A mother holds her children at the memorial outside Annunciation Catholic Church after Wednesday's shooting, Sunday, Aug. 31, 2025, in Minneapolis.(AP Photo/Ellen Schmidt)

During the past few years, school shootings have been on the minds of the majority of parents with children. The difference between 2025 and 1965, in relation to school shootings, is like night and day.

Karen and myself raised five children and not once when we sent them to school did we ever worry that we would not see them at the end of the day. Today’s parents have a whole new set of thoughts in relation to the safety of their children. Fear is a motivating factor, for the simple reason of the number of school shootings, both mass and individual.

Last year, when I needed certification in order to coach high school basketball as a volunteer, I was appalled at some of the information that was presented to me. For example, last year there were 374 school shootings. All but three or four were of the “mass shootings” type like Columbine or Sandy Hook. The rest were students on student or students. In other words, we have children killing other children for no apparent reason. Blame is the last thing that this writer will assign. However, I will identify the players in the cast, such as the schools, the parents, and the students.

First, let’s take a look at the schools. From being an over-the-road salesperson for 44 years, I will give the schools an A+. If you are not aware of how difficult it is to enter a school building, I’ll fill you in.

Picture IDs, police guards, buzzers and intercom communication, plus sign-ins and guides in the schools themselves. One does not just walk into a school without being identified, and in some cases, searched if it is warranted. So if the schools are better than Fort Knox, what about the parents? I’ll give them a B+ and after I present my thoughts, you will see where I’m taking you.

If I’m wrong in presenting what more parents can do, then I’ll apologize. However, from interviews with school counselors, parents and students themselves, I think I’m on target. The problems as I have seen stem from children’s privacy and social media. The Columbine honor students/athletes. Their parents never checked what they were watching or what type of programs they were signing up for. Today’s social media has some horrendous programming such as “Murder Inc.” teaching anyone how to kill and enjoy it. White supremacists who preach hate and tell followers to “wipe out” foreigners, people of color and ethnicity, homeless people, family destruction. If you, as a parent, are not “up” on these programs, ask your children to get you on social media and you, too, will be appalled as I was that this “garbage” falls within the first amendment.

Thus, if the schools are solid, and parents are doing what they need to do as parents — and most are concerned, then what about social media?

As an ex-teacher from the 1960s, the greatest student problems in those days were running down the halls, chewing gum and talking in class. If we fast-forward to 2025, we have guns, drugs, bullying, cyber bullying, suicide and fear of individual shootings. This is a far cry from the ’60s.

Every school in this country has a number of “at risk” students. Some are more at risk than others. My daughter-in-law has been a school counselor and administrator in the south for some time. She states, “We have lists of children with behavior problems that are tracked as they go through the educational process. However, we can only go to a point, never knowing who could ‘go off the rails’ and become vicious.” That’s the problem with social media and children who are looking for something that is irrational like “Murder Inc.” to belong to.

I take my hat off to the teachers of today. Most are there for the right reasons, but never know what will set off some of the “at risk” children, who could turn on them or other children. This column has always tried to be positive, but at this particular time, I do not have an answer because of the complications of lawsuits, and some parental ideas of “negative helicopter parents” and “snowplow parents” that make teachers’ jobs much more difficult.

Mike Tramuta is a Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy/Atomic Behavior counselor who resides in Dunkirk. He can be reached at 716-983-1592.