Letter: Resources are available
On May 24, 19 elementary schoolchildren and two teachers were shot dead at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, by a lone 18-year-old with an assault rifle.
For many of the students in the school for second through fourth grades that morning, the end of the school year and the beginning of a carefree summer were on their minds. For 19 of them, summer would never come.
The tragedy recalls the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut in 2012, when 20 children were killed, a page in our history with which the country is still grappling. Ten years later, our nation is traumatized again.
Protecting children is a public issue and a responsibility everyone shares. We all acknowledge children have a right to education and freedom from fear in our schools, and yet the next horrific event could happen at any time, in any town, in any state, including our own.
As a child welfare agency, Shelter Inc. in Arlington Heights works with local and federal legislatures to make children's safety and well-being a priority, and we urge you to join us. If we don't work together and make the change, 19 more young lives were just lost in vain.
Resources for talking to children about violence can be found at www.shelter-inc.org
Patricia Cinquini, Communications and Grants Manager
Shelter Inc.
Arlington Heights