Can you hear us now?

After the June school shooting, the Phillipino community was quick to blame America. Now after this third shooting, also one garnering international attention, is America still to blame or is it something else?

For years, the wringing of hands started by being explained away as due to " white male supremacists" and gun ownership, but those are myths. How do you explain gang violence, school shootings, or murder in every country?

Why do people kill? Since Cain and Abel, the story is as old as time and answers can be illusive. Yesterday crucifixtion, today guns, tomorrow will it be "Hal".

Do we stop trying because humans can be cruel  and there is nothing we can do? Do we get opportunities to help before recovery? How about the starfish or beached whale that still has a chance if sent back into the ocean.? Do people sit and watch death happen?

The Philippines is experiencing what we experienced in 1996-1997. The frog is slowly boiling in the Philippines as we were before Columbine in 1999.

The kid, per the initial reports (less than 72 hours) indicates that he paid attention to the dark web of true crimes which does glorify school shooters . Any other reports? As did the Columbine shooters, evidently friends were warned of something happening in the afternoon and passed it off. Were adults feeding the beast?

This is 2026, the horse left the barn, the genie is out of the bottle and Pandora opened that box ions ago. What do school districts do now in the Philippines? Do they have to start from scratch and reinvent wheels?  They do not really need to.

Billions of dollars in training may be needed for drills before clean up of blood spills. That protocol needs to be practiced, but do we have ears to hear?

Think about it, what puzzle piece did the kids miss per reports?

DepEd chief: ‘We are really not prepared for these shootings’ https://share.google/pPAFSS9m2pZ6keX4G 

The Phillipines can not blame America, one shooting, maybe, is a shock. But three is a pattern that belongs to them.

Pray for our schools that someone will speak up, and that the warning is heeded and not self reported only in the rescue stage.

Every child, ttoubled or not, has a voice. Listen.

God is heard in the whispers. Sometimes the messengers are young.

Did the shooter give a clue hoping to be stopped?

Marian R. Carlino

September 20, 2026

 

I meant to do my work that day..

..but the news took my attention. I reached out to my supervisor and asked to step away from my desk and the incoming phone calls. That day was August 27, 2025. The six degrees of separation was about a three.

Copy and paste this link.

Diocese of Scranton in Minnesota reactions right after the shooting on August 27, 2025. Read the article and compare notes.

At least 2 children dead, 17 injured, in Minneapolis Catholic school shooting – Diocese of Scranton https://share.google/PEmPpY8s13DhsQtNP 

News links:

https://youtu.be/fsAoPxuffwc?is=0-s9YDqjzuc7Igp9

A doctor relying on prayer.  A #strong of which I am not a personal fan, but it works for some.

https://youtu.be/J9gKdnfsx_Y?is=JeC1u29b3r9oADlx

Caution with link below, it has a video diary of the shooter but is a short video.

https://youtu.be/x7c8oyLHYcs?is=O-qLg4ZZTpef9KQF

Other states react:

https://youtu.be/8hoM61rWwPM?is=xySvxIc_19H8Wjec

Information: One year later. Not much is known about the shooter?

Copy and paste this link:

Annunciation Catholic school shooting: Documents detail swift response | CNN https://share.google/T5rhnW62TkFZXuXMa

Follow up on one of the dead victim's parents: They reflect and share video of his frozen in time bedroom.

https://youtu.be/ub0qYwvosMw?is=7b90PbpbajlJhg5p

Romancing violence helps in a very limited way.  Fletcher will be forgotten over time by most of us, unless we take seriously what is stated at the end of the last video.

I will never forget Shannon Wright. I wrote because of her in 1998. I will never stop writing. Remember, it is not the weapon of choice we are battling. 

As a Catholic who lives in a city where a synagogue was the scene of a massacre, I know with one degree of separation how evil strikes out during religious services. Many faith communities know it first hand.

The children were in prayer as a person says in the first video. Evil hates children. Jesus warned the women from the Cross. Mary wept. 

Mary reached out to the children at Fatima to deliver messages, per Catholic faith. Some did not take kindly to the children, even those in their own homes. We remember them today, over one hundred years later.

Maybe we can listen to the voice of Fletcher through his room and remember him. He had a journal too.  

What is in your child's journal? Who is speaking to your children?

In 1998, I stepped away from my classroom, but not the proverbial desk.

What makes you step away from your work?

Marian R. Carlino

September 18, 2026