Nationwide, graduations are an opportunity to reflect and savor accomplishments and to brightly anticipate the future.

In the 24 hours it takes for this column to be written, edited, copy edited and uploaded to The Root and to end up on your phone, about 318 people across the United States will have been shot (in fact, the shooting at YouTube headquarters happened between writing my first and second drafts of this column). That’s just…

Following school shooting after school shooting after school shooting, a macabre fashion trend has emerged: bulletproof backpacks.

In the absence of the substantial gun reform advocated by students in Parkland, Fla., their school district will be installing a wholly different security measure: clear backpacks.

Updated Tuesday, March 20, 2018, 2:09 p.m. EDT: The gunman involved in the shooting that left two Maryland high schoolers injured early Tuesday morning has been identified as 17-year-old Austin Wyatt Rollins.

Today in “This is exactly why schools should be gun-free zones” news, a Seaside, Calif., teacher—who is also a reserve police officer, mind you—somehow accidentally fired a gun inside a local high school classroom on Tuesday, injuring three students.

No student at any age should go to school wondering if they’ll even walk back out. No child should already have a “will” prepared just in case they never return home from school.

I’m sorry. I was keeping an eye on Florida’s House of Representatives all day. House members passed a school-safety/gun control bill and sent it to the governor for his signature.

The Feb. 14 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., was one of the deadliest school shootings in modern American history. Seventeen people were killed and 15 injured.