When you hear the term ‘school safety’ what do you think of?

Is it the severe weather drills you practiced a couple of times over the course school year ?  Or an elementary teacher preaching safety after giving the stereotypical ‘don’t run with scissors’ talk?

For many people, myself included, the issue of school safety is far more serious.

School shootings and other related mass acts of violence have plagued the American education system since before its founding.  They have only increased in severity and frequency with every passing year.  Since 1970, the United States witnessed an estimated 1,316 school shootings.  In 2018 along, the nation experienced about 340 shootings, nearly one for every day of the year.

These shootings and other tragedies are often termed as a uniquely American phenomenon, because, while other nations occasionally suffer from these types of events, the United States does so at a disproportionately higher rate.  In fact, in a study conducted by CNN using data compiled from the other industrialized nations, it was found that the United States had 57 times as many school shootings as the other nations combined.  In terms of acts of violence in which someone sadly lost their life, it was reported that in the 2000s there were 57 incidents of mass violence in 36 countries, with over half (28) occurring in the United States.  

Being such a prevalent and ongoing issue, there have been a number of solutions proposed to eliminate, or at least lessen, the amount of these attacks.

I’m going to briefly detail some of the most popular or controversial ones.  

Some people believe that to combat gun violence in schools, teachers should be armed.  Supporters of this solution believe that having a select number of specially trained teachers carrying firearms, they would be able to save lives in the event of an active shooter; they also believe that this would deter people from planning or attempting to carry out an attack.  People who disagree with this approach believe this would cause more harm than good, leading to accidents, injuries, and fear amongst the students.  

Other people advocate for less intense (and more professional) interventions, such as the installation of metal detectors and other preventative equipment and the employment of  school resource officers and other trained professionals.  Metal detectors as part of a schools safety protocol, for example, would catch a potential attack before any damage is done.  SROs, as school resource officers are called, are trained to respond to an active shooter situation and how to de-escalate a shooter.   While there are positives to this approach and it is helpful, some would argue that it simply would not be enough.

Going along with preventative measures, another potential solution that many people support is giving students the help and resources they need before they even think of committing an attack.  This would include revamping mental health programs and anti-bullying initiatives along with other programs.  Personally, I favor this approach the most.

What solution do you think would best solve or work to solve this issue?