Just the other day I was reminded that May marks the anniversary of one of the saddest trending tweets in Twitter history. The reminder was a photo posted on Instagram of a girl holding a cardboard sign. The girl looked to be 13 or 14 years old. The sign read: If I die in a school shooting, leave my body on the steps of Congress.
#IfIDieInASchoolShooting was first tweeted a year ago, after 22 school shootings up to that point in 2018. Number 22 happened at Santa Fe High School in Texas on May 18, 2018, just a few months after the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, FL, when a gunman killed 17 students and staff members and injured 17 others.
At Santa Fe, 10 people—eight students and two teachers—were fatally shot. Thirteen more were wounded.
As we mark the first anniversary of #IfIDieInASchoolShooting, the “statistics” have climbed. Eight school shootings have taken place on high school or college campuses in 2019 through the month of May. So far.
In a piece on the trending hashtag written by India Pougher for ELLE Magazine four days after the Santa Fe shooting, she wrote, “Students began tweeting…and sharing the things they would miss out on if their lives were taken too soon. The answers range from leaving their loved ones behind to never graduating college and never getting married.”
Here are some of the tweets:
#IfIDieInASchoolShooting:
#IfIDieInASchoolShooting
Prop my casket up in front of the White House.— Scott M. trump did nothing for 187 Minutes (@scottf6f) May 27, 2018
Prop up my casket in front of the White House — @scottf6f
https://twitter.com/2muchisntenough/status/1000473790579658752
I want to be buried next to my best friend — @2muchisntenough
https://twitter.com/ardenneastonn/status/1000141835732385792
Make sure I am the last to do so — @ardenneastonn
The hashtag #IfIDieInASchoolShooting is a sad reality for America
— froggy prince (@tiatameraa) May 22, 2018
Is a sad reality for America — @tiatameraa
#IfIDieInASchoolShooting please make school shootings die with me
— MDS (@madhavids) May 28, 2018
Please make school shootings die with me — @madhavids
#IfIDieInASchoolShooting don't release pictures of my smiling face. release pictures of my bloody dead corpse to show what school shootings really are. politicize my death
— Hailey Crosby (@hmc823) May 31, 2018
Don’t release pictures of my smiling face. Release pictures of my bloody dead corpse to show what school shootings really are. Politicize my death — @hmc823
#IfIdieInASchoolShooting then I’ll never get to publish my book, celebrate my sweet 16, get married, or see my children grow to be wonderful people.
— Cas 🐝 (@casforchange) May 20, 2018
I’ll never get to publish my book, celebrate my sweet 16, get married, or see my children grow to be wonderful people — @casforachange
#IfIDieInASchoolShooting then my parents would have outlived their only child.
— Estef (@estef_hent) May 20, 2018
Then my parents would have outlived their only child — @estef4change
#IfIDieInASchoolShooting protect my little sister so she can stop “learning to hide from the bad guy”
— ✨Angel✨ (@Akobaly19) May 21, 2018
Protect my little sister so she can stop “learning to hide from the bad guy” — @robinisme16
https://twitter.com/jaxonomara/status/998302451156639745
My 8 younger siblings will have to grow up without their oldest sister, i’ll never graduate high school or college, i’ll never get to work in dc like i’ve wanted to since i was young, i’ll never get to create change — @jaxonomara
#IfIDieInASchoolShooting
My dogs would be left wondering why I never came home.
My internet friends would be clueless
I wouldn’t achieve my dream
If I die in a school-shooting the government won’t do anything to prevent another— Tābī (@h20parx) May 23, 2018
My dogs would be left wondering why I never came home. My internet friends would be clueless. I wouldn’t achieve my dream. If I die in a school-shooting the government won’t do anything to prevent another — @TAKENBYDEMA
#IfIDieInASchoolShooting I will never become a nurse and fulfill my dream of helping children, teenagers, and young adults. My passion for wanting to save lives will die with me.
— Hails (@beachwonders) May 25, 2018
I will never become a nurse and fulfill my dream of helping children, teenagers, and young adults. My passion for wanting to save lives will die with me — @beachwonders
One adult saved me the trouble of writing a conclusion, when he tweeted:
#IfIDieInASchoolShooting
This is the saddest hashtag I’ve ever read. https://t.co/1a055EVhgS— Steven Beschloss (@StevenBeschloss) May 22, 2018
If I Die In A School Shooting is the saddest hashtag I’ve ever read — @StevenBeschloss
Andrew Malekoff is the executive director of North Shore Child & Family Guidance Center, which provides comprehensive mental health services for children from birth through 24 and their families. To find out more, visit www.northshorechildguidance.org or call 516-626-1971.
