Three Students Die In Santa Clarita Shooting

Jane McPheron

It seems as though school shootings have become a regular occurrence across America. Since 2009 almost 180 K-12 schools have become sites for this unnecessary violence. Thursday, November 14th, Saugus High School in Santa Clarita California was added to that notorious list.

Nathaniel Berhow shot five students and then shot himself in the head, dying from his injuries a day later. Along with him, two students, Gracie Muehlberger and Dominic Blackwell, died. The other three students shot survived.

Some Whitney Young students voiced their own thoughts on this tragedy. “I mean I just feel upset. You don’t want that to happen to anybody, especially with kids your age,” said Molly Clemente ‘20. “It’s not okay. We can’t get used to that being the norm,” added Adela Jianu ‘22.

It’s clear students feel that certain actions should be taken by politicians to address this growing problem. Charlie Mazzeo ‘22 pointed out, “The way they should respond is relatively simple. There are procedures, background check laws, preventative measures.” He observed, “Gun control is inconsistent between state lines because of how powerful NRA lobbying is. While there probably will be progress at the state and local levels, nationally there won’t. People need to be vocal about these issues towards politicians. Otherwise, the only thing influencing their policies is the NRA’s money.”

Though it’s impossible to bring back any of the victims lost to these violent occurrences, there is definite action that can and should be taken to prevent future tragedies. Even so, it seems that with every new major mass shooting, American culture accepts gun violence more and more, treating it as a mere side-effect of the society we all live in.

But despite the temptation to move on again, to ignore the problem, now is not the time for that. We’ve all heard this story before, almost 180 times. How many more times do we need to hear it for us to learn? We know how it begins. We know how it ends. If we do nothing, we all are responsible for what happens next. And we all know what happens next if we do nothing.