Two teachers killed in one week and the band plays on

Mike Landsberry and Colleen Ritzer are linked forever. They were both teachers that were admired by their students, they loved teaching, and sadly they were both killed this week. Killed by the students they loved. Both killers were said to be normal kids that basically blended into the background, but for some reason they took the lives of people just doing their jobs. When did it become normal or acceptable for a teacher to die on duty? When did the school become a war zone? Back in December of last year we saw a troubled young man take a gun and go to school and slaughter 24 innocent first graders and two teachers who tried to protect them. What was the response? There was 24/7 media coverage. Pundits saying what can we do? Politicians saying what can we do? Parents asking what should be done? What happened? Nothing. We talked about gun control, mental health and the 2nd Amendment, and we simply walked away and went back to our lives. Are we incapable of developing solutions? Have we surrendered and decided that this is simply the new normal? What is happening to young people? Are there warning signs that are simply being ignored? What kinds of homes are these child killers coming from? The answers to these questions will be different in every case. Are we simply trying to connect dots where none exist? We simply can’t keep scratching our heads and anxiously watching and wondering when will the next incident happen? I used the phrase “and the band played on” in the headline. When the Titanic was going down the band continued to play. They all knew death was inevitable, and they had resigned themselves to that sad fact, but our fate is yet to be determined, but we still seem content to let the band play on.