Teacher and Columbine Survivor Stands Up For Common Sense School Safety Measures
By Brian Washington
Colorado art teacher Katie Lyles hoped her students would be spared from the sort of dark specters that haunt her memories of high school.
But during an emergency “lock down” drill at her elementary school, while crammed into a storage room with about 24 second graders, one student, a 7-year-old named Anthony, reached for her hand in fear. At that moment, her hopes began to fade.
“My heart broke for Anthony and his classmates—that they have to learn these types of drills at such a young age, if at all,” Lyles recently admitted during a public hearing in Denver on curbing gun violence. “I thought to myself: ‘This is a result of the Columbine shootings. This is my reality, and now it is theirs too.’ ”
When it comes to gun violence, Lyles has a unique, though unenviable, perspective. She’s witnessed its impact as an educator and up close as a student. Lyles, who’s been teaching for less than a decade, is a survivor of the1999 shootings at Columbine High School, where 12 students and one educator died after being brutally gunned
Colorado art teacher Katie Lyles hoped her students would be spared from the sort of dark specters that haunt her memories of high school.But during an emergency “lock down” drill at her elementary school, while crammed into a storage room with about 24 second graders, one student, a 7-year-old named Anthony, reached for her hand in fear. At that moment, her hopes began to fade.
“My heart broke for Anthony and his classmates—that they have to learn these types of drills at such a young age, if at all,” Lyles recently admitted during a public hearing in Denver on curbing gun violence. “I thought to myself: ‘This is a result of the Columbine shootings. This is my reality, and now it is theirs too.’ ”
When it comes to gun violence, Lyles has a unique, though unenviable, perspective. She’s witnessed its impact as an educator and up close as a student. Lyles, who’s been teaching for less than a decade, is a survivor of the1999 shootings at Columbine High School, where 12 students and one educator died after being brutally gunned