My Very Own School Shooting

It was c. 1960…and literally an adult affair. Now, I stand with the kids.

I was a freshly minted 7th grader, attending a countywide school for the first time (there were so many boomer kids in those days that elementary schools were divided up by area) & experiencing for the first time changing classes, classrooms & teachers from period to period. For 6yrs of elementary, each year had been a single room & a single teacher.

I also lived outside of town & rode a school bus home most days. My bus driver was the husband of my civics teacher. (I realize some of my readers may not know what’s taught in a “civics” class— Google it.) That class was located in the semi-basement of the oldest public school building in the county. My teacher, call her Mrs. Mc (because I can’t remember the name), was a veteran of many years teaching and naturally, quite busy with classes all day.

Not so her husband (Mr. Mc), his job required an early morning shift getting kids to school & a late afternoon one, delivering them to their homes in time for chores (it was rural Texas) & supper. That left him plenty of free time during the day, which it turns out, he was using at the time to carry on an affair which his wife — my civics teacher — was just becoming aware of. There was trouble in the home of Mr. & Mrs. Mc.

On the day in question, Mr. Mc came by the classroom & tapped on one of the glass panes of the old wooden door to get his wife’s attention for one of their ever-more-common hallway palavers. Since teachers often had to change rooms, the teacher’s desk always had one big lower drawer reserved for teachers’ purses. Instead of waving Mr. Mc away for later, as she sometimes did, she retrieved her purse, assigned us some busy-work & went out into the hallway to talk. She had a gun in her purse & in the course of their conversation, she pulled it out & shot him. Right outside in the hallway. The sound was startling, but not loud — no doubt a “lady’s gun” of small caliber.

I honestly don’t remember what happened after that. I know she was at the hospital with him when the police took her into custody & that it was a career-ending move for both of them. In fact, obedient children of our time, we may well have stayed engaged with our busy work nothing more than the ordinary amount of mischief till the end of the period & then proceeded to our next class. None of us was ever questioned about the incident — which is certainly a reflection of how frequently, in Texas, marital infidelities led to shootings in those days. Might as well leave the kids out of it.

Was I traumatized? It’s hard to tell, honestly. So much has happened since where I was unquestionably the target. I don’t even remember if I found out what had happened at school or afterward from my parents. I think the whole adult population of the town may have known about the shooting before any of the kids did.

I was approaching my 50s before school shootings became “a thing.” I think kids weren’t nearly so traumatized by such goings-on back in 1960 because kids weren’t the target & kids weren’t the shooters. That’s how it’s supposed to be. Nothing about the incident made us feel particularly unsafe because it wasn’t about kids at all.

School shootings have become a uniquely American form of collective insanity. The kids today are right. It’s not about mental health. It’s not about crime. It’s about guns. It’s about the NRA’s use of various forms of paranoia as a marketing technique. It’s about the relative value of money vs. the lives of children & their right to an education in an atmosphere where there is less to fear. It’s about growing up without being traumatized by having your friends and schoolmates shot down. It’s about not having to be a survivor.

My own personal school shooting happened within 10 meters of me, but I’m not a survivor (of that incident) because I was never a target. I’m proud of the kids in the March for Our Lives. Proud that they are standing up for themselves and valuing themselves in ways we adults have failed to do.

More power to them! If it’s a question of the kids vs. the NRA, I know which side I’m on.

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