The flowers lay in the memorial of the Catholic School in Minnesota, with a card attached simply stating, “We get it. With love, Uvalde.”
Those words capture the crushing reality that communities across the nation are connected not by joy or hope, but by shared grief. It is a cycle that has become devastatingly normalized.
“It makes me sad but also scared, and I feel I need to be prepared for the worst,” StuCo Advisor Chelsea Franklin said. “My thinking pattern has changed from ‘Will it ever happen?’ to ‘When will it happen?’ and ‘How do I react?’ when it does happen.”
On August 27, 2025, the sacred walls of Annunciation Catholic Church in Minneapolis, filled with children praying during the first school Mass, were shattered in an unimaginable act of violence. A 23-year-old former student, Robin Westman, opened fire from outside the church, firing 116 rifle rounds and multiple shotgun shots through narrow windows, striking two innocent children and seventeen others.
“It’s overwhelming to think about, especially knowing my child is just beginning life and will grow up in this world,” history teacher Brian VanCleave said. “It makes me sad and sometimes angry that spaces meant for community, worship, or joy can be touched by violence.”
The two lives taken were those of eight-year-old Fletcher Merkel and ten-year-old Harper Moyski. Fletcher was remembered as a loving boy who enjoyed sports and family, Harper was celebrated for her bright spirit and affection for others. Their families now carry unimaginable grief, each parent’s tearful words leaving an echo of sorrow in the community.
“It’s like driving every day. There is a possibility a wreck could happen, but you get in the car anyway,” junior Ryder Sciba said. “There could be a shooting at school, but people still go for education or just to see friends.”
A bystander, Pat Scallen, raced toward the bloody scene after hearing the shots. He found children wounded, hiding under pews. One girl, shot in the head, tearfully pleaded, “Please just hold my hand.”
“I don’t think there has ever been enough awareness around the effects of violence on students’ mental health, and people now are so concerned about how they are perceived,” senior Victoria Medina said. “That causes them to bring down others, which isn’t okay, so I think people can bring more awareness to this by offering help to those in need, instead of pushing them and their feelings aside.”
Moments like these crystallize the raw, unbearable humanity shattered by a single person’s access to legally purchased guns. This is not a question of politics; it is a question of life and death. The children of Annunciation, Uvalde, Sandy Hook, and Parkland are not statistics. They are lives that should have been lived. The choice is clear: honor them with action, or condemn the next community to join this endless circle of grief.
“It’s all so sad that this is our reality now; it breaks my heart and is so scary that nobody is ever really safe anywhere,” senior Maria Spencer said. “This shouldn’t be a normal thing in our world now, and everyone says they want change, but nothing is ever really done.”
