What do you think should or can be done, to honor the lives of Irma Garcia and Eva Mireles?

Pass Federal gun control laws and domestic terrorism laws and call them the Mireles-Garcia acts. Any other memorial is a farce.

Well the now-orphaned children of the one (the father just died of a heart attack) should be well taken care of . . .

While I am empathetic to a family who loses both parents, they are not tiny children. Their youngest just finished seventh grade. The word orphan normally conjures images of much younger children.

In regards to what could be done to honor the lives of the fallen teachers, several things come to mind. Gun control is a benign toss of ideology.

Something with a meaningful basis would be to find ways of making mental healthcare a more common aspect of every community. Guns are not the chosen weapon of all public attacks, but what is a common factor is skewed mental stability. Perhaps a Band Aid type event could be organized in honor of all fallen educators to fund mobile mental health units which could make regular scheduled visits to schools across the country. Students could be seen by professionals who could address various concerns such as normal childhood fears and questions, and also provide a place for kids to anonymously tell “safe” adults about concerns they have about acquaintances. Nearly all school attacks are made by someone who was known to harbor feelings of desire to get revenge, or to be harmful to animals, or other red flags. These situations rarely get reported because people are frequently confused about who could do anything about their concerns for such acquaintances.
The units could tour various areas, keep files, but switch the professionals around, so people who are uncomfortable with one, would later have chances to see others. I think for many it would be a more preferable resource than having in school counseling with someone who may be crappy, but all the particular school can afford. Not that in school counseling should be replaced, but in countless cases there should be an alternative readily available. The units should be primarily available to students, but not exclusively.

Another fund raiser could be a book compilation of memories of those teachers submitted by various students down through their careers. The sales could fund needs of survivors of the fallen teachers and students. Friends and relatives will suffer a long time.

@Patty_Melt
” and also provide a place for kids to anonymously tell “safe” adults about concerns they have about acquaintances. ”
Good idea except that it could be abused in that some may intentionally target another by giving the names of childrent hat they don’t like etc.

Basically a Snitch line.

Uh, you don’t convict on rumor. You investigate. That is only good as a starting point. OMG, duh.

@Patty_Melt
Still it opens for some telling lies of which They will be investigated and taking up time away from legitimate ones that need to be.

It’s always dangerous to pass emotional legislation. Much better to wait for the facts and and enact policies that address the problem.

@Jaxk We’ve had fourteen mass shootings at U.S. schools since 1999’s massacre at Columbine High School in Colorado, killing a total of 169 victims. How many more children must die while we accumulate facts?

@Jaxk The “Facts” are kill the children, while NRA collects money from all over including Russia through Canadian agents. They’ll be collecting facts at NRA when later this year; there is another mass shooting.

It reminds me of the song “The Ten Commandments” by the Dead Trousers.
“To save us, he sent his son,
but that one died in vain,
because nothing changed.
And every warning, every threat from heaven,
was ignored by the Lord’s flock”.

Just a couple of points. The door the shooter used was propped open giving the shooter access to those classrooms in direct contradiction of policy. Without that access the scenario would have played out much differently. The police waited for an hour before going in to stop the shooter. How many lives were lost in that hour?

I know everyone wants to jump on ‘Gun Control’ but how long would it take to actually get the guns off the streets? Especially with an open border allowing free access to both guns and drugs over the border. Gun control is not a quick fix and I doubt that it’s a fix at all.

More guns kill more kids !

NRA, “We’ll sell more next week than the first half of May !” ~ ~ ~

@Patty_Melt While the word “orphan” may conjure tiny children and not a 7th grader to you, that’s not what the word means, and to me seems particularly irrelevant to the question and the situation. (If interested, furthermore q.v. https://www.joincake.com/blog/adult-orphan/ .)

My point was, the mention of orphan is irrelevant. The fact that those kids lost both parents, we can only attribute one death in that family to the shooter. The father likely had a prior condition which caused his death, and the timing an unfortunate coincidence.
Age of said orphans does play into future, and how well prepared they were for adult life compared to children much younger who lose both parents.
Their personal pain of loss is not very different, but their benefit of parenting skills is greater than that of say, a seven year old.
My whole reason for pointing it out is that referring to them as orphans gives the impression that the shooter was responsible for orphaning them. That has not been determined as true, and even if it were true, is less of an effect on their futures than would be for much younger children. Emotion aside, there is less question of who shall raise them than if their ages were single digits.
To involve emotions, can we, as not directly involved, determine their sense of loss as being greater than that of any parent, sibling, or friend who lost someone that day?
And so, I continue to feel the use of the word orphan is meant only to conjure an image of somehow greater loss.
Both teachers were a loss. Both were deprived of their lives at the same time, in the same way.

Here is something I did with my daughter after a shooter scenario became a major topic in her school. I pointed out that teachers she thought of as jerks, or somehow less, go to school every day knowing they might have to sacrifice their life for her, and her classmates. She looked at them thereafter in a new light. They were suddenly someone who would make the ultimate sacrifice for her, and kids who disrespect teachers on a daily basis. She began to interact with them in a more respectful manner.
I have no intention for bringing it up. It is just a memory that surfaced.

@Patty_Melt In response to this question (“what do you think should or can be done to honor the lives of Irma Garcia and Eva Mireles?”), my answer was just one suggestion of something that occurred to me. I didn’t mean it as the only thing I thought should be done, and I only didn’t mention the other teacher’s family because I don’t know much about them. However it also occurs to me that all of the victims’ remaining families, especially if they are now parentless children, are often not particularly well supported, and may even be quite overlooked in the aftermath of a disastrous situation, and for that reason, I chose it as the thing I would mention.

Online donors have raised nearly $2.7 million to support the children of Irma Garcia.

Another hero I don’t want to forget is Angeli Gomez:

“Angeli Gomez, who personally entered Robb Elementary School and rescued her two children while cops did nothing outside, has now been threatened by law enforcement to stop telling her story publicly.”