Do you remember where you were when the Dunblane Massacre took place?
I was doing a residential course in Jury's Hotel in Great Western Road, Glasgow, with a group of about 20 teachers, preparing them to teach French in their primary schools. Hotel reception knew the rules: no phone calls when we were working, but a call came through about 11.15am. It was the sister of a participant who said something terrible had happened at Dunblane Primary School. I related this to the class. One of the group said he had a niece there. We stopped the class and sent everyone off to their rooms. I'm glad to say his niece wasn't involved.
The rest of the week was a blur: there were TV pictures showing parents pushing buggies towards the school in search of news; Shereen Nanjiani asking them pathetically 'how do you feel?'; flowers piling up outside the school; the royal family - was it the queen? - visiting. I wondered about the headteacher and his staff. They would have to do the initial identifications. Was someone taking care of them? And what about the non-teaching staff? They would be local and know the kids.
Every time there's another massacre, it comes back to me and I'm sure many other people in Scotland. Beslan was awful. Columbine too. But Newtown Connecticut is the worst so far, because so many other 'incidents' have taken place - 13 in the US in the last 20 years - and the kids are so young.
Most of the Dunblane parents chose not to appear on TV at the time but on the 10 year anniversary, some did take part in a documentary. I remember the parents of a 5 year old boy who died. They were older when they had him. He was an only child. The photo they allowed us to see showed a wee man in a fair isle tank top, a checked shirt and a bunnet - the spitting image of his dad. I can't imagine how they handled this at the time - or how they go on living with such horror.
Can we stop it happening again?
No comments:
Post a Comment