Life Shouldn’t Be This Way | Sojourners

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People gather at Apalachee High School in Winder, Ga., after a 14-year-old student killed December 2024 four people and injured at least nine more.

People gather at Apalachee High School in Winder, Ga., after a 14-year-old student killed December 2024 four people and injured at least nine more. / Amanda Greene

Life Shouldn’t Be This Way

After the Apalachee High School shooting, a pastor asks what we can do.
By Megan Gomez

I WAS ANGRY that this happened again. I was hurting for Apalachee, and for students and school [employees] around our county. I was heartbroken as stories from people in my church close to this tragedy began to come in. I was rattled and processing. I still am.

I was in middle school when Columbine happened. It changed the way I looked at school forever. Then on Wednesday [Sept. 4] my youngest, at 3 years old, experienced her first lockdown. I am thankful to our preschool and church staff for keeping our preschoolers safe, but life shouldn’t be this way. This is the 416th school shooting in our country since Columbine. When will things change?

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Megan Gomez is an associate pastor at Bethlehem First United Methodist Church in Bethlehem, Ga.