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Roselyn Tantraphol was up late emailing her students locked down at Michigan State University as authorities searched for the gunman who killed three students and wounded five others late Monday.
One week earlier, she rushed to pick up her 6-year-old son from his elementary school, which locked down after a hoax active shooter call at the nearby high school in the Okemos Public Schools district, next to East Lansing.
“Why is my first grader completely comfortable with a lockdown protocol? And why are my students at Michigan State having to follow a ‘Run, Hide, Fight’ protocol?” said Tantraphol, 46. “I feel like we are coddling the gun lobby and allowing our youth to be terrorized.”
Speaking by phone with USA TODAY on Tuesday, Tantraphol expressed frustration with the state of American politics and pessimism about the prospect of change.
“You’re experiencing the events and all the fear and the sadness and rage that comes from the senseless violence, but you’re also experiencing the collective trauma of all the past shootings — Parkland, Uvalde, Sandy Hook,” Tantraphol said. “And you’re seeing that this is your future too. And that this country refuses to fix this problem.”
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Tantraphol, an adjunct instructor at Michigan State University, said her son, Kai, has been doing lockdown drills since kindergarten.
