Taking an Aim at Safer Schools

Within the first 45 days of 2018 there have been a total of 18 school shootings, 8 of those only involving a firearm going off but no injuries. Any school has the potential of being put in danger by simply one person through the use of firearms, which leaves a heavy question roaming through people’s minds: are students really safe at school?

It can be debatable. While schools are always assuring parents that their children are always in a safe environment, these recent school shootings have proved otherwise. Although it can be hard to determine when such bizarre events can occur and what student would be responsible for it, schools can make a stronger attempt at keeping their students safe.

A suggestion often brought up would be the placement of metal detectors in school’s entrances. I personally believe that would be too much of a hassle. Aside from detecting weapons, those metal detectors would also detect things such as keys and other accessories that would cause almost every student to be held up to be thoroughly checked and it would simply take too long at the beginning of a school day to get through every student.

Random metal searches aren’t the most efficient either. Not every student gets searched and they’re not consistent with the students. While it may occasionally do its job of catching students with certain possessions, it’s really not enough to keep a whole school safe from a potential shooting.

One simple solution could be to enforce the rule against bullying and mistreatment among students. Bullying is a common factor that pushes students to act rashly against those who mistreated them, violence and the use of a gun usually seem to be an easy solution to those problems. Although by lowering the problem of bullying, the potential danger won’t entirely go away.

Some people choose to shoot up schools simply because they’re ahold of a gun and aren’t in the correct mindset. This leads to another possible solution, gun laws. Throughout the past couple of years people have been allowed to hold possession of a firearm without much of a problem, easily allowing them to cause harm to many others.

These events are a serious matter that can have multiple solutions if one gets down to it, but sadly our president makes no attempt to resolve this issue of safety not only in schools but in communities as well. The only ones trying to make a change are students and other supporters who join together to make something happen so others wouldn’t suffer through a similar event.