My Thoughts on School Violence

My Thoughts on School Violence

This week's topic is one that is constantly on my mind and has been for a few years. My fear started in middle school, continued into high school, and still persists today while I attend Molloy College.

When the Sandy Hook shooting occurred, I was in 7th grade. I remember sitting in my Spanish class and my teacher allowed us to have the last 5 minutes of class to chat with classmates. She was sitting at her desk, reading on her computer as she usually did. Right before the bell rang, she said "Clase, I just want to let you guys know that a shooting just happened at an elementary school in Connecticut. They're saying that children died. You're going to hear about this later today I'm sure, so I just wanted to tell you guys." The look on her face told me that she was shaken to her core and ready to cry. I know she had at least one small child then, so as a mother, a teacher, and just as a human being, I know she was hurting. This was the first time I remember being scared of the possibility that a shooting could happen at my school.

Figure 1. Shooting tolls since 2000, by type of school.
Reprinted from https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/politics/wp/2018/02/14/eighteen-years-of-gun-violence-in-u-s-schools-mapped/ by Philip Bump.

Multiple times throughout my school career, I have experienced a scare in which there was a potential threat. We have experienced bomb scares from unexpected packages left on the front steps of the middle school, trespasser scares from a thief hiding in the elementary school's dumpster, and most recently, the middle school had a shooting threat made by a student last school year. These issues permeate the country, but to have them occur in my hometown, my school district, is frustrating and frightening. 

As an aspiring teacher of students with disabilities, I worry that a situation will occur in which I need to keep my students safe and quiet and that I will not be able to do so. It is hard enough to keep typical people calm in a state of chaos, but trying to calm a person with a disability when there are scary noises or too much sitting still can be very difficult. I actually relate this issue back to David Letterman's "Top Ten Reasons to be a Teacher" segment because this could be a new (ironic) reason, "It's like being in a warzone, but we're really in a classroom with 25 kids!"

School Resource Officer Program (Photograph).
 Retrieved from https://champaignil.gov/police/community-engagement/school-resource-officer-program/

One way that schools are responding to this fear of an act of violence in a school is by hiring cops (SROs) or ex-cops as security guards. In the article, More Schools Are Reporting Serious Violence and Hiring Police, it is explained that more schools are reporting that they are hiring full- or part-time school resource officers (police who have some experience with children) to make schools feel safer. I am not sure how I feel about active police in schools. My father encountered this new protocol when he tried to apply to become a security guard in the Island Trees and Bayshore School Districts this past year, but they told him they were only looking for retired cops. This is completely understandable and, in my opinion, a great step forward in trying to make schools safer. 

There is still a lot more work to be done to ensure the safety of all students, teachers, and staff in schools across the nation. It is unbelievable that students of all ages and teachers have to fear for their lives in a place that should be a safe haven. 

Bump, P. (2018). Shooting tolls since 2000, by type of school. Reprinted 

from https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/politics/wp/2018/02/14/eighteen-years-of-gun-violence-in-u-s-schools-mapped/

City of Champaign. School Resource Officer Program (Photograph).
Retrieved from https://champaignil.gov/police/community-engagement/school-resource-officer-program/

Sawchuk, S. (2019, July 26). More Schools Are Reporting Serious Violence and Hiring Police. Retrieved from 

https://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2019/07/25/more-schools-are-reporting-serious-violence-and.html.