Readers Write: Abundant Life Christian School shooting, Minneapolis budget, Great Lakes cleanup

Opinion editor’s note: Strib Voices publishes letters from readers online and in print each day. To contribute, click here.

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Another school shooting. As I sit here, watching the news unfold, listening to reporters dissect the details of yet another tragedy, I feel the weight of it all — pain, fear, anger, disbelief. It’s a scene we’ve witnessed far too often, and yet, we seem to remain trapped in a cycle of shock and reaction. The cameras linger on the aftermath: broken families, shattered schools and communities left scrambling for answers. And somewhere amid the noise and confusion lies a truth too unsettling to face: that a 15-year-old girl, so lost, so broken, felt there was no other way to express her rage and despair.

What happened to her? How did a child become so disconnected, so isolated, so full of hurt and anger that the unthinkable became her choice? In these moments, we focus on the surface, on the “what” and “how,” but we rarely ask the more profound question: Why? Why are so many of our kids struggling with crippling isolation, social anxiety and despair? And more importantly, why do we continue to stand by, wringing our hands, rather than taking action to prevent these tragedies?

We cannot afford to ignore the truth anymore. Our children are drowning — emotionally, socially and mentally — and we’re standing on the shore, reacting only when they go under. This has to change. We need to stop putting Band-Aids on wounds that require fundamental healing. We need to be proactive. We need to address what’s broken in our schools, our homes and our communities.

Our children are not born disconnected. From the time of conception, the stresses of life — of fractured families, of overwhelmed parents, of economic pressure —seep into their world. They grow up in homes where adults are anxious, exhausted and disconnected. They enter classrooms focused on test scores and rules but void of meaningful human connection. And they live in communities where genuine relationships have been replaced by screen time and superficial exchanges.

We must face a difficult reality: Our children are not learning what it means to connect, to belong, to feel seen and supported. Social skills cannot be taught through lectures. Kids need real, lived experiences — they need opportunities to build friendships, to understand empathy and to feel part of something bigger than themselves. Without this, they become isolated. When disconnection festers, tragedy isn’t far behind. We need to rebuild what has been lost. This means more than just reactive measures like metal detectors, safety drills and counseling after the fact. Those things are stopgaps. Necessary, yes, but temporary. What we need is something deeper. Something transformational. We need to rethink how we raise, teach and nurture our children.

Every shooting brings back the tears, the grief, the anger, the frustration we lived through with our students, families and the community following the 2003 ROCORI High School shooting ... memories of sitting with John Jason McLaughlin in the detention center, his life of isolation etched into my soul, and my unwavering promise to him that I would do everything in my power to prevent another child from enduring that same unbearable loneliness.

Jerry Sparby, Cold Spring, Minn.

The writer is executive director of HuddlUp, a nonprofit focused on improving student mental health, and was principal of Cold Spring Elementary School in 2003 when freshman McLaughlin shot and killed two of his classmates at the adjoining ROCORI High School.

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I can understand why the Madison police chief told reporters that, after the shooting at Abundant Life Christian School, “identifying a motive is our top priority.” That’s what the public’s knee-jerk response is after any shooting. We might think we could fix what went wrong, and prevent the next school or office or nightclub or mall shooting.

However, when at least 86% of the weapons used in school shootings come from the homes of friends, relatives or parents, as the sidebar in Wednesday’s article reported (”Police still searching for motive in Wisconsin school shooting,” front page), maybe the higher priority ought to be figuring out how those weapons were made available to the shooters. Why were they and the necessary ammo not safely and securely stored where children could not have access?

St. Paul has a safe and secure storage law. The Minnesota House of Representatives passed such a bill last year. Moms Demand Action in St. Paul, a local chapter of Everytown for Gun Safety, heavily lobbied for both. They are not interested in gun control but in responsible gun ownership. It’s well past time to make that a priority for all gun owners.

Glen N. Herrington-Hall, St. Paul

A Dec. 17 letter published by the Minnesota Star Tribune titled “Take public safety seriously” was inaccurate and directly contradicted the Star Tribune’s own reporting, to which the letter was responding. While I appreciate the correction the next day, there is clearly misinformation circulating about the city’s budget, and it is important that residents understand the ways in which the City Council invested in public safety.

As of October 2024, the Minneapolis Police Department has a backlog of over 5,000 assigned unsolved cases. The MPD clearly needs increased capacity for investigations, and the ability to hire more investigators was touted as a key reform in the new police contract that was supposed to justify the $9 million price tag for taxpayers. Yet Mayor Jacob Frey proposed adding only two investigators in 2025.

I amended the budget to reprioritize $631,000 to hire five additional full-time civilian investigators. This investment means more victims of crimes will get the answers and closure they deserve. These new investigators will focus on five priority areas: homicide, domestic violence, sex crimes, crimes against children and juvenile crimes.

Robust debate about different approaches to the challenges we face as a city is a sign of a healthy democracy. But misinformation makes it harder for everyone to find solutions. I hope the Star Tribune is more careful in future editorial choices regarding City Council’s leadership on public safety.

Robin Wonsley, Minneapolis

The writer is a member of the Minneapolis City Council representing Ward 2.

On behalf of the Minnesota Environmental Partnership, I’d like to extend a huge thank-you to the members of Minnesota’s congressional delegation who have worked to advance the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative Act of 2024 (GLRI). Sens. Amy Klobuchar and Tina Smith, along with Reps. Angie Craig and Pete Stauber, have done our state proud by sponsoring this legislation, which has recently passed in the U.S. Senate and now awaits final action in the House.

As highlighted in a Dec. 8 column by Jill Burcum (“A bipartisan push for Great Lakes cleanup”), the GLRI, which has operated since 2010, is one of our nation’s great bipartisan environmental success stories. GLRI funds have supported cleanups, habitat restoration and research in what was the heavily polluted St. Louis River estuary and Duluth Superior harbor and all along Minnesota’s North Shore. These projects are improving our water quality, supporting the fight against invasive species, providing a major boost for tourism and making our communities healthier. They deliver big economic benefits — one study shows that every dollar spent by the GLRI has generated about four dollars worth of economic activity in our Great Lakes communities.

In this time of partisan tension, this program is one that lawmakers on both sides of the aisle — including Vice President-elect JD Vance, a cosponsor of the bill — can agree on. We hope to see the House do its part to pass this important legislation before Congress adjourns for the year. Minnesota needs this to keep up the good work of restoring and enhancing our Greatest Lake.

Steve Morse, St. Paul

The writer is executive director of the Minnesota Environmental Partnership.