When the Next School Shooting Is Always One School Day Away

Being a parent in America is terrifying

Jacqueline Dooley
GEN
Published in
7 min readFeb 19, 2022

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Text from my daughter during what turned out to be a false lockdown alarm on 1/12/22

I live in America where there are many things to worry about when it comes to my teenage daughter’s safety. I endure a daily buzz of intrusive thoughts about bullying and drug use and depression, all of which can end the life of a child.

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Jacqueline Dooley
GEN
Writer for

Essayist, content writer, bereaved parent. Bylines: Human Parts, GEN, Marker, OneZero, Washington Post, Al Jazeera, Pulse, HuffPost, Longreads, Modern Loss