In 2018 alone, there were 82 school shootings around the world, in today’s society as dishearting as it may sound school shootings have become more and more abundant. There have been many cases around the world causing students to be scared to attend school and arising fear in many faculty and staff to attend work. Many times the shooters typically try to target a specific person or persons, or their goal is to just cause mass hysteria among all of whom attend the facilities. Creating an anxiety-filled environment, it almost seems as if every day there is another headline about a school shooting. Approximately 311 deaths have occurred because of school shootings(The K-12 School Shooting Statistics Everyone Should Know), that’s not even counting injuries Many people react to these devastating situations differently and among the people, some have taken action in regards to making school safer for everyone that attends. School shooting numbers have risen. Schools aren’t as safe as they should be shootings numbers are at a high.
There have been school shootings that have happened all around the world and different time periods causing mass chaos among those affected and that of those that are sympathetic for persons involved in these tragic events. It has seemed that the numbers have been rising “2018 had the greatest number of incidents since 1970, with 82 recorded incidents. The next highest year was 2006 with 59 incidents” (The K-12 School Shooting Statistics Everyone Should Know).Thus showing that since 1970 these horrific events have begun increasing a major problem in our society and our global school’s safety efforts. Since 1970 there have been about 1300 shootings on or around school property including afterschool events and other meetings(The K-12 School Shooting Statistics Everyone Should Know). This is crazy to think about due to the fact that school is a place for students to learn and to help achieve their goals in life, not to sit in the classroom anxiety-filled hoping that the code red alarm doesn't go off. The sad thing about that is how much society as a whole has changed for better and for worse. In-classroom today more often than before there are lockdown drills and practice barricading the door at least once a month, in fact, we had to carry out these tasks. Along with getting us prepared for the worst possible scenario it also can strike fear among the youth and alter their outlooks on society. But at least it’s a step in the right direction for the safety of everyone at schools.
Some schools are trying to and apply their best efforts to protect not only the students but faculty and staff as well. For example, schools in Georgia are trying to improve their overall school security as stated by Bibb County Schools Chief of Staff Keith Simmons “ We want to be able to use those funds to improve safety and security at the school, but I don't want to have to spend $50,000 to use $30,000” elaborating on that they are trying to push for a safer environment for those that attend those facilities. He is showing that in order to get the money approved for use to make the schools safer he would have to spend near $20,000 which is incredible on the government's part. The government seems to be an advocate for safe schools yet they are making it harder for people, like Keith Simmons to take action on the schools' behalf and make a safer environment for all that attend. All in all, schools are already pretty safe but just like the world around us, they seem to be always changing sometimes for the good and sometimes for the bad. According to SCHOOL SHOOTINGS What We Know, What We Can Do “implementing threat assessment as common practice” can increase the overall safety of the school over internal attacks it can also provide the school with more insight about its students. If making schools as safe as possible was easy this type of stuff wouldn’t happen.
Even after works of schools they still aren’t a complete lockdown like a prison because the so-called attacker can be inside the whole time during lockdowns and through all the precautionary steps taken by the school. They would be able to see the whole “defense plan” from the inside and determine how they are going to carry out their morbid plan. Whereas having the lockdown drills would hinder or compromise the safety of other students. As stated in SCHOOL SHOOTINGS What We Know, What We Can Do “School shootings are difficult to predict, but educators aren’t powerless to prevent such tragedies” their are many tell-tell signs to have more insight in the way to predict who will carry out these tragedies by just having instructors paying closer attention to there students mental health/ mental disorders and or their behavior taking a shift to a more aggressive and depressed outlook on life. Even though accurately predicting the exact day and type of attack on the school is not in the realm of possibility, having teachers attend a type of class where behavioral study is taught would be a step in the right direction it wouldn’t eliminate the problem. Some teachers don’t fully care about there job as well and are just chasing there chack and couldn’t care less about background monitoring their students' behavioral changes for the betterment of there school. With two of the most deadly school shootings in history occurring at two different high schools which were attended by there shooter even though predicting those shootings are impossible, and the shooters showed very little signs of remorse, doesn’t mean that monitoring your students may or may not help the situations for near or far future.
As for what triggers someone to shift behavioral morals there is a lot that rides on that aspect of the spectrum. First of all discrimination/bullying from peers plays a major role in whether the behavior of a minor switches and becomes more aggressive outlook upon the world around him/her. School systems as a whole have already been working to combat the issue of bullying by having signs of it around campus and have a controversial “zero-tolerance policy” surrounding the matter. There is also the separation aspect, “Removal from the classroom may be especially problematic for students with disabilities”(SCHOOL SHOOTINGS: What We Know, What We Can Do) this shows that the removal of students with disabilities form normal classrooms over to segregated classrooms may elevate the problem to an uncontrollable level. Lastly, there is the off-campus viewpoint of parenting and family life, For instance the Parkland Shooting the gunman had a messed up family life even though that still has no justifications for his actions it dives into the world of just how severe a messed up family life can influence the situation along with some other psychological aspects. All of the factors play a major role in behavioral variations within our school systems.
After most school shooting an activist party advocates for the banishment of the most popular AR-15 assault rifle due to its automatic capabilities even though most of the school shooting is done with some type of handgun and in fact is the most abundant murder weapon around the United States. There are many measures put in place by states that help reduce shootings as stated by Mark Gius “states with background checks had lower incidents of school shootings” back round checks aid in the aspect of reducing guns in the wrong peoples' hands yea in our world today if you want to do something terrible there always away. for example, the Saugus High School shooting the gunman was using a “ghost gun” which is a D.I.Y firearm with no serial number that is usually made with a 3D printer. Has been tested to inflict the same amount of damage as a real metal gun to human flesh. Making these guns increasingly dangerous to situations to school shootings because they are un-traceable through most metal detectors. All guns in the wrong hands pose a threat to everyone's gun control laws might serve to lower the goal amount of school shooting to zero but there is no telling. For instance “1,300 children aged 1–17 died from gunshot wounds in the United States” “shootings in school settings accounted for 117 fatalities” (SCHOOL SHOOTINGS: What We Know, What We Can Do) showing that even though it is rare in schools it still happens In a place of learning.
Even though school shooting numbers are at a high over the last few years they are still relatively rare as a school shooting is 130 times less likely over a regular shooting of a minor outside of school. The threat in school is still viable yet people are trying to combat it in different ways along with the ideas of monitoring student's mental health and trying to combat threating possibilities before they arise at full strength. To eventually lower the number of school shootings to zero and bring learning back to schools, but we are not quite there yet.
Works Cited
Gius, Mark. “The Effects of State and Federal Gun Control Laws on School Shootings.” Applied Economics Letters, vol. 25, no. 5, Mar. 2018, pp. 317–320. Business Source Complete, EBSCOhost, doi:10.1080/13504851.2017.1319555. Accessed 21 Nov. 2019.
H., Spencer Aisha, and Farrell Ryan P. “Putting Violence in Perspective: How Safe Are America’s Educators in the Workplace?” Monthly Labor Review, 2016. Edsjsr, EBSCOhost, db07.linccweb.org/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=edsjsr&AN=edsjsr.monthlylaborrev.2016.08.007&site=eds-live. Accessed 20 Nov. 2019.
“How Are Central Georgia Schools Using Governor Kemp's Security Grant?” WMAZ, 13 Nov. 2019, www.13wmaz.com/article/news/education/central-georgia-schools-use-school-security-grant/93-e895457b-c958-4cb1-b0b3-d37bb4123c09.
Landrum, Timothy J.1, t.landrum@louisville.edu, et al. “SCHOOL SHOOTINGS: What We Know, What We Can Do.” Educational Leadership, vol. 77, no. 2, Oct. 2019, pp. 36–41. Eue, EBSCOhost, db07.linccweb.org/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=eue&AN=139039752&site=eds-live. Accessed 20 Nov. 2019.
Staff, CS. “The K-12 School Shooting Statistics Everyone Should Know.” Campus Safety Magazine, Campus Safety, 26 Apr. 2019, www.campussafetymagazine.com/safety/k-12-school-shooting-statistics-everyone-should-know/.