After Monday’s tragic shooting at The Covenant School in Nashville, Tennessee, Georgia Tech football coach Brent Key delivered an emotional speech that encouraged change within the system.
Earlier this week, a shooting occurred at The Covenant School in Nashville which resulted in the deaths of Hallie Scruggs, 9; Evelyn Dieckhous, 9; William Kinney, 9; Katherine Koonce, 60; Mike Hill, 61; and Cynthia “Cindy” Broyles Peak, 61. The shooter was shot dead by police at the scene and was a former attendee of the private Christian elementary school.
Explaining that his mother was a third-grade teacher and his own 4-year-old daughter began attending school, Key feels particularly passionate about ensuring a school’s safety. “It’s the most heartbreaking thing in the world to think about your daughter going to school,” he said during a press conference. “She’s supposed to be safe and protected. It’s [expletive], man, it is.”
Key also noted his ability to reach media outlets may serve as a persuasion tactic. “I have a chance to stand up here and be in front of a camera, and if one person hears me say that, and agrees and does something to help force a change and something to happen, and a thousand other people say something negative about it, I don’t care,” he explained. “Because it worked.”
Continuing, he further emphasized a need for change in order to prevent tragedies like The Covenant School mass shooting from happening.
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Brent Key says ‘more kids are going to die’ if a solution isn’t made
Key added, “If this one thing I say helps somebody else have the guts to stand up and say something, then maybe somebody will have the guts to stand up and do something. Then maybe something will happen.”
He concluded his moving speech with the sentiments, “As long as people sit up there and bicker and argue, more and more kids are going to die, ’cause it hasn’t changed… So something’s gotta change. Everybody please, do something.”
In addition to Key, Georgia Tech associate athletic director Mike Flynn also publicly spoke of the national tragedy. Lending support to his fellow coach, Flynn wrote on Twitter, “I’ve never made a political social media post in my life, and I’m 100% comfortable posting this. It’s not political. I’m posting it because my wife is a teacher. And because we have 2 school-aged kids. And because I’m proud to work with @CoachBrentKey and call him a friend.”
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