The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has urged governments to do more to ensure that boys and girls are safe in schools.
Following the latest deadly mass shooting in a school in the United States, UNICEF’s executive director Catherine Russell made the call on Wednesday.
On Tuesday, an 18-year-old gunman named Salvador Ramos attacked Robb Elementary School in the small town of Uvalde, Texas, near the Mexican border, killing 19 children and two teachers.
This year has already seen “horrific attacks” on schools in Afghanistan, Ukraine, the United States, West Africa, and elsewhere, according to Ms Russell.
“Tragedy follows tragedy, shootings follow shootings, and young lives follow young lives. How many more children will perish before government officials take action to protect children and their schools? “Until they do,” she said in a statement, “these horrors will continue.”
Ms Russell emphasized that school is the one place where children should feel safe outside of their homes, and that many more children, teachers, and school staff who witnessed the carnage would suffer emotional and psychological scars for the rest of their lives.