Monterrey, Mexico is grieving heavily; on January 18th, 2017, at approximately 7:45 am, a 14-year-old pulled out a gun in his classroom and shot a classmate, his teacher, and then proceeded to shoot himself. Mexico requires a special permission to possess a gun in your home, and it’s rather uncommon to have one, that is, compared to the amount of Americans that own one in their household. It was presumed that the shooter had been dealing with depression and had been bullied.
We thought this couldn’t possibly happen here in Mexico, but we were wrong. I feel so impacted by this news; I still haven’t fully gotten my head wrapped around it. How is it possible that this kid was so neglected by his parents, classmates, and family members that he held enough hate within himself to be able to perform this atrocity? We, as a society, are failing terribly; everyone is so invested in their own little world that we fail to notice people around us who might be having a bad time.
This is an incredibly sensitive situation, but it could’ve been prevented. The solution isn’t to go through your kids’ backpack, or put a metal detector at the entrance; the solution is to go through your kids’ heart, their head, their way of viewing the world, and fill it with love. There has been plenty of social media talk, with people urging to not show the media that surfaced of the incident due to respect for the affected and their families, and simply because nobody gains anything good from looking at those. Some teenagers in Monterrey have started a movement called #YSinAmorQuéPasa (What happens without love) which promotes being loving towards everyone and offering your support to anyone who might need it. This is a way to try to help those who may be struggling with a mental illness and also a simple way to make this society a better one.
Let this situation make us more aware of what’s going on around us; be empathetic, loving, friendly and nice.
Don’t let this tragic event discourage us from wanting to continue to build a society based on love, empathy, respect and generosity.
On the contrary, let’s light a spark amongst all of this darkness and motivate ourselves to be better people.
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