The following statement is from Superintendent Tom Ahart in response to yesterday’s tragic mass murder of students in Broward County, Florida:

Superintendent Ahart: “We have to do more than hurt for students, colleagues and families caught up in this repeated school violence that doesn’t plague peer nations around the world.”

Across Des Moines Public Schools, our hearts are heavy as we stand with the Broward County community in the wake of yesterday’s loss of lives to violence on a school campus yet again. Our district has served side-by-side with Broward County Public Schools on the Council of Great City Schools as well as the Wallace Foundation principal leadership project for several years. I can only imagine what my colleague Superintendent Robert Runcie is going through right now.

But we have to do more than hurt for students, colleagues and families caught up in this repeated school violence that doesn’t plague peer nations around the world. We have to do more to both protect the lives of our children and support the emotional, social and mental health of students. As a district, a state and nation, we must work together to support our hopes for children’s safety and security with corresponding action today.

DMPS and school districts across the nation invest a tremendous amount of time and resources working to keep students and staff safe, but until politicians develop the courage to actually do something about the kind of gun violence that only seems to happen in our country, what we do will never be enough.