The Pros And Cons Of Columbine High School

Nineteen years ago, in Littleton, Colorado gunshots rang through the halls of Columbine High School; thirteen innocent lives were stolen that day, and twenty-one others left injured (“Columbine shooting”). Despite the brutality that broke every Americans’ heart, the horrific incident was not the last of its kind. In fact, over the years, at least another twenty-four fatal mass-shootings occurred in K-12 schools across the country (Smith). Surprisingly, the traumatic events have caused an underwhelming amount of change in this country and its schools, but it commands drastic transformation. As recent as February 14, 2018, a traditional day of love, students and their teachers ran for their lives as 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz stormed the campus

The mere presence of a school counselor on campus does not satisfy the need for recognizing a potential threat and applying all resources available to mitigate a problem before it arises. By establishing new protocols and practices, all teachers and all school staff (at all levels) shall undergo thorough training to recognize early warning signs. Furthermore, every individual that steps foot on a school campus will have access to and know where to find a variety of resources to escalate a potential matter. By all means, the school janitor and the cafeteria chef will be capable of adequately addressing troubled teens that pose a threat to others. Moreover, simply expelling a disturbed student rather than seeking help for a broken child is not the answer. Too often all the red flags are present, yet schools find it easier to remove the issue as opposed to fixing it. Arguably, schools do not possess the capacity in their budgets for said resources. With the surge of budget cuts, this is understandable. However, the lives of this nation’s next generation bear no price tag and no one person can tackle the magnitude of this daunting existence alone. It requires the action of those in power, such as Congress and the School Board of Directors to develop a fine-tuned system to disseminate throughout the education

Dejectedly, the present system only takes into consideration court orders and involuntary admittance to a behavioral health facility. Voluntary admissions, certain mental health disorders, and psychiatric evaluations that are not mandated by a court order fail to trigger alarms in a background check (Jansen and Murphy). Consequently, guns aimlessly wind up in the hands of the mentally unstable. Any psychiatrist, psychologist, counselor, therapist, or mentor should be required to report specific mental disorders and threats to society in a federal database searchable by any licensed gun dealer across the country. To take it one step further, and due to the overwhelming pressure and responsibility already looming over Congress, perhaps an administrative agency could be established to oversee the gun purchasing process in conjunction with the potential buyers’ mental health. Said agency could review, investigate, and make educated decisions before guns are wrongfully placed in possession of a future school shooter. Contrarily, not everyone seeking therapy or psychiatric help is mentally unstable or unfit to own a gun. Furthermore, Americans are passionate, to say the least, about their Constitutional Second Amendment rights to keep and bear arms. Nonetheless, when sanity is impaired, a secondary form of judgment is vital and undoubtedly warrants the intervention of