Shooting at Georgia school shakes the nation By: Desiree Pratt

On September 4th, a shooting occurred at Apalachee Highschool leaving many students, families, and citizens of Georgia terrified. Many people have expressed a need for change, in schools, gun laws, and more.

On September 4th, a student by the name Colton Gray went to school with a knife and riffle. In the matter of two hours, he committed the deadliest shooting since the shooting at Covenant School March 2023. Colt Gray, age 14, was enrolled August 14th and had previously missed nine days of school before the event. Colton Gray's father, Colin Gray will also be charged as he allegedly bought the gun for his son in December of 2023.  

 Colton Gray was in his Algebra 1 class when he had asked the teacher to go to the front office to speak to someone at 9:45. After that he sent a message to his mother, apologizing. It was also known that an Unknown person called the school that morning, warning the school that a shooting was going to happen, and that Apalachee was going to be first. At 9:50 Colton's mother had called the school and had asked the administration to check on her son. When they had gone to check on him, they had found out that he had gone to the bathroom with a student with a name like his. A couple of minutes later, Colton had walked out the bathroom with a rifle and began looking for what he referred to as "soft targets"  

By 10:20, there was a shooter in the school, and by 10:30 a student was already dead. Unfortunately, four people passed away, Mason Schermerhorn, Christain Angulo, Cristina Irimie, and Richard Aspinwall. The students at Apalachee have returned to school and have expressed great fear. They are not alone. Many students in Georgia have expressed how they do not feel safe at school, “I think our school can create a trustworthy environment by making posters or making Instagram posts to encourage that there is at least one person they can talk to or at least express concern to even if it’s just their parent or provide examples of when it is has been reliable” according to Carissa Miller a sophomore at Hillgrove. Some students also express that they would like to see more visual and physical acts of security, “"It'll be harder, like, because there's a lot of metal stuff, but like, it'll be good to have metal detectors because there are no guns in the school." Said by Asa Montgomery a sophomore at Hillgrove. People have also expressed that if students were given a safer space, and a time to talk about how they feel situations like these would be able to be prevented. It is said that Colton Gray had a lot of family issues and similar related issues going on outside of school. If he had someone to talk to it might’ve help prevent the shooting from happening. Bullying is still a grave issue in schools as well. While Colton wasn't bullied, in many other instances the shooters were. “Bullying can drive people into isolation just by itself and it can cause people to want revenge because they are being treated unfairly. When somebody does feel alone or unseen, they may do unruly things to be seen and to get attention. Schools can address these issues by again expressing that there is always someone, you never have to be alone. Encouraging students to sit with people they normally don’t talk to even if it’s their whole friend group sitting with this” Miller stated. Changes like these can prevent a lot of things, and even save many lives.