What’s it going to take to stop this from happening again?

I thought it was a once-in-a-lifetime kind of story.

Twelve students and a teacher shot and killed while at school. The two shooters killed by their own guns.

As a journalist, you recognize those rare moments when you know you are witnessing history.

This was definitely once in a lifetime.

That was 20 years ago, and I was wrong.

Today, I write this exhausted and sad and frustrated after covering yet another school shooting. Charlotte is the latest city added to the growing list of school shootings. On Tuesday, a shooter killed 2 students and injured 4 others on the campus of UNC Charlotte.

It’s an assignment I wish I didn’t have.

I can’t imagine how scared the kids must have been when they had to hide while police secured the campus.

I feel bad for the kids who worked so hard for four years only to have their final day of classes upended by a kid with a gun.

As a parent with a teenager just a few years from college, my heart goes out to the parents who got one of the many text messages sent from kids.

But I had a job to do. So I went. Again.

I looked for the good. The heroes. The people who ran into the danger. The people who risked their lives to save others. The students who show up by the hundreds to support each other at a vigil. I’ve done this long enough to know that the best of humanity exists alongside of the worst.  

After years of covering school shootings, what I know is that it’s way too normal now. Lockdown drills are as common for first graders as tornado drills were when I was a kid.

I also know that the effects last long after journalists go away.

Ask the parents of two of the Parkland survivors who killed themselves.

Ask the 8th grader who was in a school shooting in Indiana last year and has anxiety attacks when she hears gunshots in a movie.

Ask any of the kids at UNCC who hid in a bathroom with other students, frantically texting their parents and will never look at school the same way again.

I’ve covered a lot of school shooting-related stories since that once-in-a-lifetime day at Columbine.

I’ve talked to principals who will tell you that schools built since Columbine are designed to minimize the risk for a shooter.

I’ve profiled a North Carolina company who makes special locks that retrofit older school doors. Several Iredell-Statesville schools utilize the Rhino locks.

I’ve heard the talk about gun reform and the need for more mental health resources. Yet, here I am again, covering a school shooting.

Is it really any wonder we have a teacher shortage? Who wants to be underpaid and face the possibility they could be shot at work? I warned you, I’m frustrated. I personally know five people who have been in a school shooting.

I’m tired of hearing things like, “It could have been worse,” or “Good thing it was only 2 kids.” Really? No child should be worried about being shot at school.

What’s it going to take to stop this from happening again?

This story was originally published May 2, 2019 at 6:20 AM with the headline "What’s it going to take to stop this from happening again?."