Michaela's Muses: Community children need our help

I just covered yet another vigil for a local kid that died. That is the third one in the last nine months.

I have to say I am very angry and grieved that this is what our young people are going through right now. I am a young person myself, and as a young adult, I am grateful I got through school unscathed by such violence.

I grew up in Rio Rancho, played at local parks, ate local food and graduated from Cleveland High School. During that entire time, I never had to mourn the loss of a classmate, a friend nor any teens in my family on this scale.

Friends died of cancer and suicide, but not murder. We had one shooting at Cleveland my senior year, Valentine’s Day. Luckily, no one was hurt. But mentally, the incident was not easy for us to deal with. I wonder what kind of support the shooter could have been receiving before the incident to avoid that escalation in the first place.

Though these recent incidents did not happen at schools, they might as well have, being on the front lawn of Rio Rancho.

In my time as a teen, we would hear about those kinds of things in other parts of the country and even the state, but never did I imagine that it would make its way to our community.

Now, it’s personal.

Rio Rancho is exceptional at coming together after these disasters happen. But I feel we can do more. Whether that’s focusing on mental health for our students or providing safe spaces locally or making sure every kid gets lunch, we can make a difference.

It also means calling out bad behavior when we see it. Students, parents and teachers need to be held accountable for wrongdoings toward kids and by kids.

I wanted to make sure someone spoke up for these kids. If I don’t, who will?

I see their faces after tragedies like Michael LaMotte’s murder, Owen Pagano’s boat accident and the unresolved murder of Adrian Maestas. Our teens are not OK. They are scared, sad and forced to grow up before they are ripe on the branches of life.

But these teens are not just victims; they are perpetrators. In LaMotte’s case, the alleged shooter is merely 18 years old, a kid with a gun.

It is disheartening to see that all parties in a murder are so young. It tells me that something is wrong with the kids. Something is wrong with society.

My question to the community is if our young people are resorting to such drastic measures to handle their problems, what are the adults doing? And how do we stop more kids from getting killed? What can we do that isn’t already being done?

To the families and friends of these young people, I am terribly sorry for your loss. I know words cannot bring your babies back, but I hope they at least give you some comfort knowing there are people paying attention, people who care.

It’s time to do better, people.