Well, here we are. The 18th mass shooting since January 1st, 17 people dead, many of them children who had their whole lives ahead of them. What is wrong with this picture? These kids should be going to school to learn, to socialize, to grow and to make their dreams become reality. They shouldn't be shot in their classrooms. They should be planning dances and picking out colleges, not running from bullets or stepping over dead classmates and teachers. What has become of society that this is where we are and what our children deal with? We are raising a generation of kids with PTSD. It's a vicious cycle of mental illness that we are creating, as if puberty and regular growing pains of the mind and the heart aren't difficult enough. Listen, at some point your gun arguments and rights to bare arms is infringing on these kids rights to an education and peaceful existence, is it not? I haven't heard an argument yet that explains why these children should have to wake up everyday afraid of guns in their schools.

As a parent, I am angry and terrified. As a family we have had to protect our son from predators in schools, bullying and now I have to worry that my five year old son will grow up thinking his learning intuition doubles as a war zone. WTF?? How is this fair to these kids? It's not. We are so wrapped up in politics that we are failing to realize that these kids will demand change and they aren't going to back down, so we need to step up and support them. This isn't about conservative or liberal, this isn't an argument on walls or bans, this is a sign that we have a gun issue AND a mental health issue in this country that keeps getting worse and worse and we have yet do to anything about either one of these problems because we are too busy creating memes that offend the masses or sending social media messages of empty and meaningless condolences for families burying their babies, when what they really need is ACTION.

I will tell you who is going to change the world. It's these 14 year old kids who are fed up with adults not defending them and I for one want to support them in any way possible. Yes, maybe I am just one mother, but parents are powerful and when we ban together and we can be unstoppable. So isn't it time we do so for our children? I know we all worry about how to pay the bills. Some of you may even worry about how to pay for your next meals or put clothes on your kid's backs, but the one thing we rely on is that when we send our children to school they will be safe. That security has been chipped away to it's bare bones and now we are left with sending these kids to school and worrying that we will get a text or a call that the school received a bomb threat (which has happened to us more than once at a pre-school) or that a crazed person shot up the school.

When does this stop? How does this stop? I don't have the answers right now, but you best believe that I will be active in finding solutions.

What did you worry about when you were 14?

I can't imagine it was that a mass shooter would murder you and your friends in your classroom.

*This is my two cents. Honestly, it isn't up for debate. I am entitled to my feelings and my opinions and my right as a parent to seek change for a better education for all children.