Today, our community is holding its breath.
Just yesterday, on Saturday, December 13, 2025, a shooting at Brown University in Providence shook us to our core. Two students were killed, and nine others were wounded in the Barus & Holley engineering building. The incident has deeply affected families, classmates, and faculty — and has reverberated through our city as we struggle to make sense of violence in a place of learning and growth.
As I write this, authorities are continuing their investigation, and the community remains in shock and sorrow. For many of us who live and work in Providence, this tragedy is painfully close — a reminder that even here, in our neighborhoods, places of peace can become scenes of loss.
At the same time, today, December 14, marks another somber moment on the calendar — the 13th anniversary of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Newtown, Connecticut. On that morning in 2012, 20 first graders and six adults were killed in a senseless act of violence that shook the entire nation.
As a teacher…
Many mornings, we walk into bright, bustling classrooms filled with curiosity, laughter, and possibility. We plan lessons that nurture wonder and joy. We reassure and comfort, encourage and celebrate growth — big and small. When the world intrudes with violence, it feels like a betrayal of everything schools are meant to be.
Each year on this day, I pause with my students — at an age when some are just beginning to read and others are learning how to show up for each other — and we talk about kindness, safety, and community. We acknowledge that the world can be scary, and we remind one another why we work so hard to make school a safe, joyful place to grow.
As a mother…
My heart hurts today in ways words don’t capture. I think of my own children — navigating high school and college — and the fear that comes with loving young people in a world where news of shootings has become too familiar. My son and daughter are safe tonight, but I know many parents out there are exhausted by worry.
When a shooting happens — whether here in Providence or elsewhere — the weight of being a parent in America feels especially heavy. We want to protect our children, to hold a world together around them that feels secure, sacred, and full of promise.
What we carry forward
On Sandy Hook anniversaries, I remember the faces and names of the children and educators taken from us, and I honor the families who have carried unimaginable grief with courage and grace. Their voices, and the work of organizations born from that tragedy, continue to push for prevention, awareness, and safety, reminding us that collective action and compassion matter.
Today, in the midst of fresh pain from Brown University’s tragedy, we are reminded again that violence in educational spaces is not just distant news — it’s local, personal, and deeply real.
Hope in community
To families in Brown’s campus community, to students and teachers in Providence, and to every parent, educator, and child struggling with fear — you are not alone. May we hold each other, grieve together, and work relentlessly toward a safer, more compassionate world where every child, teenager, and young adult can learn without fear.
We reflect. We mourn. And we recommit — to love, safety, and community first. Find out how you can get involved here.
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