譯/李京倫
德州槍擊案後 美國哪兒才安全
Late Tuesday night, Luz Belliard sat on the edge of her bed in upper Manhattan in the room she shares with her 9-year-old granddaughter, Victoria, and thought about what to say.
周二深夜，紐約曼哈頓上城的盧絲．貝利亞德在她與9歲孫女維多利亞同住的房間內，坐在自己床邊，想著要說什麼。
Victoria, a third grader, was sitting on her own bed, which was covered in stuffed animals; she had already seen on the evening news that children her age had been killed in a mass shooting at a school in Texas.
三年級的維多利亞坐在自己擺滿毛絨玩具的床上。她已經在晚間新聞看到德州一所學校跟她同齡的孩子在一場大規模槍擊案中遇害。
Now, Belliard had to consider just what she would tell Victoria on their walk to school the next morning: Listen to your teachers. Get down on the floor. Remember the drills you do in class.
現在，貝利亞德必須思考隔天早上帶維多利亞走路去上學時要告訴她什麼：聽老師的話。趴在地上。回想你在課堂演練過的。
"She's young, but she understands — sometimes too much," Belliard said Wednesday outside Victoria's school in Washington Heights. "To take your child to school and then come back to see them dead, it's not fair. It should not be that way."
貝利亞德周三在維多利亞位於華盛頓高地的學校外說：「她很小，但她懂，有時懂太多了。把孩子帶到學校，然後回來時看到他們死了，這不公平。不該這樣。」
Victoria was standing at her grandmother's side.
維多利亞站在祖母身旁。
"It's sad that a lot of children died that way. Those children had a big life ahead of them," the girl said. "When I hear that kind of stuff it makes me scared."
她說：「很多小孩那樣死了，我很難過。他們以後的人生還很長。聽到那種事，我覺得好怕。」
In New York and across the country Wednesday, children, parents and caregivers grappled with the aftermath of the deadly shooting in Uvalde, Texas, where an 18-year-old gunman killed 19 children and two teachers before being shot dead by authorities.
紐約和全美各地的兒童、父母和照顧者，周三設法應對德州烏瓦德鎮槍擊血案的餘波。在這件案子中，一名18歲槍手殺害19名兒童和兩名老師後，被當局擊斃。
They hugged their children a little tighter and lingered a little longer at drop-off. They could imagine too easily a gunman bursting into their own child's classroom. And they were once again faced with a haunting question: Is there anywhere in America where schoolchildren can truly be safe?
他們開車送小孩到校時，把小孩抱更緊一點，且停留更久一點。他們太容易就能想像槍手闖入自己小孩教室的場景。而他們再次面臨縈繞心頭的問題：美國究竟還有哪裡的學童真正安全？
Some schools around the country took extra precautions in the wake of the shooting. Schools in Texas and Florida banned backpacks from buildings Wednesday. Officials in states including Georgia and Virginia sent extra officers to schools as a precaution. In New York City, home to the nation's largest school system, officials are considering ways to tighten security, including locking school doors after children have arrived for the day.
美國各地一些學校在這起槍擊案發生後採取額外預防措施。德州與佛州的學校周三起禁止攜帶背包進入校舍。喬治亞與維吉尼亞等數州官員派出額外警力到校以防萬一。在擁有美國最大學校體系的紐約市，官員正在考慮加強安全措施，包括在當天兒童到校後鎖上校門。
The shooting has cast a somber tone over the final days and weeks of the school year.
這起槍擊案為這學年最後幾天和幾周蒙上嚴肅氣氛。
"Sometimes I don't know what to say publicly," Deborah Gist, superintendent of schools in Tulsa, Oklahoma, wrote in a Facebook post. "I feel a huge responsibility to use the right words. How, though, do I express the horror, outrage, frustration, disappointment, pain, and fear that an event like the shooting in Uvalde brings? It is a parent's, a teacher's, a principal's, and a superintendent's worst nightmare."
奧克拉荷馬州土爾沙教育局長黛博拉．吉斯特在臉書發文說：「有時候我不知道能公開說什麼。我覺得我有巨大責任要去使用正確字眼。不過，我要如何表達烏瓦德鎮槍擊案這類事件帶來的恐怖、憤慨、沮喪、失望、痛苦與懼怕？這是父母、老師、校長和教育局長最糟的夢魘。」
