Empty platitudes are all they have to offer. What are they supposed to do? Lie and say it'll never happen again? Lie and say they have the power to prevent it?

Empty platitudes are all they have to offer. What are they supposed to do? Lie and say it'll never happen again? Lie and say they have the power to prevent it? Or to effect meaningful change? Tell the truth that the students in fact are at risk and there's nothing anyone at the university can actually do to prevent it? The futility of the whole situation has resulted in a culture of ceremony around the devastation as a way to cope. Now that people have violated the coping ceremony, we're mad at them. But why? Because we are powerful enough to at least scold them in an attempt to preserve the coping ceremony. But they're not the ones shooting people. They're not the ones directing policy that causes mass shootings. Instead, we need to direct all that anger to changing the situation such that they never are put in a position of writing letters about shotting victims. Instead of smugly stating they are worthless people because their jobs can be replaced by a chatbot, we should question why it is the case that someone's job is to write condolence letters after shootings. Why aren't we mad that's an acceptable job function in the US? The solution students are looking for is not more empathy toward shooting victims, it's fewer shooting victims in the first place!