Another inconceivable nightmare: Former student opens fire at a public school, killing 17, or 26, or 11, or? Immediately, there is hue and cry to regulate firearms and/or the mentally ill. The opposing camps lob circular arguments at each other. On one side are the powerful gun lobby and the gun hobbyists who alternately argue that MORE guns would solve the problem – not fewer and that it is really a mental health issue. On the other side are the millions of us who posit the notion that if weapons were less available, fewer of them would be used to harm self and others.
What is different about the Valentine’s Day massacre of 2018 is an army of grieving children who are leading the charge to DO SOMETHING about the availability of weapons. If your child hits someone with a stick, you do not blame the stick – but you do take it away so it won’t be used again. Unlike most politicians in DC, no one owns the kids and they are intelligent, articulate, impassioned, and goal-oriented. Although Parkland’s slogan is “Never Again,” and they have inspired hundreds of thousands of young people to join them in marches, walkouts, lay-ins, and social media organizing, all the evidence points to another tragedy taking place within a week or two, eclipsing their efforts. After all, there have been several school shootings in 2018 so far and the year is just seven weeks along.
In the middle is a tiny voice asking, “What do we do about the Lost Boys? These left out, isolated, fatherless, and bullied boys are overwhelmingly the perpetrators of these tragedies and they return to the places of their torment to exact a bloody revenge. How do we intervene before these young males too easily access a weapon of mass destruction?”
Let the large and vibrant tea community get involved! I propose tea partnerships, starting in elementary school. By identifying those at risk and pairing them with peers who are social leaders in each cohort, we tea geeks can assist school personnel by sponsoring small tea parties where the children learn about tea and each other. Cooperative games, group responsibility, a buddy system and regular check-ins would create a community of youngsters crazy about tea and part of something bigger.
Don’t arm teachers with Glocks – arm them with teapots!
Photo “tea set” is copyright under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic License to the photographer “Yong . L” and is being posted unaltered (source)
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Brillant idea Regena. I think you have a terrific idea. You started a tea club in Hood River High School years ago and it was a tremendous success.
i think this has some merit to be honest, one of the best parts of a tea club is that the membership doesn’t need to be tea geeks themselves, they just need mouths.
When Regena started the tea club, it was amazing to see kids from all different social groups – football players drinking tea along with math kids. It was wonderful, with a waiting list to attend.
Tea is just about the most egalitarian beverage on the planet. I have enjoyed Red Rose tea bags – which are made of lower quality fannings – and I have enjoyed very pricey pu’erhs and oolongs. I would like to see that spectrum in the groups at school tea parties. It takes the spirituality of tea to another dimension when the “popular” kids invite someone from outside their typical group and learn about them while sipping tea. We can do this.
I was bullied a great deal during my pre-teen years, though had the good fortune of moving to a new school when I was 15. All the same, having gone through that experience gave me a high amount of empathy for teens who are feeling so lost, so overwhelmed, so betrayed by those who are supposed to be their peers.
I can’t even imagine how much something like this would help, especially if it started at a young age. To feel that one belongs, that they’re part of something, welcomed, appreciated. But also acquiring knowledge and culture. I love every part of it!