NVN Monday: AFTER THE SHOOTINGS

by Karen Marker

Hundreds of students walked off Oakland’s Skyline High School campus on Tuesday [November 18], calling for the school and district to do more to counter gun violence. They say the Oakland Unified School District needs to provide more education and better support for students who don’t feel safe on campus after shootings at two Oakland schools last week. Last Wednesday [November 12], a Skyline student was shot during the school day, and two other young people were arrested in connection with the altercation. Just a day later, Oakland’s beloved Laney College Athletic Director John Beam was shot and killed on the junior college campus. Beam, who was featured on the final season of Netflix’s docuseries Last Chance U while he was coaching the Laney Eagles, began his Oakland career at Skyline, leading the school’s football team to 15 championships over 17 years, according to OUSD Superintendent Denise Saddler. (Photo: Gustavo Hernandez/KQED) —KQED, November 18, 2025

*

I admit I am glad 
it’s no longer my job 
to be called out in a crisis—
part of the Response Team
at Skyline High, first to gather 
students together after 
the shooting, sit them 
in a circle so they can share 
feelings of shock 
between waves of grief 
and anger, between questions
about how much damage 
a ghost gun can do, 
how impossible 
to trace all this 
back to the beginnings
of neglected cries for help 
and so much hunger—
what was said on social media
no one warned about
those who knew the shooter
the student shot
the football coach
shot by a former student—
all those wondering 
where did we go wrong
how do we make our schools 
and city free of violence
would more mental health services 
solve the problems? For so many years 
I was out in the field offering solace, 
seeking solutions but tonight 
with no moon I’m seeing only the shooting 
of a star—the icon, hero coach 
is gone and all this
against the backdrop of news 
alerts from NextDoor 
please people be safe—
badgeless masked ICE agents, 
like ghost guns 
impossible to trace
are now active in neighborhoods 
all over the city we love
while I’m still reeling.

*

Karen Marker is an Oakland, CA. poet activist and retired school psychologist who has committed to writing a poem a day of protest and hope in response to current events. Her first poetry book Beneath the Blue Umbrella came out recently with Finishing Line Press and explores family mental illness, stigma and healing.