - Hey, remember your favorite teachers? The ones who taught you the stuff that was really hard to learn. The ones who's clash, you never wanted to miss. The ones who got you even when you didn't get yourself. Now you remember the one who got under your skin? Who rode you too hard, made you think, "If I were in that power seat, I could do it better?" Well, here's your chance. Teach. Do it better. (upbeat music) - Next time you get your kids in the car, turn off the radio and tune into them. It may be the only time of the day when you get your kids all to yourself. No telephone, no television, no distractions. It's the perfect time to talk to each other, to listen to what they think, and to share with them what you think about anything and everything that's on their minds. And I'll tell you something. It beats just sitting in traffic. (upbeat music) And we're back. Here, Black Teachers Matter on WBCA LP 102.9, FM in Boston. We're Boston's Community Radio Station, and we're taking live phone calls. We have this new, new kind of a gadgetry here, which is awesome. I don't have a guess. Because we'll have to have my guess on later and actually involve something legal, and we don't want to jeopardize the case. So I'm kind of teasing you. And we've got some other guests coming up. But we're talking about shootings and school shootings and mass shootings. So mass shootings in Massachusetts last year. According to Gun Violence Archive on Axial's Boston, there were seven mass shootings. Come on now. There were seven mass shootings in Massachusetts in 2023, making last year one of the deadlier years of the last decade. Last year we were coming out of the pandemic. I don't know if people pissed off, they were irritated. They were holding out during the pandemic to pay somebody back. I don't really know what's going on, but at least 34 people were killed or injured in mass shootings in Massachusetts last year in 2023. This has gone up from recent years with three mass shootings in 2022 and four in 2021. 2020 saw eight mass shootings. This is in Massachusetts. So don't think they were all up north and we're all civilized and everything. The organization, this is Axial's Boston, defines mass shootings as an instance of at least four victims killed or injured by gunfire, not including the shooter. So nationally, and these are different sources, right? Which is why I'm telling you the sources. 656 mass shootings took place in 2023. 656 mass shootings. Now, early and before the break, I was talking about school shootings. This is mass shootings. The reason why I'm bringing this up is because gun regulation, gun violence is part of the presidential discourse, right? So there's a couple of different things that are issues. And gun regulation is one of them. So you've got people lobbying, you've got the National Rifle Association, you've got gun owners, you've got people whose family members, children, or whatever have been killed by gun violence. And so, you know, you've got obviously got different sides of the issue. Georgia has, Georgia's state has, that has some of the most lax gun regulations in the country. Like you can have open carry, concealed carry, they don't even do background checks. So you roll up in anybody in Georgia. You don't know what's gonna happen. So anyway, according to the gun violence archive, the only year higher than 2014 was 2021. It was 689 people. There was 712 mass shooting related victims killed. That's the people killed, 712 in 2023. There were 2,692 victims. Now let's get some perspective. There are over 300 million people in the United States. But if you have ever been a victim of violence, or someone in your family has been a victim of violence, specifically gun violence, it only takes one to wreck your whole life or your family. So the big picture, Massachusetts, excuse me, Massachusetts reported far fewer mass shootings, far fewer mass shootings than some other states, like Texas, low Texas, 65 in Texas, California, 50, Illinois, 51. Virginia also has had seven mass shootings in 2023. All the stuff Virginia was a chill state, obviously not. These are mass shootings, right? Iowa reported only one, Oregon and Utah reported two. Although there were other years where Oregon and Utah, they had issues, right? So the school shootings, when you talk about state-by-state, and I'm looking at US News and World Report, there's thing, the 350 school shooting incidents occurred across US in 2023. So earlier in this show, we talked about how it's gone up in 2024. But it was also, it's still pretty high, period. When you think of other countries where they have one or two, Canada, come on. So the Thursday shooting in an Iowa school that left the sixth grader dead, and at least five other victims wounded, continued a troubling trend of school shootings in the US marked the fourth such incidents in the US already in 2024. That it, California and Ohio tied for the most incidents among states last year, at 25 each, while Texas saw 23 in that period. What could possibly be happening in someone's head so that children are being killed? And by the way, there have been children killed in mass shootings in other countries. We're just talking about the United States right now, right? And so, incidents in which a gun is brandished, but not fired, and those in which there are no victims, are also included in these school shooting incidents, although there wasn't someone shot. But when I, I can't even show you on the camera, this graph, maybe could I do it? No, it won't come up. From 1971 to 2023, I wish I could, can I do it? I don't think so, it's not gonna happen. Oh, you can't really see it. You can't see that. The really sharp spike, that is 2023. So, you can see how it went from, and mind you, any kind of incidents involving someone dying, being killed, being shot, is a lot, but it went up incredibly, and spiked incredibly in 2021. Well, 2011, 2015, but 2019 to 2023, ridiculous. Absolutely ridiculous. And so, you know, the number of victims killed a wounded prior to 2018 never reached 100 in a year. So prior to 2018, the pandemic was 2020, right? Well, across the, in China, it was 2019, the end of 2019. In America, it was beginning of 2020. So the number of victims killed a wounded prior to 2018 never reached 100 in a year, but 2023 saw more than twice that figure, and at the same time, while incidents rose in 2023, compared with 2022, the number of the victims declined by about 10%. But between 2018, this is according to US News and World Report, more than 1,200 school shooting incidents occurred in the US. 1,200, resulting in more than 1,000 victims, or a rate of 0.85 victims per incident. But then, you know, even in Rhode Island, they had victims. Alabama had victims Colorado, Florida, Texas, Kentucky. And then there's a map that shows, you know, the states that had the highest populations. I don't know why, but it's happening with children, why? In 2020, gun-related injuries surpassed vehicle crashes as the leading cause of death among American children and adolescents. And in 2021, these deaths increased in 2021. What is going on in America, where we think, it's okay to kill somebody, it's okay to kill children. If you're listening, and don't wait until somebody else calls, right, you're gonna wait until somebody else calls, 'cause you don't be the first phone call, or you're just listening to the statistics. I actually wanna see, if you're listening, and if you're listening, I'm gonna talk to you. 617-708-3211-617-708-3211. I'm Sharon Hinton, this is Black Teachers Matter. We're talking about the situations in school, and the gun violence in school. And I'm gonna take a short break, and I wanna come back. I am a teacher, and I have taught in middle school, in high school. And, you know, and I've taught in schools where they have metal detectors, and they search kids' bags. Tends to be middle school in high school, not elementary school, but some of these kids are young, and they bring in schools, they bring in guns to the school too. When I say young, I mean single digits. And there are incidences where kids found the gun in the house, got angry, somebody bullying them. I don't know if they saw it in a video game, they saw it on television, and whatever it is, but the guns, they had access to the guns, and there are elementary school students who have actually come in and killed people, or shot at people, in the schools. 617-708-3211. You know, when I'm looking at what is... Teachers are quitting. Teachers are quitting. They're like, I didn't sign up for this. There are some states that are talking about arming teachers. I don't know about you, but I don't want to be in a classroom where my teacher's packing, 'cause some of these teachers are kind of ill. Every teacher's not cool now, right? And so, when you're looking at the school environment, is that a school environment that's conducive to learning? When you're wondering if you've got a duck in cover and block the door, if one of your classmates is pissed off 'cause they got an F or something like that, or they didn't like the way you talked to them, or the way you looked at them, come on now. So we're talking about mass shootings, and we're also talking about just bringing guns into the school, whether it's a teacher, or a policeman, or a student. And there are initiatives and discussions in Massachusetts and Boston Public Schools about whether or not we want to do that. - Ecologist, social worker, drug expert, sex counselor, substitute parent and friend. Now, those are some of the things teachers have to be before they even get down to teaching. Now, the more you know what it takes to be a teacher these days, the more you realize that it's one of the toughest, most important jobs in the world. So what can you do to thank your teacher? It's simple. Align. - This newspaper's got good news and bad news. The good news is that it's loaded with jobs for accountants, and lawyers, and nurses, and carpenters, and every other kind of skilled worker. The bad news is that there isn't a single ad for a school dropout, at least nothing you'd want. The more you know how tough things are for school dropouts, the more you'll see you have no choice. You have to stay in school. Think about it. - I can't believe that some of you guys still think it's cool to drink and drive. Well, read my lips. Anybody that's going to drive me home has got to be in condition to get me there in one piece. The more you know how I feel about drinking and driving, the more you know that if you drink and drive, I'm not going anywhere with you. But if you happen to be the designated driver, well, you can take me home anytime. (gentle music) - I don't know. Help me out here. It's a punching bag, right? I mean, it doesn't talk, it doesn't lag. It sure doesn't give you a hug when you need one. Yet, some of you insist on mistaking your children for it. How's that possible? I mean, when you hit a punching bag, it doesn't cry. (gentle music) Back in the fifth grade, I had a favorite school past time. Teacher torture for Mrs. Scholdenfry, a left fake vomit on her desk, set off stick bombs at lunch, and to be class hamster like Blue. And the thing was, I liked Mrs. Scholdenfry and she liked me, and I learned a lot that year. So, to all the teachers who helped kids learn in spite of themselves, thanks. And to Mrs. Scholdenfry, did you find those dead frog parts? (gentle music) - Some guys will try to tell you that hanging out on the street and messing with guns gets you respect. Well, they're wrong. They're dead wrong. Because sooner or later, you're gonna kill someone and you're gonna do time for it. For someone's gonna blow you away because they know you're on. Don't kid yourself, man. You know what happens to guys who carry guns? Why is it up? It's your life we're talking about. Don't let a gun kill your future. (gentle music) - And we're back here on Black Teachers Matter. We're in September, the very beginning of school. Some schools started at the end of August. And we're talking about gun violence, school violence. And the United States of America. I'm your host, Sharon Eaton-Hinton. And this is Black Teachers Matter. Here on WBCA LP 102.9 FM in Boston. We're Boston's Community Radio Station. And as the community radio station, we have a responsibility, I think, to tell you about our community that we're living in. And so there's a community on your street. There may be a demographic community, like the straight community, the gay community, the black community, the Latino community, church community, there's all these communities, and they're all part of society. And I have to say that each one of those communities has been touched by gun violence. There have been people known to show up at churches with guns, like seriously, and blow people away. I'm gonna read some of the statistics from, what is this now, world population review. Right, on shootings. The top one is California, for 2024, California 232. Texas, 192. Florida, 132. Illinois, 122. Now, Illinois has Chicago, so we always hear about that in the news about gang shootings, and young people in particular. And California was known, or I don't know if it's still known, but it was known for drive-bys. Ohio, 106. Pennsylvania, 104. Michigan, 96. Michigan has Detroit. New York, 95. Georgia, 83. North Carolina, 81. Tennessee, 76. Now, when I'm going down to the southern states, a lot of them, you can just buy guns. And there's not background checks like Georgia. Maryland, 72. Louisiana, 66. Alabama, 64. Virginia, 56. Missouri, 53. We're going into sending order. Washington, 50. Indiana, 48. South Carolina, 46. Colorado, 36. Although Colorado was the site of mass shooting at a school, Wisconsin, 34. Arkansas, Arkansas, 32. Mississippi, 29. Oregon, 29. Kentucky, 28. Connecticut, 24. Arizona, 23. New Jersey, 23. Massachusetts, 22. All y'all civilized people with more colleges, universities, and hospitals for a square mile than any place else in the world. 22. Minnesota, 22. New Mexico, 22. Oklahoma, 22. Another site of mass shooting and a bombing. You know, 'cause we had the uniform and it came out of there. Kansas, 20. Utah, 20. Iowa, 19. Nevada, 19. Delaware, 15. Delaware is the smallest. It's Delaware the smallest, it is a Rhode Island. I think Rhode Island is the smallest one. But still, there were 15. Nebraska, 11. Montana, 10. Idaho, 8. New Hampshire, 8. Rhode Island, 7. Alaska, 6. West Virginia, 6. Maine, 5. And there was a mass shooting in Maine earlier this year, I believe, or last year. South Dakota, 5. Vermont, 4. Hawaii, 3. And is that North Dakota? North Dakota, 3. And Wyoming, 2. These are the total incidents, right? According to world population and review, school shootings, those are school shootings by state, 2024. School shootings, not just violence, not just people being, it's school shootings. And so you have to wonder, what is going on? 6, 1, 7, 7, 0, 8, 3, 2, 1, 1. There have been 417 school shootings since Columbine. I remember Columbine was horrific. You had the guys that were coming in with the guns inside, the black trench coats and the whole thing. And there were people that were copycats, right? They thought that that was a cool thing to do. They were Sandy Hook. As I'm looking at Columbine was in 1999. And there were 1,820 children in the school. And then they have this dot that represents 20 children exposed to gun violence. So they were, you know, I can't show you really this timeline, that would make sense. In 2005, West Nickel Mines Amish School, right? For 20 children in that school, they were exposed to gun violence. Sandy Hook, 420 children in that school. That was in 2012. And then you had the Marjory Stonham Douglas High School. That was 2018. You had 2,930 children in the school exposed to violence. 2018. Then the Rob Elementary School in May 24, 2022. 500 children in the school exposed to school shootings. And then you've got people who are witnesses who are traumatized. I remember there was a shooting. It wasn't in the school near Boston, Latin, indoor Chester. And when school was getting out, there were two bodies laying in the parking lot. And so all of these students witnessed this. And they were getting on the buses and everything. So the federal government does not track school shootings. The Washington Post tracks school shootings. I don't know why. The federal government wouldn't do it, but maybe it's political. But there have been 417 school shootings since Columbine. And the most recent one was four days ago. September 6, 2024. Japa Town High School in Japa, Maryland. One injured 770 children, 770 children present in the school. A 16-year-old student was shot and wounded. He shot and wounded a 15-year-old student in the bathroom. Seriously, Appalachia was just one we were talking about on September 4 last week in Winder, Georgia. As a winder or winder, it might be winder. Anyway, four dead, seven injured, 1,760 children present in the school. At that time, it was an unknown gunman. But we know who it is now. The kid, 14, June 7. Now, mind you, this was September 4, which has happened last week. But before that, June 7, Garfield High School, Seattle, Washington, one dead, 1,520 children in the school. A 17-year-old student was shot and killed after trying to break up a fight in the parking lot during lunch. He was trying to be all cumbaya. And then, May of this year, in 2024, Parkland High School, Winston Salem, North Carolina, one injured. A gun in the student's backpack unintentionally discharged and injured another student. There are 1,410 children there. May 30, 2024, Dunbar High School in Washington, DC. 17-year-old student was grazed in the head by an errant bullet that was fired through a window from outside the school. He was injured 800 children present. And so you've got all these people rampaging. The Marjory Stonam Douglas High in Parkland, Florida, February 14 in 2018, it was a 19-year-old man with an AR style rifle that killed 17 people. I mean, he just went there wrecking people, right? And this one I didn't know about. There's others that are covered by a single newspaper. So we're at community radio station. We're at Boston's community radio station. And we are not necessarily a news gathering organization where we have reporters that can go out and be on site and interview witnesses and that kind of thing. So we tend to be in this station also subject to what gets put out there in the news in the major broadcast channels. But because we're in the community and people recognize us, they come to us and tell us the other stories. I heard this or I was there when this happened and blah, blah, blah. But we can't verify it. We can't report it, but I'm telling you. So anyway, so when you have single newspapers so you have community radio stations, we have a responsibility on the ground so that we can talk about it. I actually have a phone caller. Yay. I've got Barbara. And Barbara, let me see if I can get you on here. This is not-- it's not-- OK, we had technical difficulty. It's not blinking green. Children with guns. OK to take-- it's not blinking green for me to be able to get it and bring it up. So I need some help in my manager people. But I have Barbara on the phone, and we're trying to bring her in here on the phone, and it's not working. See it? So I'm going to keep talking while my almighty manager comes in here because I want to talk to Barbara on the phone. We have-- and if you want to call 617-708-3211-- this is Black Teacher's Matter. We're talking about educational issues, and one of them that is huge is violence in the schools. Now, we're talking about shooting in the schools. Oh, is that? Is this it? I think we have it now. Barbara, are you there? I'm you. Hey, I'm loving it. So we're talking about schools shooting and children with guns. You're calling from Albany, New York. I thank you for calling into Black Teacher's Matter. And what is your opinion about what's going on? Well, I wanted to put out a couple of ideas. You ask, why is there so many people shooting? I want to go back a few years to when I was producing a show. And I had to produce the show on gun violence. And this was many years ago. I mean, in the '80s, the 1980s, I was producing the GVH for, say, brother, and they sent me to a shooting range. And I was a little reluctant. But I said, is this what I have to do? This is what I have to do. So I dressed for the occasion, and I went out there. And the gentleman-- there were two gentlemen. The one-- Go ahead. You had somebody in the background. If you can turn that off. We're getting echoes in the background. I don't know if you have a TV or a radio or something. Yes? You're still there, Barbara? I'm listening to you. I wasn't finished, but it cut me off. No, I can hear you now. It's just there was a voice behind you. Go ahead. [INAUDIBLE] OK. Maybe I should take the speaker off. That would be good. But in the meantime, as you're making the technical-- That's what it was. It just was the echo. Yeah, it was. So now you're saying you went to the shooting range? I think should I pick up where I can hear my story as I was speaking. Now, should I start again from the beginning of a pickup where it cut me off? Right there. Yep. You can start right there. Sharon? Yes, you can start right there. Can you hear me? Only with the speaker off. OK. Well, if you can turn it down just a little bit, and you can hear me, that's good. So tell you a story about how you actually went to the gun range when you were reporting on the story for WGBH. OK. I'm going to cut the speaker off while I tell a story. OK. OK. So I went to the gun range. The instructor was Fred Williams, the funeral director in Boston. And there was another gentleman, a white gentleman. And they both were very cordial and very careful with me because they know I was nervous. I took the gun that we were like the six of us. They took the gun that I was handed. And I stood in front of the target. OK. Keep going. This is the delay that you're hearing behind you. But just ignore it and keep talking. OK. I'm going to cut the speaker off while I tell a story. OK. Barbara, are you there? So I went to the gun range. The instructor was Fred Williams, the funeral director in Boston. And there was another gentleman, a white gentleman. And they both were very cordial and very very-- Yes. I need you to turn the speaker off while you're talking to me because I'm hearing you in the lane. So just turn your speaker off and you can-- I did. But as I was telling the story, I could continually hear the story again as I told the earlier part. That's the delay. That's the delay on the recording, on the broadcast. So we've got them. That's OK. Well, now it's up so I can pick up now if you want. Yep. This is your hearing behind you. OK. I'm still hearing you. But I will talk over it and see if it comes through. OK. I've turned the speaker off. And so I think I left off at shooting range. I was at the shooting range that gave us guns. I think they were 38, but I'm not sure. They were heavy, heavy metal guns. Not a long barrel, but it wasn't short either. So I faced the target, and he told me how to hold my arms. And I was holding my arms the way he directed. And I fired the first shot. That shot almost pushed me off the mound where I was standing. I was sort of shocked with the sound, but I did it again. I stood at the mound, and I shot again the power, what I want to confer is the power, the power of the gun. It was incredible. It was the most power I have ever felt. Now I was an adult, a grown woman, very solid in who I was and my mind and everything. But the feeling of the gun and the way it felt when it shot, once I got control of it, was so powerful that it makes me think that is what many kids and adults are going after. They like the feeling of the power of shooting. So I think that that's one of the issues that I'd like to talk about, just people understanding what the power of shooting a gun feels like. And some people who are not in control of their senses end up shooting people just to see what it feels like. Can we talk about that? Yeah, we've got a few minutes to talk about that. But you had a 38. 38's are pretty powerful. I grew up with guns. I think it was a 38. I really don't remember. I think it was. OK. It was a handgun or was it a rifle or was it like a shotgun? It was a handgun. OK. Well, this 38's and it's 45's, and those tend to be pretty powerful. And I'm not afraid of guns. I grew up-- I was actually in the police force, and so we had gun shooting. And then my brothers are in California. And so in California, you can have a gun license. You can go out on the range. You can go out on the canyons. And you can shoot. So in people that grew up around guns, I don't know if they would tend to be-- do you think that they would tend to be more responsible? Because they know the power of that gun? No, I think it's the power of the feeling of power that it gives you that would take someone who is not really where they need to be mentally. Maybe they feel like they're trying-- they're growing older. And this will make them feel older. Maybe they feel like they're powerless. And this gives them power. I think it's going to make them want to shoot. I think it encourages them to shoot, to feel that power again. So I just, I don't know, you are having experience with guns. Maybe you can tell me or the audience. So I was always taught, just like when I was taught in martial arts, that you have a responsibility. Just because you can fight doesn't mean you should fight. You have the responsibility to stay out of conflict. And what I've heard from people is that a lot of times, young people bring guns because they can't fight. Like back in the day, if you're in an argument, you'd be out in the schoolyard or whatever. And people would egg you on, and you would fight, and hit each other, or punch each other, whatever. But you would live through it. You live for another day. These times, when you've got school shootings, you're blowing people away. And there is no coming back from that. And so I think there might be something-- I don't know any studies or reports. There might be something to say for people can't fight. And so the coward's way out is that they're shooting people down. And maybe the gun violence that's in the media and on television and video games is also putting a-- an aspect which's not really real when you're killing people. Because you're so used to seeing-- and I don't want to name some of these video games-- but where you're so used to the person dying, and then they have another life and they come back. I think the younger kids may not really have a grasp of what that really means to kill somebody. I don't know. But I think it's worth looking into. And then in the schools, there's an effort to have restorative justice and changing the school culture so that people are more into forgiving each other and understanding each other. And maybe that will help in not having so many violent fights and fights and gun violence. I'm not sure, but I know it's worth looking into. [INAUDIBLE] All right, I think that's one thing. But anyway, we can talk about others once the phone system is. All right, thank you, Barbara, from Albany. All right, thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you, honey. You're welcome. Bye-bye. So that was Barbara. And she was calling in, and that was awesome. If you just tuned in, we've got a few more moments left. You can be a phone caller, 2-6-1-7-7-0-8-3-2-1-1. This is black teachers matter. And you're listening to WBCA LP 102.9 FM in Boston. We're Boston's community radio station. As I'm looking at this article-- and we're talking about gun violence in school shooting, specifically school, because this is black teachers matter. And as I'm looking at this article from the Washington Post, it says, "School shootings disproportionately affect black children. Almost all the deadliest assaults were committed by white gunmen. Reality, I'm reading this article. A reality that has left much of the public with a false impression that school shootings almost exclusively affect white students. Children of color, however, are far more likely to experience campus gun violence more than twice as much for Hispanic students and over three times as much for black students. At schools with majority black student bodies, shooters typically target a specific person, limiting the number of people shot and the subsequent media exposure. Black students make up 16.6% of the school population, but they experience school shootings at twice that rate. Twice that rate. The Post has reviewed-- this is the Washington Post-- has reviewed more than 180 shootings committed by juveniles since Columbine. And in cases where the source of the gun could be determined, 86% of the weapons were found in the homes of friends, relatives, or parents. Let me read that again. Because a lot of times when you look at the news, you think it's a gang member or they bought it on the street. But this Washington Post article says that more than 180 shootings committed by juveniles since Columbine, which was a mass shooting in the school, and in cases where the source of the gun could be determined, 86% of the weapons were found in the homes of friends, relatives, or parents. And the median age of the school shooter is 16. 16. Children, the Post also determined, are responsible for more than half of the country's school shootings, none of which would be possible if those children didn't have access to firearms. The ranks of school shootings include a six-year-old boy who killed a classmate he shot on purpose, and a 15-year-old girl who did the same to a friend for rejecting her romantic overtures. That is serious. And school shootings are on the rise. And starting in 2018, violent incidents started climbing. And as we talked earlier, that was right before the pandemic. So with classes in session, and already 42 K through 12 shootings, schools experienced school shootings in 2021, 46 endured the next year. When you look at what's happening, and you look at why it's happening, after finding more than 200 incidents of gun violence that met the post-criteria, we poured this organism in a database analysis. So this article was about school shootings disproportionately affect black children that was in the Washington Post. And I, as a teacher, I don't want to have to think that as I'm teaching my students-- and I'm kind of a hard teacher. Like I expect a lot from my students. And thank God they rise to the occasion. This article that I just wrote out of in the Washington Post was originally published in April 20, 2018. And that was what that was in 2018 in April. It's 2024. And we've had the most shootings. So you've got students that are experiencing gun violence. You've got teachers that are experiencing gun violence. You've got the community experiencing gun violence in the school, outside of the school. And not every school has counselors or people that can handle with the trauma, right? The trauma that happens in the school, the trauma that these kids are experiencing, the psychological damage. Because I don't know if there's ever been a study that actually followed these kids all the way through high school. Now recently, I was talking to someone-- so I'm doing a story about-- and we've got five minutes left-- I was doing a story on busing. And I worked for the school department during busing. And I was in Columbia Point. And I've been at different school sites where these kids-- and I mean, kids and some babies-- were coming home and glass was in their hair. They were traumatized, were fighting in school. The windows were bust out. Some school buses didn't make it to the school. But when they made it to the school, there were policemen all around. This is in Boston. Is it not down south? This is in Boston. There was in Mississippi. This was Mississippi. And I don't think there's been a study to really find out what happened to these kids. Did they graduate from school? Did they drop out of school? Did they end up in jail or in prison? Because they were traumatized. Did they end up getting any psychological help? I don't remember that happening during busing, where they had these counselors that were actually helping these kids and their parents process the violence that these kids went through every single day when they were just trying to go to school. And this is on both sides, right? This is in South Boston, in Hyde Park, in Roxbury and Dorchester. There were young people that were experiencing violence and retaliatory violence in the schools and in the community on massive scales. So I know some of the initiatives. The Restorative Justice and the BSAC, which is the Boston School-- was the BSAC, BSAC-- Boston School Advisory Council that are high school students came up with a Restorative Justice curriculum to try to ameliorate the violence that's in schools among their classmates. And so having the Restorative Justice circles and changing the culture of the school. And then you have Safe Zones. I mean, I worked at Northeastern. So we had Safe Zones for LGBTQ communities. So they didn't feel that there wasn't any place they could go that someone would listen to them. Or that they didn't have a voice that would give students a voice, give students whether they were in a college campus. Because as quiet as this kept, there were suicides on college campuses. A couple of years, one major Ivy League, I'm not going to call their name out. But there were students that were jumping from the walkways inside the library and committing suicide because of the pressure. And I worked at a major university, a couple of them. But one in particular, the universities were trying to keep the numbers down. Because you want your kids to pay all this money to come to the school, the last thing you want the parents to know is sexual assaults on campus, violent incidents on campus, drug overdoses, suicides, all that other stuff. So they're not really being reported because they're being handled by the people that are on campus. We've got a few more moments, unexpected anybody to call in. But that would be nice. But from now on here on WBCA, 102.9 FM Boston, we actually have the capacity for you guys to call in 617-708-3211. I want to thank Barbara all the way from Albany, New York, New York. And she called in with some very good insight in terms of having used a weapon, having being exposed to a weapon. I'm not afraid of them. But I also was traumatized because I lost my father when he was gunned down. And I was 13 years old. And so at this tender age that I am now, I still feel the effects of losing members of my family. And there was a cousin of mine who was 19. And he was gunned down by some gang members because he wanted to get out of the gang. And so therapy in the black community is not necessary. Now it's not as stigmatized as it was. But it still is for people to go get help, for you to go get help. If you have been a victim of gun violence-- and I don't have the numbers right here-- for you to go and find out where you should go to suicide hotlines or gun violence hotlines. But don't keep it to yourself. Speak to someone about it. Write it down. Some kind of way you have to get it out of your spirit. You have to get out of your system because it's poison. And it will hurt you if you don't know how to process this. And who knows how to really process this? Especially young kids that have seen this. I had students in class that would check out because they went home to winter break. Or they went home for spring break. And they witnessed something in their neighborhood. And then we're expecting them to come back to class and operate as if nothing happened. And that goes for domestic violence, too. The pandemic actually showed us what really has happened and sometimes happens in students' homes when we had to teach them. And the computers showed what was behind them in their home. So I thank you so much for you guys being here with me tonight for this very interesting and insightful-- I won't say experiment. I'll say a new adventure here at WBCALP 102.9 FM in Boston. You've been listening to Black Teacher's Matter. I am your host and producer. Sharon Eaton Hinton. Take care of yourself and each other. And have a wonderful, wonderful time learning in your school. Good night. [MUSIC PLAYING] (upbeat music)