CHARDON, Ohio — We've seen the scenes before: Exteriors of a school following a deadly shooting, people being unified with their loved ones, and then the stories of victims and people like Coach Frank Hall.
A decade ago, Hall stood up to Chardon's shooter. Now, he's processing yet another school shooting.
"Right now, it's anger," Hall said of Tuesday's massacre at a Texas elementary school that took the lives of 21 people, including 19 young children. "You think about these things over and over again and we go to the same thing of doing nothing. In Washington tonight, one side is saying 'Thoughts and prayers' and the other side is saying 'That's not enough!' and that's it. Nothing else happens."
Hall has spent the last 10 years of his life speaking about school safety, trying to get anyone who has the power to create change to listen. His message is clear: He wants more school resource officers.
"First and foremost, [an] SRO needs to be in every school in your district, especially an elementary school. We forget how vulnerable our little kids are," he told 3News. "Secondly, if you're not addressing mental health in our schools, then shame on you."
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Hall is not immune to the emotions that come as soon as another report comes out—another school targeted, another press conference sharing the toll—so he tries to busy himself as long as he can. Eventually, he has to acknowledge it happened again.
"Tonight, I'm going to pray, I'm going to ask God to give me guidance, and I'm going to cry and I'm going to be heartbroken tonight," he said. "I can't imagine what the families of the victims [of Chardon's shooting] that we had here—Danny, Demetrius, and Russell—and what they're going to go through tonight knowing what happened down there."
Hall added he believes making schools safe should be this nation's No. 1 priority. When I asked about what his advice is for the survivors in Texas tonight, he said to keep fighting and advocating for those who were lost today.