Statement on Nashville, Tennessee School Shooting

Our Education Trust Tennessee team mourns the loss of life following the senseless tragedy at the Covenant School in Nashville yesterday. We share a profound sense of grief with the Covenant School family. They have lost so much. We join parents, teachers and Tennesseans from all corners of our state, whose hearts are broken, and who are with them in spirit as they grapple with what is to come. 

Our hearts are also with our Nashville-based partners in the Tennessee Alliance for Equity in Education, who have many connections to the Covenant School community. Together, we share a sense of loss and we commit to honor the memories of the children and staff at the Covenant School in the days to come.  

This senseless shooting reminds us that while we can’t stop every act of violence, we can do more to prevent it. Gun violence recently surpassed car accidents as the leading cause of death for children in America, and the same is true in Tennessee, making us an outlier around the world. Students should not have to fear school shootings, and parents should be able to drop their children at school and have every expectation to see them at the end of the day.

Changing our current reality requires us to be smart and courageous, to challenge ourselves to address the roots of violence in our schools and communities, and to enact common sense gun laws that are widely supported. We owe it to the Covenant School community, and to all of our children and families, to do everything possible so that we can live in safe communities and attend safe schools, free from gun violence.