Every parent realizes, at some point, that they alone can’t protect their child.
For me it was the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in 2012. I had a military assignment not far from there and our older daughter was still just crawling around in diapers. Our younger girl was soon to be born. The news coverage was so loud and penetrating it felt like it included gunshots. 20 kids and 6 staff, gone. So many families dropped their kids off and never picked them up.
Other reminders aren’t quite so stark but still leave their mark. Like minor medical emergencies at school. The gash in the head that required care from the fire department. Or the intervention of a kind stranger when a game of hide-and-seek went too far.
It takes a community – all of Manitou Springs – to protect our kids. And right now is the time to show that we take care of our youngest Manitoids by voting “Yes” on 4C.
In coming weeks local voters will receive a ballot. On that ballot will be an item listed as 4C, meant to fix school facilities that average 60 years old across Manitou Springs School District 14. After decades and decades of duct tape and band-aids – if this bond fails, our kids face unacceptable safety risks, failing roofs, and likely even lawsuits.
Those unacceptable risks include my own worst nightmare. Both Manitou Springs Middle School and the high school do not have modern secure entry systems or adequate security cameras that’ve become standard in the era of school shootings. Those aren’t nice-to-haves. They’re not luxury upgrades. They’re absolutely necessary.
Just last month there was another shooting in Evergreen, not far north of here. And the authorities in Uvalde, Texas, recently released a finding that one factor in that May 2022 shooting (which took 19 students and two teachers) was that the door the attacker used wasn’t working properly.
A door wasn’t working. That’s all it took. And the list of repairs at our Manitou schools is far longer than one bad door. It includes fire alarms panels that need updating, buses in need of replacement, facilities that kids in wheelchairs can’t use, and basically every building’s got a leaky roof.
But here’s the good news. You get to be the one who puts a stop to this. You get to be the one who doesn’t let one bad door be the reason for our community’s worst nightmare. You get to be the reason our kids never have to worry about a fire, that every kid feels able to participate fully at school, that learning doesn’t suffer from drips or a collapsed roof.
Because whether you’re a parent, a godparent, a grandparent, a cool aunt, a weird uncle, or maybe a Manitoid who sees this community as a larger form of family – we all need 4C to pass. Some things we must do together. And if there’s one thing Manitou Springs stands for, it’s community. It’s why my family’s chosen to be here. It’s likely why you chose to be here, too.
Put yourself, for a moment, in my mind. My two girls will be at the middle and high school next year. Those are the two schools that don’t yet have modern secure entry systems. If they were yours – if they were your everything – there’s no question how you’d vote.
You’d vote “yes” on 4C.
Now remember the hundreds of other families out there with the same worries.
Manitou isn’t Manitou without safe schools. Vote “yes” on 4C. Please.
Matt Cavanaugh is the proud parent of two kids in Manitou schools, the author of “Best Scar Wins: How You Can Be More Than You Were Before,” and likely soon to announce a challenge to Rep. Jeff Crank in Colorado’s Fifth Congressional District.
