On the 110th birthday of Adolf Hitler on April 20th, 1999, the most notorious school shooting in America occurred. Eric Harris and Dylan Kelbold shot and killed 12 of their peers as well as a teacher at Columbine high school in Littleton, Colorado. The tragic event sent shockwaves across America and lead to massive changes in public school safety. Serious discussions of having SROs (School Resource Officers) at every school and combating gun rights were some main takeaways people had after Columbine. These issues, however, were not the way shootings like Columbine could have been prevented.
In the article “Fueling a Contagion of Campus Bloodshed” by James Allen Fox, Fox argues that the response of both school administrators and the media can hurt more than help to prevent gun violence. Fox believes that the more we think and fear the more likely we make something happen. The media as described by Fox uses words that can be interpreted as an achievement or challenge to others wishing to do the same exact thing. Fox also explains how the school themselves are also at fault. Fox states that school administrators are putting much more focus on safety rather than education.
“The Connecticut legislation, passed last year, bans the sale of gun magazines with a capacity of more than 10 rounds, and requires background checks on owners who buy guns through private sales. It also expanded the kinds of guns included in the state’s assault weapon ban and created a $15 million fund to improve school security” (Gun Restrictions). Also the school have reinforced the safety not only by security but also by glass..bullet proof. “As communities and security committees have responded to this tragedy, many have advised ballistic reinforcement at the school entryway.
(b) pp. 28-29). In the article by Hodgins and Saliba (2015, pp.10-13), discuss the Columbine shootings and the reliance of first responders isolating and containing the scene, then waiting for Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) teams to arrive. They highlight that with this methodology, by the time SWAT arrived and entered the school, the two shooters had already killed three people and continued their indiscriminate shooting and killing an additional ten more people when police were already in attendance.
Adam looked up and saw the source of his agony sit down in a chair across the room. Adam grabbed the gun from his bag and took his aim, and pulled the trigger.¨ School violence is at an all time high. School shootings and other illegal activities are not uncommon in schools. Teachers currently are not armed, and can do very little to protect the students in their classroom. Teachers should be allowed to be armed during school hours, because they can protect their students, keep the school a safe place, and prevent other illegal activities.
Schools practice safety drills for emergencies, even though school shootings are very rare. While many may believe that teachers are the best protection, there is plenty of protection in the classroom in case of an
Such as counselors, therapist, and training for teachers to identify psychological problems in the classroom. The ability for students to utilize these services is a crucial element to respond to a school shooting emergency and prevention. • Provide funding for advanced security technology such as metal detectors at all entrances of school, security cameras placed inside and outside of school grounds. Also, requires a school resource officer on all campuses. • Congress and school officials should work together, creating policies requiring individual school and building safety plans, as well as district-wide safety plans that will serve as a guide to address the various safety needs in the school.
Resolutions are vehemently being sought to protect schools from possible attacks and to objectively eradicate deadly school shootings altogether. Commonly, security officers are placed in schools in hopes that increased surveillance will inhibit violent outbreaks (Crawford and Burns 2016). Mixed evaluations have been found in association with security officers, while some benefits reportedly transpire, experiences of disparaging consequences remain a regrettable reality as well (Crawford and Burns 2016). Additionally, active shooter drills routinely occur at schools across the nation, however, as Jillian Peterson and James Densley report in their CNN article titled, “The Usual Approach to School Security Isn’t Working,” studies indicate that
Over the past few weeks, arming teachers has been a controversial topic throughout the country. School shootings have taken the lives of many over the past few years, yet they are becoming more and more frequent. In today’s society children shouldn’t have to go to school worried if they are going to be safe that day. If teachers are armed it will add that extra bit of protection to the children. A big question is if arming teachers is even going to matter if an active shooter happens to be in that school.
Another mass shooting has recently taken place at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida. Tragically harming the most innocent members of our society, our children, it has left all of us in unbearable agony. Widespread media coverage followed suit as usual, yet such pointed attention apparently could not culminate in substantial dialogue. One mostly hears reactionary outcries right after each of these shocking events, calling out for urgent strengthening of hard security measures at hand without any reference to informed analysis supported by evidence. The proposal for arming teachers and staff as an emergency measure is definitely an example of this sort of reactionary approach, which does not leave much room for substantial dialogue based on comprehensive analysis.
Due to my passion to help stop gun violence, I decided to do project, on preparing an effective gun violence speech more specifically formulating a speech for President Barack Obama. In this month alone in the United States, we have had more than three counts of mass shooting and of October 21st 2015, there was also another mass shooting in the United States. With so many shooting and death totals, gun violence has because a novelty because everyone citizens, public and the media all have their versions or opinions to the current situation. With gun violence being widespread, there are numerous accesses to information’s regarding gun in general and due to numerous accesses to information’s, the interested party has accesses to either conduct or explore a research.
Implementation would be difficult because “considerations ranging from child learning and development factors, to implementation issues such as whether school districts could even possibly provide the quality and quantity of training necessary.” () To advocate to implementation of these method would not only be extremely difficult but not effective because every shooter situation would not be the same so the type of training would be very vague. In addition, it is unrealistic to expect 25 student to simultaneously attack the shooter at an split seconds notice with accuracy if he walks into the room unknowingly because even SWAT teams have to practice intensely for years to achieve that kind of reaction. () The implementation of these idea are just unrealistic and there are better procedure that can be instated to protect students without putting them in harm’s
It is a never ending cycle. I feel like the security on campus should be the ones that take care of these situations. Teachers should teach, and maybe learn some defense methods in case there are in a difficult situation someday. 3. I think that campus safety officers should be armed with a gun but should only use it in extreme situations.
This method allows the school to know and control who’s coming in and what they are doing. In conclusion, the shootings were a result of gun control issues, and because of this, my life is different than my parents’ lives were when they were kids. They were tragic events that impacted many and affected all of our lives. Even though these horrible events happen and many people are outraged about them, nothing seems to change.
Students today live their day-to-day lives in constant fear of what seems inevitable. The United States has one of the highests rates of school shootings in the world. Society has become so desensitized to these shootings that they are no longer shocked to hear about another school falling victim to it. Even when students take a stand against gun violence, the only solution offered to them is a proposition to arm teachers. However, bringing more guns into a school will only further deteriorate the situation.
