Mother wonders when drills and news of school shootings will cause kids to stay home
Why not stay home?
When my daughter was in kindergarten, the day after a tornado drill, she sobbed about not wanting to go to school. She said, “Yesterday we practiced a tornado and today the real one comes. Can’t I just skip school today?”
In middle school, during an active shooter drill in the library, students were hustled into a book storage room where the door was locked, lights turned off, and they hid between shelves, on their knees, tucked in little balls. I asked if they talked while hiding so it wasn’t so scary. She said, “No, Mom. If you talk, you die!”
After years of this, she is afraid that every day is the day she has to face a kid who is hurt and angry and has a gun.
Students at her high school have the daily reminder that today could be the day that they are shot to death as they enter the school, place their computer in a bin and walk through the metal detector.
Any day, anywhere: school, concert, or church, my daughter knows there could be an active shooter.
Why not stay home if today is the day of the “tornado”?
A. Brown, Charleston
Slow down!
Summer has arrived, so don’t race around in your car. Slow down. Focus on your surroundings. It is tourist season. Tons of people riding bikes, walking around, going out to dinner, drinking, not paying attention... Slow down.
By law bicycles are required to have lights, but rental companies don’t provide them.
Whether you’re walking or riding or driving, slow down! Even if you’re on vacation, all the same traffic rules apply.
Be extra careful.
Sandon Preston, Hilton Head
Reform sentencing
My research finds that in 2010, felony DUI was added to the S.C. violent crimes list in the S.C. Omnibus Crime Reduction and Sentencing Reform Act. Felony DUI was classified Level A Highest Violent Category under the subtitle “Extreme Drug Crimes,” serving 85% of their 25-year maximum sentence with no parole and no work or good behavior credits given.
Before 2010, felony DUI could result in involuntary manslaughter, a non-violent crime of five years max, serving 51% of that time.
Texting drivers get minor penalties for loss of life and felony DUI drivers face up to a 25-year penalty. Quite a discrepancy.
Reckless homicide in South Carolina results in zero to 10 years, nonviolent, serving 51% of the sentence with parole which better fits the punishment for the crime.
In May 2021, the S.C. House passed H-3623, a drug offender sentencing reform bill. It was sent to the Senate, asking for 85% to 65% of sentence served, behavior credits, parole and max sentence reductions.
South Carolina’s Senators failed in May 2022 to move H-3623 forward for debate, causing inmates and their families to lose hope. Now is the time for the pendulum to swing toward sentencing reform.
Donna Jarrell, Hanahan
Guns and tyranny
The Second Amendment is not about guns for hunting or for personal protection from criminals. It’s about armed citizens checking and resisting a tyrannical government. Because governments are manned by sinful and narrowly self-interested people, they naturally tend to abuse and oppress the governed.
A government’s size and firepower should not be allowed to exceed and overawe the firepower of its citizenry.
Americans, by sacred right, may make, purchase or otherwise acquire and wield whatever weaponry is needed to counter governmental aggression.
Winston McCuen, Landrum
