“At its strongest, it had winds peaking at around 210 miles per hour and was over a mile wide. In total, it took 24 lives, 7 of those being children inside Plaza Towers Elementary School.”
“Parents have a right to know that their children will be safe and in good hands when they drop them off at school,” stated my first article titled, May 20th, 2013. However, on May 20th, 2013, it was not Plaza Towers Elementary School’s top priority. If safety was the school’s main concern, there would have been storm shelters in their school when it was hit by an EF5 tornado. If each student’s well-being was their top priority, seven children wouldn’t have lost their lives that day. But seven children did lose their lives. Seven children, all under the age of 10, perished as a result of their school’s lack of concern for their well-being. As I said, if the school cared, truly cared, about its students safety, seven children wouldn’t have died.
Plaza Towers Elementary School ignored the obvious dangers of their building. Instead of preventing something terrible from happening, they waited for it to happen. And when it did finally happen, it was too late to do anything. Eventually storm shelters were implemented into the school, once it was completely rebuilt from the ground up, but it was too late to undo the damage. The previous building had already been leveled, and seven children had already died. No amount of storm shelters could undo that. It was simply too late.
“Moore, Oklahoma, Plaza Towers Elementary School, and society as a whole failed those seven children that day.”
It was recorded that 369 pedestrian fatalities occurred in the state of Texas between January and June in 2023. This number has been increasing as each year passes. This number could have increased again when two students were involved in an accident in front of Wylie High School while walking to school. It is only because of luck that the number didn’t increase.
Two students, both walking to Wylie High School one bright and sunny morning, began to cross the road. At the same time as this, a vehicle was speeding down the road. In an instant, the unthinkable happened. The vehicle, unaware of the crossing, and possibly blinded by the sunlight, didn’t yield. The two unaware pedestrians and the speeding vehicle crossed paths. One of the students jumped out of the way, barely being missed by the vehicle. The other wasn’t as lucky and was hit. Due to some miracle, no one was seriously injured or killed. However, this situation came way too close for comfort.
Wylie High School’s luck was seriously tested that day. And thankfully it was on our side. But who’s to know if fate will be as forgiving the next time something happens? We cannot put the lives of our students in the hands of luck; it’s simply too unreliable.
As the news of two students began to spread through the school, I couldn’t help but think; I couldn’t help but wonder. Who’s to blame? Who’s fault is it? Did the crossing guard not see that this was about to happen? What could have caused this situation to escalate so quickly? Why did these two students, who were just trying to simply walk to school one morning, have to come so close to death? The answer, there was no crossing guard… no one. No one to protect these students lives and ensure their safety as vehicles come speeding down the road. All they had were some white lines on a road. Just as the students of Plaza Towers Elementary School needed, these two students needed Wylie High School, a police officer, a crossing guard, a staff member, someone to be there that morning. But there was no one.
Just as Plaza Towers Elementary School did, we failed those two students that day. We saw the dangers, we’ve watched as cars speed by without any care that children may be crossing. White lines on a road and signs with numbers on them aren’t enough. Paint on a road won’t stop a distracted driver from running over a student. And not just any student, but our students. Our students that need the rest of us to be there.
The point of all this is that two children, two Wylie High School students, were almost killed one morning simply because they were trying to walk to school. Two children almost lost their lives as a result of the carelessness of everyone, not just Wylie High School, not just Wylie as a community, everyone is somewhat to blame. So the question is not who do we call out for this, but instead what are we going to do next? Are we going to wait around just as Plaza Towers Elementary School did?
Wylie High School is a good school, arguably a great school. However, we can’t simply blame the city for what has happened here. We are also to blame for the fact that those two students almost died that day. It reminds me of that saying that goes something like “when you point at someone three fingers are pointing back at you.” And it’s true. We cannot blame anyone until we accept that we could’ve have just as easily done something about the problem too. But we didn’t. We made a detrimental mistake. A mistake that almost cost more than any amount of money it would cost to pay a crossing guard or to install a red light. This mistake almost cost the lives of two innocent students. However, like all mistakes, we can learn from them. And we are. As of now, progress is being made to prevent something like this from happening again. Specific Wylie High School staff, including Mrs. Berry have been going through crossing guard training. Although it should not have required two children almost dying to make this progress happen, it is good to see that there is progress. Hopefully in the future, we will act on issues before they test our luck, instead of afterwards. Because who’s to know if our luck will be on our side the next time?
