6th Hour - What should be done to keep schools safe?
Copy and paste your School Safety Position Paper here. Take some time to read what others think should be done to keep our schools safe. Feel free to leave some questions or comments.
Saeed Ahmed and Christina Walker of CNN have reported that there were 17 school shootings from January 1st through March 24th. That’s an average of 1.4 school shootings every week. School violence is clearly a rapidly growing issue that needs to be taken seriously. In order to keep students in schools safe, districts must set up an anonymous online reporting system to report threats concerning school safety.
To begin with, my idea to keep schools safe is for each district to set up an anonymous online reporting system to submit tips about planned attacks, bullying, self-harm, and depression. Every student within the district would have access to the reporting system and would report on the suspicious individual whom they feel is a danger to themselves or others. They could also report on what it is that they are doing that could pose danger. Furthermore, local law enforcement would also have access to the reporting system, and could have direct communication with the responsible individual who has submitted a tip. Law enforcement could then respond to the situation if they feel that the individual who is endangering others is considered a high priority threat. This is my idea that I am confident will help keep schools safe.
This idea will surely work for multiple reasons. First of all, as law enforcement would have direct communication with the courageous individual who submitted a tip, they would be able to respond to the person who is showing threatening behavior and could prevent that person from hurting themselves as well as others. If this were to happen, the police could potentially prevent an attack from happening in the first place. This would save many lives. Next, the cost to bring in an anonymous reporting system is nothing. This means that each district would not have to worry about being unable to set up a reporting system due to the cost, because it is free. Finally, Kati Garner, a district mental health and crisis coordinator in School District 51, has stated that “kids I talk to really appreciate having a platform where they won’t be seen as a snitch...it’s helping us save lives and it’s helping us get ahead of the game because we have this information.” One of the reasons that anxious kids would be hesitant to submit tips is because they would be seen as a snitch. However, because the reporting system is anonymous, the district and local law enforcement would not know the identity of the person submitting the tip, and therefore the concerned student would feel more comfortable with reporting threats. These are a few of the many reasons why this idea will work.
To continue, this idea has worked before in the past. At Bookcliff Middle School, an anonymous reporting system called Safe2Tell had reportedly received “94 tips about suicidal ideation, 59 tips about bullying, 38 tips about self-harm, 32 tips about depression, and 32 tips about planned attacks.” This proves that students are comfortable with reporting tips and it has helped save lives. Furthermore, T. Gregory Bender, the President and CEO of Anonymous Alerts has stated that “...our Anonymous Alerts anti-bullying and safety reporting system has rapidly expanded throughout the United States...helping...create safer school climates.” This statement clearly illustrates that the idea of an anonymous reporting system has gained popularity throughout the country, and has helped create safer schools. These are some examples of how the idea of an anonymous reporting system has worked in the past.
In conclusion, I know that I will feel safer in school if the district implemented an anonymous reporting system because I would know that the administrators and law enforcement are looking out for potential threats. While it could be stated that we should improve school infrastructure or hire resource officers for every school, it is most important that districts set up an anonymous reporting system. The sooner each district sets up an anonymous reporting system, the sooner students will feel safe in school.
The first school shooting was in 1840. Since then, the amount of devastating school shootings have multiplied. Rapidly. Just this year, on February 14, 2018 there was a shooter at Marjory Douglas High School who killed 17 students. Or, on 2006, September 29 a student died at Weston High School. The list goes on and on. America’s students are dying. There have been many ideas that have been put forward on how to fix this devastating issue, but the most logical is regulating guns by implementing some form of gun control. Afterall, getting rid of guns will rid the shooters of their weapon.
First off, there seems to be a stereotype linked to gun control that it would mean people losing all rights to bearing weapons. In reality, gun control is as the title suggests; a way to control America’s guns. It would mean more background checks, an increased minimum age to buy guns, a waiting period for your gun, and if you have an unsatisfactory record, you would be unable to purchase a gun. Gun control would mean safer schools.
Taking a step back and thinking about gun control is all that’s necessary to realize how vital it is for school safety. With gun control, there would be less violence overall, and less crime, considering criminals would find it more difficult to get their hands on a weapon. As of now, unlicensed sellers can sell guns to who they choose, with little to no restrictions on it. Meaning, that a 16 year old student would be able to go on Craigslist and potentially purchase a gun. Currently only 12 states have the minimum age of 21 years old to buy guns, but more are wisely switching over. Quite recently, in fact, the Florida Governor passed a law raising the minimum age to purchase a gun. It’s a big step for Florida, and will hopefully stop more tragedies like the shooting at Marjory Douglas High School. And, with luck, more of America will start taking that step to keep our unprotected students safe.
In many other countries, gun control has shown miraculous results, decreasing the amount of malicious shootings, and gun violence, along with school safety. For instance, in Norway they are ranked 10th worldwide for gun ownership. But, they are at the bottom of the list for gun homicide rates. Gun control helped make that happen. And while some people will argue that it would be better to create a system to report worrying people, ultimately gun control will be the best option. With gun control, potential shooters would be left unarmed, without any means to attack vulnerable students. Afterall, not everyone can recognize the signs of a possible killer. Considering the U.S. is only 5% of the world’s population, and they make up 31% of global mass shooters, America definitely needs some form of gun control.
Ultimately, gun control would be an extremely effective way to help stop school shooting. It’s worked well in other countries, even ones that still allow the citizens plenty of guns. Whereas, in the U.S. there are many guns, with no restrictions on them, and therefore many school shootings. Aside from school safety, there’d be other benefits to having gun control. There’d be less deaths, less violence, and less crime. Gun control isn’t the only option, but it’s the smartest. America should protect it’s youths, and implement gun control to help keep schools safe.
Over the past few months, many people have been discussing more about the tragic school shootings due to the previous shooting in Florida. While there are many opinions about what needs to be done, some more complex than others my idea is that we should have veterans guard our schools. This would work, due to it helping the economy and our schools system for overall safety. so together we should go and make the difference to have armed guards in our school
My idea is to have veterans guard our previously fragile schools to stop people who are trying to hurt the students. My idea will work by having the veterans arrive before the school day starts for the students. This will prevent the crime by having the veterans guard the student through the entire day. It will also make planning a school shooting much harder, therefore much less likely. All of the armed veterans will be paid by tax money (it could be local/state). This could be done by only adding a .5% tax increase. This tax will be put only to paying the veterans and supplying them with their equipment. Finally, having veterans guarding the schools will allow students to understand guns at a much younger age, giving them a new confidence through their lives. This can be done easily and safe to help others understand how guns work and to be more comfortable around them by having them around more often. It will also give an understanding that it is a normal thing and that they have nothing to fear.
Once veterans are in the schools to guard us we can now know how much better school safety will be. Only to start having the title of having armed guards will prevent most of the crime itself. This is a psychological event of you (the potential shooter) being afraid of the worst or in our case getting shot. This happens more than you would think. New York times said that “in England (one of the countries that have banned guns) they have more gun related violence by 42% than the United States” this is do to the United States criminals are more afraid of being shot. While you may say that in Australia there is much less gun violence since they got rid of personal guns this isn’t true because they have been losing their violence since many years before they banned guns.This will make sure that most of the schools are safe for the next day. Having Veterans as armed guards will also be an easy transfer between jobs. Veterans are already pre-trained by the military. This means that our tax dollars are not being spent on training, but rather the actual defence.
Having armed veterans will also help the economy. Once you decide not to sign up for another year in service of the military, many veterans will struggle to go from a very different lifestyle in the military to a civilian lifestyle. Having armed Veterans in schools will give them a closer job to what they used to have rather than to have a much larger jump. This will make sure that many veterans would want the job because many veterans end up working in police, security, and guards . Finally, having armed veterans in every school will add many job offers to so many people it will be insane. This will add more money going through the economy to make it stronger and more reliable than ever before. All in all having armed veterans will only help with the problems we face
Veterans in our schools will change the world for the better. We can change the world today by taking part in our government to change it for the better. All you have to do is go to you towns/cities conferences that are made to help you town/city for the better and make a difference today.
School safety is a very popular topic right now because of all the recent shootings. I don’t believe that this is a problem is because of the abuse of guns instead I think this issue stems from mental health. There are many things we can do to avoid this problem getting any worse and I would really like to see those things done. Schools with become safer when students feel welcome and feel they have someone that they can talk to. In order for children to feel safe at school, several things need to happen. One counselor for every 100 students should be mandatory in a school, kids should also feel safe in their peers, by starting a program that makes it possible to have safe, healthy communications with other students could also allow kids to feel safer. Teachers that are better trained in the mental, emotional field could benefit mentally damaged kids as we don’t want to aggravate them even more because let’s face it kids won’t always be able to be with their counselors. This type of system has been proven to work. If kids have more people to trust at school they will become less aggravated with people and cause less problems. Right now many districts don’t have a person they can always go to talk to that they trust and I feel that would beneficial. With more counselors they won’t be as busy and have more available time for the kids that need it. There are many great examples of how this has worked but a really good one comes from a school district in Massachusetts. This school uses a survey at the beginning of the year to see who they should target first to supply help. If the family wants it the school will provide extra resources to get the child help. This program was developed and maintained by a group of qualified nurses. Although it could be said that every school should now have metal detectors at the door or that arming teachers is the best way to avoid more shootings in the future I think the mental health end of this issue should be dealt with first. Imagine if you had lots of pent up emotions with no one you can release them on, that can drive you to do really crazy things you otherwise wouldn’t do. Schools will become safer when students mental health becomes a priority.
Keeping America’s School Safe: School Resource Officers
According to CNN’s Saeed Ahmed and Christina Walker, from January 1 to March 24, 2018, there were 17 school shootings. This is an average of 1.4 school shootings per week. We need to do something to stop another one of these terrible events from happening. The smartest and most effective option are SROs, if we hire SROs at every school district in America we can greatly decrease the number of school shootings that occur in our country, and help keep our country’s students safe. To start, School Resource Officers (SROs) should be stationed in every school district. If we have one (or more) SRO(s) at each district that rotate between schools they will be much safer. SROs are police officers that are stationed in schools to provide safety and help to students of that school. Police officers must meet certain qualifications to become SROs. They must have at least two years of experience as officers, they must be good at public speaking, they must be able to function as a role model, and they must go through a strenuous special training program. SROs do a variety of different things in school. Obviously, they stop school violence and stop dangerous weapons from coming into schools. However they also help in different ways, they can help counsel children and give them someone to talk to, they also can build relationships with students and help make them less afraid of police officers. To sum up, SROs are fearless police officers that when stationed at schools, help greatly improve student’s safety. Furthermore, there is much evidence for the effectiveness of SROs. In a study in which 19 programs where involved, there was much proof found for the helpfulness of SROs. 24% of the SROs studied had taken firearms from a student which could have been used to hurt someone, also 87% had taken knives or other deadly blades that could have ended up severely wounding another student. Next, 67% percent of the SROs reported having stopped some sort of assault on school grounds. Finally, 94% had been told about violent threats that they could then help stop. All in all, the findings from this study show that SROs are very useful, many of them have been able to do things that have helped protect our country's innocent students and staff at schools. Finally, the idea of SROs has not been around that long, but there has already been some success of stopping active school shooters at specific schools. For example, at Great Mills High School in Maryland, a brave SRO, Blaine Gaskill, rushed, and stopped a shooter who had already opened fire. However, there was also an SRO at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, he did not help stop the shooter who brutally killed 17 people. Although this could be seen as a sign that SROs are not effective, it could also have been that this SRO simply didn’t have good enough training to stop the shooter. If we are going to have SROs they need to be qualified and well trained outside of just police officer training. To sum up, there have been actual instances of an SRO stopping an active school shooter, but if we want this to happen more often at terrifying, potential school shootings we need well trained SROs. Having SROs in schools helps both defend students and prevent dangerous weapons from entering our schools. It also helps to discourage students or other people from attacking schools and has had great results. Although it could be argued that the best way to reduce school shootings is with gun control, clearly this is not true. Gun control will not stop anyone who really wants to get a gun from getting it, they can purchase one through illegal methods. SROs on the other hand are physical protection for the students of our schools. Help make all children safe while they learn, School Resource Officers make schools safer and are the best solution to one of our nation's biggest problems.
While school shootings are currently taking the news right now they may be more dangerous than you think. The average school population is around 600. The most recent school shooting that has taken the news is almost having 2.5% of student dead. Imagine hearing on the news that there is a school shooting where your child is. This means your child has a 97.5% chance of living. Although this may not seem like a lot of odds of your child getting hurt, a life at risk is nothing to joke about.
Some people believe that we should have mental therapy for schools, but some people may not know what this is. Mental therapy is a treatment used to stop and prevent heartless mental disabilities. The idea of having mental therapy for desperate schools would deal with districts having a unit set up for kids to come to. Kids would each spend 15 minutes a day at therapy. Overall the schedule of the times would equivalent to 32 kids for the average 8 hour day.
Most people may fall for things just by being told what is going to be planned but evidence can really secure the idea. The odds of someone becoming ill is extremely high with a rate of 1 in 5. These odds have a 50% chance of happening before the age of 14. The depressing part about this is that only 38% of people will ever get fixed from this. All in all, the odds secure fact that this needs to be fixed.
Everyone loves the idea of an expert having some intel on an idea. Beecher Bater (a school supervisor) says that,“Early intervention is key”. The reason why Beecher says this is that mental illnesses can progressively get worse. This is one of the reasons of why the Florida shooter got corrupt enough to actually shoot up a school. Another expert from TED says that, “Early intervention”, is also key. Some experts know how to fix these problems but they also know what happens if people don’t get treated. TED experts also say that, “If extreme this can cause suicide”. They also say that this can make kids fall into the line of drugs and gangs as they try to find out who they are.
When I first thought of the idea of having mental therapy it didn’t really stick. I would think to myself, “These schools that are getting shooting must already be too corrupt to fix.” And while this statement can be correct it doesn’t mean that the next generation would be affected by therapy. Even though mental therapy isn’t an instant fix on the current problem in school it could still help the kids of the future.
If you have seen or heard the news in the last couple of months you may have a heard of the school shootings occurring in the U.S. There are many reasons as to why they’re happening so there are also many solutions to the problem as well. You may disagree with me but I also beliebe that one of those solutions would be for the majority of schools and communities to have an available psychologist. For those of you wondering what in the world a psychologist is, a psychologist is a social scientist who also may work along side and is not to be confused with a psychiatrist. They help there patients with issues in their life and a lot of the times they also help them sort out the pros and cons of decisions that the patients are struggling with making. A psychologist is also not to be confused with a therapist. While therapists usually have taken a few classes and recieved a few degrees in their field, usually a psychologist will have recieved a PhD or a doctorate making them a slightly better decision over a therapist. A psychologist would also be able to spot potential shooters and help people who still need help even if they aren’t putting other people in immediate danger. One reason to have more available psychologists is that it’s easier to spot people who may put others around them in danger. After the Sandy Hook Elementary Shooting it was stated that both shooters had displayed worrying behaviours before the tragedy. Maybe if they been able to find and get the help that they needed nothing to serious would’ve happened. It’s also much easier to keep up witha mentally healthy school and community than to risk any tragic occurences. If you are wondering why you should trust what has been written so far, fear not, for here are some professional organizations and people who know what they’re talking about. I don’t know if you’ve heard of the Community Counseling Center (CCC) is so maybe I’ll be able to explain it well enough. The CCC is an organization that helps create and keep up with a mentally healthy communtiy. This organization helps with treating with mental illnesses and recovery of both mental and physical injuries. The beliefs of Professor Glenn Geher also seem as if they collide with the CCC as I quote “...our nation is getting less and less mentally healthy with time. And yes, it is a problem.” If you don’t agree with what these people have said and what they believe, maybe this solution isn’t the one for. Like I said in the beginning yo may not agree with my ideas, but this is only one of the many solutions. And even if you don’t agree with me I still believe that a more available psychologist, or form of psychologist, could help both schools and communities immensely.
Andrew LaCrosse 6th Hour DeVries Anonymous Reporting Systems
With school safety issues on the rise, it is more important than ever that we address the issue of school safety. According to CNN’s Saeed Ahmed and Christina Walker, there were 17 school shootings from Jan. 1 to March 24. This proves that we must do something to make sure that our kids stay safe in school. The best way we can do this is by implementing anonymous reporting systems for the students to use.
First of all, you need to know how this system would work. An anonymous reporting system would be an outlet for students to tell teachers, administrators, and possibly law enforcement about dangerous situations in the school. It is a hotline, website, and app where students can submit anonymous reports concerning issues about things like suicide, mental health, and school safety. Skilled operators then decided whether the report is relevant to personal or school safety, and decide if it is relevant or not. If something or someone is in danger, the operators then contact trusted administrators, counselors, and law enforcement about the issue.
Secondly, there are numerous reasons that this system can help benefit schools. About 70% of all deadly school shooters tell someone about their plans, and 60% of suicidal people tell someone about their plans. With an anonymous outlet, everyday students will be more inclined to get them help. Most students who are suicidal or mentally ill also post many clues about it on social media. An anonymous reporting system would give students an easy way to help stop those things before because they saw the clues online. This will decrease the amount of suicides and school shootings.
Finally, we can see the proud success of this system with Colorado’s Safe2tell. This system which has been in use in Colorado, has proven to be very effective. The system has thwarted several school shooting events, and has gotten much need help for suicidal and mentally ill students. It has worked so well the Colorado has made it law to have the Safe2Tell program in schools, and the Sandy Hook Promise wants to make their own anonymous reporting system.
All in all, the effects of an anonymous reporting system could greatly increase the safety of our schools, and the happiness of our students. Student will no longer have to be scared to come to school because they know that their school is safe, and they can help save lives if someone seems off. All schools should implement anonymous reporting systems because they greatly improve the school environment.
Self Defense Picture yourself as a typical kid in a typical school. Except, you are not in a typical situation. At least, the situation that you’re in shouldn’t be typical. You are trapped in a corner, huddled together with your classmates. You are terrified and vulnerable, with a shooter roaming the halls. He could bust through the door any moment, because what protection can be found in a door? You would be in plain sight. You have no idea how to defend yourself. But what if you could? What if you were trained in self defense? Schools would be so much safer if both students and teachers are trained in self defense. This is clear when you turn to the statistics and the experts. First of all, what does this idea mean? Self defense is a growing idea that is being widely accepted by parents and teachers because different threats are becoming more common in schools. The idea is that both teachers and students would learn it so that if there was a threat in a school, such as an angry shooter. Both staff and students would be able to protect themselves better. Classes for these take place in a physical education class, or if on a college campus there are courses available for it. Staff typically take classes outside of school hours. Useful techniques that are learned in these classes include tae kwon do, using the body to protect the individual, and utilizing common classroom objects or other casual items that might be around somebody. Now, let’s take a look at the statistics. Many places are taking to the idea. Grand Canyon University is offering classes for self defense to students that want to be ready and prepared for a threatening situation. These classes teach strategies to use in case of a real scenario, which they call “real world physical training.” UC Davis Police Departments have been offering monthly training sessions, because the local campus has recently had an increase in robbery and sexual assault. The class teaches participants how to use school supplies, and it also includes “self- awareness education”. Studies show that teaching self defense to students is becoming a more common includement in physical education classes because these sorts of threats are becoming more and more frequent. What do the experts say? Experts on this subject include Hudson, who said that “kids aren’t dying in fires. They’re dying because they are being shot. That’s the truth and that’s the threat.” Hudson teaches his classes many unique strategies, including how to turn the gun away. CNN Kim Segal reported that parents are now believing that it should be “mandatory for educators.” This is because these threats are becoming much more prominent, and naturally a parent or guardian would be concerned for their student’s safety. Frank Taylor, another expert, noted that “...if we have knowledge of how to use our bodies and our surroundings, that in itself is the best form of arming ourselves.” Frank Taylor taught his students how to use classroom objects, how to run from the sound of bullets, and how to find the room’s “blind spot.” So many things could help students, teachers and staff to be safer in school when faced with a school shooter. Infrastructures, gun control, and student mental therapy are all great steps that could work and have worked so well. However, training in self defense is the first step to school safety. It allows kids and teachers to be able to protect themselves with themselves, even outside school. It also puts the minds of parents at ease, knowing that their kid is in safe hands- their own hands.
Recently, school safety has been a very popular topic. There are many different ways that we could prevent our innocent children from harm, but based on statistics and experts, most shootings are committed by kids who are victims of bullying. To keep students safe in school, schools must enforce more anti bullying programs. Anti bullying programs could be used in schools to decrease the chances of something terrible happening. Some ways these programs could help are having a website or another way to report bullying anonymously whether you are being bullied or witness bullying. Another example of what these programs could do is to get students together to teach empathy and coping skills and make new friends to help students be more understanding of each other. A final example is a way for parents, students, and teachers to communicate with each other. Homelife can affect a student's behavior at school and if parents, teachers, and students had better communication, problems at school could be resolved easier. There are many more useful ways to use these programs. Bullying in schools happens much more often than it is witnessed by adults. 1 in 4 students get bullied in school. Bullying can lead to feelings of isolation from peers and cause kids to feel like nobody cares about them. 12 out of 15 shooters are known to have experienced bullying. Anti bullying programs may help prevent acts of violence in school and help students reach out before it is too late. Experts are studying the effects of bullying on kids. Adelphi university assistant professor of sociology, Jessie Klein said “...this perpetrator who have clearly violent proclivities are more likely to act on them in a society where bullying takes place, where people have very little time to stop for one another and support one another.” Jessie Klein’s statement shows how kids who are being bullied may feel the need to act out. Professors Michael Kimmel and Matthew Mahler found that most boys who committed high school shootings were bullied in middle school. Anti Bullying programs could decrease bullying in schools overall. Although it could be argued that gun laws are the real problem, kids being bullied is just as great of a problem. Anti bullying programs will not only prevent school shootings, but it will also help students make new friends. If schools enforce an anti bullying program, schools will be much safer.
According to CNN’s Saeed Ahmed and Christina Walker, there were 17 school shootings from January 1 to March 24 this year. That’s an average of 1.4 school shootings a week. To keep students safe governments/districts must improve how schools address mental issues.
To keep schools safe the idea is that school officials will identify mental issues like bullying because it is one of the main causes of school shootings. They will address the bullying problem in their school and learn about the bullies and their victims. Then they will go through the list of potential metal signs like depression, anger, and behavior in classes of the bullies and their victims. If the school decides that the student is at a high risk of violence they will contact the authorities. This is the first step on how to keep schools safe.
Bullying is one of the many symptoms for someone to cause violence in schools. First of all, school officials must be able to identify what bullying is and how the school deals with bullying. Even though many people would think improving school infrastructure would keep schools safe, addressing bullying and other mental problem is the first step. Many people would think that the bully would be the one as the school shooter, it would actually be more likely the victim because of verbal and physical abuse. Many schools have a hard time addressing bullying because of the limited time and money they are supplied. Experts say that the best way to stop bullying is to stop it before it starts. This is why we need to identify and stop bullying to keep schools safe.
Finally, to be able to stop the threat from ever happening to a school is to identify the shooter before it happens. Many experts say that the best way to find a school shooter is for students to report “leakage” about what the student is planning to do. It is important of kids to report these things to someone they trust to alert the school before anything bad happens. Peter Langman the author of Why Kids Kill states “Someone who’s a bit odd is not a danger. Someone who’s a bit odd and is talking about bringing a gun to school is a potential danger.” This really show how their is a fine line between a danger and a regular person. Many other warnings sign are being very depressed and acting withdrawn.To identify the threat is how we stop violence in schools.
Although many people think that having more police officers on a campus or improving school infrastructure will be the key to keeping schools safe, the first step is actually identifying mental illnesses. Kids from ages 13-18, 1 in 5 have a mental illness. This will help my school and many other schools because so many kids and potential school shooters suffer from mental illnesses. Addressing mental issues will help the government/districts keep schools safe.
Violence must be stopped. So, we need a solution. From this year, there were 17 school shootings between Jan. 1st to Mar. 24th all within this year. That adds up to an average of 1.4 shootings per week. These are the reports of CNN’s Christina Walker and Saeed Ahmed. These acts of violence are not what the generations now and in the future should have to worry so heavily about. School marshals are the best solution to keeping our schools and the people in them safe from harm. School marshals are teachers or staff members in a school specifically trained to carry a weapon on campus. School marshals can be anyone on the campus premises. These include janitorial positions to sports coaches. School marshals require an extensive amount of training. Their routines include 80 hours of training, extensive background checks, recurring training to keep their skills sharp on confronting and neutralizing shooters, and mental health screenings. School marshals are actually a new branch of peace officer created in Texas. School marshals can’t always have their weapons on their persons though. For example, if a teacher happens to be a school marshal, then they must put their weapon away, but it has to be in an easy to access place in case of emergency. Such as a desk droor. It’s away from children, but still within reach of the school marshal. The only time school marshals can carry their guns on their persons is when no children are present. This is just a brief explanation of what a school marshal is and does. Two experts on the matter of the school marshal program and school safety have given their opinions on the school marshal program. In the article “Texas Schools can choose to arm their teachers. Here’s how it works.” from the Public Broadcasting Service website, Jason Villalba, a Texas representative and the architect of the school marshal program says, “I hear this program often called arming the teachers. That’s not what this is. What we’re really trying to do is train individuals to be peace officers.” This quote sheds light on the fact that arming teachers is not the direct goal or purpose of the school marshal program. Rather, it’s that they are training certain school staff members to be comforting officers of peace ready for an emergency. While it could be argued that improving schools’ infrastructures is the best way to keep schools safe, it is actually school marshals because there may not always be a place for students to stay safe and away from harm, but a school marshal will be right there with students taking care of the situation, but with one goal in mind. Keeping the innocent children in their care alive. Also, Joe McKenna, associate director for the Texas School Safety Center at Texas State University had a few things to say in the article “Texas schools marshal armed staff to curb school shootings” written by John Austin, LLC State Reporter. Mckenna said, “We haven’t had any major incidents in Texas. All we can say is, it appears that Texas is ahead of the curve in terms of safety.” In other words, the amount of problems in this area are greatly lowered. Because of it, they are more ahead in ideas of increasing school safety.
The school marshal program has shown proof that it does show improvement and the use of the program is spreading rapidly. In the year 2013, Texas allowed its schools’ staff members to carry licensed guns in the schools or even become a school marshal. Since then, there have been no gun related accidents reported. Also, the school marshal and guardians programs have eased the public’s fears of school shooters. This shows that because of these programs, people in Texas can now send their children to school with more assurance that their children will be safe in their school environment. In addition, more than 100 school districts in Texas have allowed teachers and personnel to carry weapons on the school premises and receive training on how to respond when being violently attacked. This information clearly shows the growth of not only the use of the program, but also the improvement it has made to the school environment and the people in various communities. There are many ways to keep schools safe. From having more emotional counseling for students, to improving the school’s infrastructure. While these are all very effective, we should first and foremost acknowledge the school marshal program because the staff and innocent students inside the school witnessing the danger should be the people we protect first. With school marshals, this could happen. We have all of these ways to keep schools safe, but with school marshals, the safety of not only the people inside the schools will be more insured, but the communities and families outside of the school environment will be safer as well by knowing that their children will be safe in school.
The most effective way to keep students safe at school, would be to ban high capacity magazines. According to CNN’s Saeed Ahmed and Christina Walker, there were seventeen school shootings from January 1st to March 24th this year. On average, that’s 1.4 school shootings each week. Now, imagine being a student and being scared for your life as you walk into the school building, wondering if someone would bring a gun to your school. Now imagine feeling secure and safe at school. A federal ban on high capacity magazines would help innocent students be protected and safe. First of all, a ban on high capacity magazines would help keep students safer at schools by lowering the amount of bullets a gun can fire. High capacity magazines, according to the Huffington Post, are, “...devices that dramatically boost a weapon’s firing power…” Or in other words, an add-on to guns that increases the amount of bullets a gun can fire before reloading. By banning high capacity magazines, it would decrease the number of people dying in mass shootings, by lowering the amount of bullets fired. Some magazines can fire up to 50 bullets without forcing the shooter to stop and reload the gun. If the shooter has to stop and reload, it gives victims time to run, or get the gun from the shooter. Large capacity magazines were federally banned from 1994 to 2004. After the federal ban expired, the number of deaths as the result of gun massacres skyrocketed. Altogether, the evidence supports the banning of high capacity magazines. Additionally, expert opinions and research studies support this belief. According to a CNN article, “An analysis performed by CNN found that states that have enacted magazine restrictions are associated with fewer mass shooting events.” Another research study done by Louis Klaverous, at the University of Massachusetts at Boston, and author of “Rampage Nation,” showed similar results. Klaverous said, “We have found that when large capacity mags are regulated, you get drastic drops in both the incidence of gun massacres and the fatality rate of gun massacres.” In his research, he defined gun massacres as a massacre where six or more people were shot and killed. In addition, he found that in the decade following the end of the federal ban, there was a 183% increase in massacres, and a 239% increase in the number of deaths in a massacre. Another expert who agrees, is Michael Siegal, a community health professor at Boston University, who stated, “Whether a state has a large capacity ammunition magazine ban is the single best predictor of the mass shooting rate in that state.” All in all, banning high capacity magazines would help keep our country, specifically children and schools safe.
Lastly, investigations, studies, and gun experts’ opinions conclude that a ban on large capacity magazines would be most beneficial for keeping our schools safe. Evidence that supports this, is that in a Mother Jones investigation, it was discovered that high capacity magazines had been used in at least half of the mass shootings from 1982 to 2012. There were 62 occasions, during that time, when a mass shooting occurred. In addition to that, they found that if a high capacity magazine was used, the death rate of mass shootings increased by 63%, and the injury rate rose by 156%. Also, The New York Times questioned thirty-two gun policy experts on how effective different gun changes would be at preventing mass shootings, on a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 as not effective, and 10 as highly effective. The gun policy experts gave a ban on high capacity magazines (and an assault weapons ban) a 6.8, which was the highest rating given to the almost 30 policies or laws they were questioned about. In conclusion, the experts and researchers agree that high capacity magazines would be the most successful at preventing mass shootings, and keeping schools safe. As was previously stated, if there was a federal ban on high capacity magazines, it would severely improve children’s safety at school. It has worked in the past, and will work again. It would also lower both the death rate and injury rate of mass shootings. So, help children focus on learning instead of fearing for their safety by supporting a federal ban on large capacity magazines.
According to Saeed Ahmed and Christina Walker of CNN, there were 17 school shootings from January 1 to March 24 this year. That averages to 1.4 shootings each week. Think about how many innocent children are killed in those. This needs to be changed. Those numbers would decrease and schools, that are educating America’s next generation, will become safer when there are School Resource Officers (SRO’s) patrolling schools and school grounds.
To start off, the federal definition of an School Resource Officer is, a career law enforcement officer with sworn authority who is deployed by an employing police department or agency in a community-oriented policing assignment to work in collaboration with one or more schools. In simpler terms, it is an officer/security guard who is placed in a school to serve the purpose of whatever the school needs them for. Some of their purposes range from perking up students to directing bus traffic to settling disputes to keeping an eye out for threats. Their main role is to make students and staff in schools feel safer. School Resource Officers provide a higher level of security for the school and are educators on issues related to safety and the law. Some of the more positive parts of an SRO’s job are to attend and participate in school functions, be visible within the school community, and to have close contact and positive relationships with the school staff, students, and parents. When people say that counselors would work better than SRO’s, think about the fact that while counselors help students get over bullying, harassment, and other problems, SRO’s are there so those things rarely/never happen in the first place. Those things not happening would make a big difference in a young child’s life.
Next, there are many statistics that support School Resource Officers in schools. Before SRO’s 74% of the nation’s schools reported violent incidents of crime that lead to arrests. In schools that gained SRO’s, juvenile arrests dropped 17%, arrests for school-based assaults decreased 52%, and there was a 73% drop in arrests involving weapons on school grounds. Also, in a survey of 119 high school, middle school, and elementary school principals, they found surprisingly high results. It was found that 98% of high school principals support SRO’s in high schools, 94% of middle school principals support SRO’s in their middle schools, and 50% of elementary school principals support SRO’s in their elementary schools. Because of that support schools gained SRO’s and 88% of schools with SRO’s believed crime decreased after gaining one. All in all, School Resource Officers are supported by many statistics that make them seem like a good idea.
Finally, there are facts that support School Resource Officers in schools too. Such as, even though this may seem like an SRO’s main job, on-campus law enforcement is their least important job. To support SRO’s, New York City, Chicago, Miami-Dade County, and Houston schools all have more SRO’s than counselors. That shows that there is a real difference between the two. Also, in schools with SRO’s bullying and harassing seems to happen less, so SRO’s not only keep students safe from outsiders, but also from insiders/other students. There are many types of SRO’s so they differ on what the school needs. Overall, school-based policing is one of the fastest growing areas of law enforcement, so that proves that SRO’s are doing something right.
Even though other ideas could work, such as arming teachers or changing the schools’ infrastructure, SRO’s are the best choice because there are many reasons to support them, and they can do so many different things. School shooters hurt schools and School Resource Officers protect them, which would you rather have?
According to CNN’s Saeed Ahmed and Christina Walker, there were 17 school shootings from January 1st to March 4th this year. That is an average of 1.4 school shootings each week. As a student I think that school violence is a problem that we need to fix. Schools will become much safer when resource officers are in all schools. A resource can stop many instances of school violence. There is research to show why it will work. And, I will explain how it will work
A resource officer of some kind would help to keep schools safe. Here are some examples of what they can do. If there was a shooter inside of a school a resource officer could disarm them. The officers can do it much faster than someone who doesn’t have as much training as them. Another thing a resource officer can do is stopping fights between kids. Fights can break out in schools and the officers can stop them quickly. A resource officer can also check people before they enter the school. If a person is hiding something dangerous to kids, an officer can check them and take it away. Now that you know what my idea is here is why my idea will work.
A resource officer can do many things. This is why putting them in all schools will work. For example, school shootings have been in the news a lot lately and a resource officer could stop them. The officers have been trained know about guns and how to use a gun and disarm people with them. A lot of people wouldn’t know what to do during a school shooting besides some teachers. A resource officer can help kids get to safety and tell them what to do. Although some people say kids would be scared of the guards that they wouldn’t be if they get to know them. Just like how firefighters go into elementary schools and show kids they shouldn’t be scared of them, the resource officers can do that too. Once kids get to know the resource officer and see that they are a good person they won’t be as scared. Now that I have told you why my idea will work I am going to show you where this has worked before.
Resource officers have helped in schools before. This is why having more will help. Richard K. James, from the university of Memphis, made a survey for 800 security guards in schools. In that survey, 75 percent of the guards said they had taken weapons form students at school. Also, the New York State police made a program that sent officers to schools in the region. Those officers said they had overseen 2,006 criminal incidents, 52 bomb threats, and had confiscated 92 weapons including 11 guns. That is a lot of things they did. One of those kids could have started a school shooting and killed helpless kids in the process. If the guards hadn’t taken away those weapons there could have been a disaster. If the guards were not there there could have been an explosion killing kids and hurting families.
In conclusion, I think that putting a resource officer in all schools is the first thing we should do to make schools safer. I have told you what my idea is, why it will work, and how it has worked before.
Currently, many people are very concerned about the safety of schools across the country. One of the biggest things that can be done to prevent school shootings is to appoint School Marshals. Although many people are against the idea, school marshals will reduce the chances of someone attempting to hurt people, and they could stop a threat to the school.
If there were school marshals, any potential school shooters would know that they will be stopped. A school with marshals would publicize the fact that there were armed staff members inside the school. This way, potential threats wouldn’t even attempt to harm anyone, and other students would feel safer. As President Trump said, “When a sick individual comes into that school they can expect major trouble.” School marshals would reduce the risk of threats to the school, which makes for a much safer environment.
A school marshal could also stop a shooter who was already in the building. Since they have a concealed weapon on them at all times, they would be able to protect students in danger. According to Texas law enforcement, “The sole purpose of a school marshal is to prevent the act of murder or serious bodily injury on school premises and act only as defined by the school board/ governing body.” This shows how school marshals will make schools safer places while effectively protecting students and saving lives.
Even though school marshals create much safer schools, many people are against the idea of arming staff members. First of all, a lot of teachers are scared of being forced to carry a gun. However, this would never happen. Becoming a school marshal is a long process, and a candidate isn’t even considered if they don’t want to be. In fact, before becoming a school marshal in certain states, the candidate has to be employed at the school, have a valid license to carry, pass a psychological exam, and complete the 80-hour training course before they’re ready to protect students. Despite these misconceptions, school marshals will keep students safe from harm.
Implementing school marshals is one of the most important things schools can do to keep their students safe. Not only could they stop a shooter in the school, but they will prevent shootings from happening in the first place. Parents and students are calling for action, and school marshals will make a big impact on the safety of schools everywhere.
As a student in 2018, the amount of school violence going on around us is worrying. We have to worry about whether or not we are going home each night or if we are safe while trying get an education. Having someone in the school to protect students would make them feel a lot safer. Resource officers could be very helpful to the need for better safety and security in schools. Putting armed/on duty resource officers in schools would provide the students with a sense of security. They would be required to train for certain situations that could occur while they are on duty. Also, the officers on duty would be there to protect the students and be friendly with them in the halls during school. Two officers would be on duty at a time, and would switch off half-way through the day. That way someone would always be on duty. Also, they wouldn’t jump in on every issue there is. They would only jump in on things that are life threatening for someone in the school or if a student/ faculty member is in serious danger. It would make the students feel much safer knowing that someone is there to protect them. Having officers in the schools will help get kids that are afraid of them to become used to them, and starting to get used to them at a younger age. Also, students would go to them more often when they are in trouble or need help with something. Another helpful thing is that they are already trained to handle a gun and be in situations where one is needed. There is an association called the School Resource Officer Association, their officers are call SROs (School Resource Officers). They have over 500 members in the association, and about 95% of them are officers themselves. This association creates more jobs for people that need them, and helps protect the children in schools all over the nation. Whether or not the schools use this association, having an officer just from the local police station would help prevent the students from being afraid of them and help them feel safer. Resource Officers have helped in a lot of schools in many different places. At a high school in Maryland, their deputy, Blaine Gaskill, was on duty during a school shooting. One of the students pulled a gun on two other students, and wounded them both. The officer on duty there jumped in between them and fired towards the student with a gun to make them stop. Officials aren’t sure if it was the officer that hit the student or if the student had turned the gun on themselves, but the deputy was able to prevent the student from turning this situation into something that could have been much worse. In another case, the sheriff in Sarasota county added officers to their school along with help for students with anxiety. The officer on duty at their school was able to stop a physical fight between two students that was getting really out of hand. One of the students in the fight was injured, but the officer was able to jump in and stop it before it became worse. I used to believe that having resource officers in schools was a bad idea, I didn’t think they would be able to work in/with the schools very well. After reading about it I’ve realised that having them in schools would make the students feel safer while getting their education, and they really would be safer. Resource officers could be a great solution to giving the schools better safety and security.
Saeed Ahmed and Christina Walker of CNN have reported that there were 17 school shootings from January 1st through March 24th. That’s an average of 1.4 school shootings every week. School violence is clearly a rapidly growing issue that needs to be taken seriously. In order to keep students in schools safe, districts must set up an anonymous online reporting system to report threats concerning school safety.
ReplyDeleteTo begin with, my idea to keep schools safe is for each district to set up an anonymous online reporting system to submit tips about planned attacks, bullying, self-harm, and depression. Every student within the district would have access to the reporting system and would report on the suspicious individual whom they feel is a danger to themselves or others. They could also report on what it is that they are doing that could pose danger. Furthermore, local law enforcement would also have access to the reporting system, and could have direct communication with the responsible individual who has submitted a tip. Law enforcement could then respond to the situation if they feel that the individual who is endangering others is considered a high priority threat. This is my idea that I am confident will help keep schools safe.
This idea will surely work for multiple reasons. First of all, as law enforcement would have direct communication with the courageous individual who submitted a tip, they would be able to respond to the person who is showing threatening behavior and could prevent that person from hurting themselves as well as others. If this were to happen, the police could potentially prevent an attack from happening in the first place. This would save many lives. Next, the cost to bring in an anonymous reporting system is nothing. This means that each district would not have to worry about being unable to set up a reporting system due to the cost, because it is free. Finally, Kati Garner, a district mental health and crisis coordinator in School District 51, has stated that “kids I talk to really appreciate having a platform where they won’t be seen as a snitch...it’s helping us save lives and it’s helping us get ahead of the game because we have this information.” One of the reasons that anxious kids would be hesitant to submit tips is because they would be seen as a snitch. However, because the reporting system is anonymous, the district and local law enforcement would not know the identity of the person submitting the tip, and therefore the concerned student would feel more comfortable with reporting threats. These are a few of the many reasons why this idea will work.
To continue, this idea has worked before in the past. At Bookcliff Middle School, an anonymous reporting system called Safe2Tell had reportedly received “94 tips about suicidal ideation, 59 tips about bullying, 38 tips about self-harm, 32 tips about depression, and 32 tips about planned attacks.” This proves that students are comfortable with reporting tips and it has helped save lives. Furthermore, T. Gregory Bender, the President and CEO of Anonymous Alerts has stated that “...our Anonymous Alerts anti-bullying and safety reporting system has rapidly expanded throughout the United States...helping...create safer school climates.” This statement clearly illustrates that the idea of an anonymous reporting system has gained popularity throughout the country, and has helped create safer schools. These are some examples of how the idea of an anonymous reporting system has worked in the past.
In conclusion, I know that I will feel safer in school if the district implemented an anonymous reporting system because I would know that the administrators and law enforcement are looking out for potential threats. While it could be stated that we should improve school infrastructure or hire resource officers for every school, it is most important that districts set up an anonymous reporting system. The sooner each district sets up an anonymous reporting system, the sooner students will feel safe in school.
The first school shooting was in 1840. Since then, the amount of devastating school shootings have multiplied. Rapidly. Just this year, on February 14, 2018 there was a shooter at Marjory Douglas High School who killed 17 students. Or, on 2006, September 29 a student died at Weston High School. The list goes on and on. America’s students are dying. There have been many ideas that have been put forward on how to fix this devastating issue, but the most logical is regulating guns by implementing some form of gun control. Afterall, getting rid of guns will rid the shooters of their weapon.
ReplyDeleteFirst off, there seems to be a stereotype linked to gun control that it would mean people losing all rights to bearing weapons. In reality, gun control is as the title suggests; a way to control America’s guns. It would mean more background checks, an increased minimum age to buy guns, a waiting period for your gun, and if you have an unsatisfactory record, you would be unable to purchase a gun. Gun control would mean safer schools.
Taking a step back and thinking about gun control is all that’s necessary to realize how vital it is for school safety. With gun control, there would be less violence overall, and less crime, considering criminals would find it more difficult to get their hands on a weapon. As of now, unlicensed sellers can sell guns to who they choose, with little to no restrictions on it. Meaning, that a 16 year old student would be able to go on Craigslist and potentially purchase a gun. Currently only 12 states have the minimum age of 21 years old to buy guns, but more are wisely switching over. Quite recently, in fact, the Florida Governor passed a law raising the minimum age to purchase a gun. It’s a big step for Florida, and will hopefully stop more tragedies like the shooting at Marjory Douglas High School. And, with luck, more of America will start taking that step to keep our unprotected students safe.
In many other countries, gun control has shown miraculous results, decreasing the amount of malicious shootings, and gun violence, along with school safety. For instance, in Norway they are ranked 10th worldwide for gun ownership. But, they are at the bottom of the list for gun homicide rates. Gun control helped make that happen. And while some people will argue that it would be better to create a system to report worrying people, ultimately gun control will be the best option. With gun control, potential shooters would be left unarmed, without any means to attack vulnerable students. Afterall, not everyone can recognize the signs of a possible killer. Considering the U.S. is only 5% of the world’s population, and they make up 31% of global mass shooters, America definitely needs some form of gun control.
Ultimately, gun control would be an extremely effective way to help stop school shooting. It’s worked well in other countries, even ones that still allow the citizens plenty of guns. Whereas, in the U.S. there are many guns, with no restrictions on them, and therefore many school shootings. Aside from school safety, there’d be other benefits to having gun control. There’d be less deaths, less violence, and less crime. Gun control isn’t the only option, but it’s the smartest. America should protect it’s youths, and implement gun control to help keep schools safe.
Over the past few months, many people have been discussing more about the tragic school shootings due to the previous shooting in Florida. While there are many opinions about what needs to be done, some more complex than others my idea is that we should have veterans guard our schools. This would work, due to it helping the economy and our schools system for overall safety. so together we should go and make the difference to have armed guards in our school
ReplyDeleteMy idea is to have veterans guard our previously fragile schools to stop people who are trying to hurt the students. My idea will work by having the veterans arrive before the school day starts for the students. This will prevent the crime by having the veterans guard the student through the entire day. It will also make planning a school shooting much harder, therefore much less likely. All of the armed veterans will be paid by tax money (it could be local/state). This could be done by only adding a .5% tax increase. This tax will be put only to paying the veterans and supplying them with their equipment. Finally, having veterans guarding the schools will allow students to understand guns at a much younger age, giving them a new confidence through their lives. This can be done easily and safe to help others understand how guns work and to be more comfortable around them by having them around more often. It will also give an understanding that it is a normal thing and that they have nothing to fear.
Once veterans are in the schools to guard us we can now know how much better school safety will be. Only to start having the title of having armed guards will prevent most of the crime itself. This is a psychological event of you (the potential shooter) being afraid of the worst or in our case getting shot. This happens more than you would think. New York times said that “in England (one of the countries that have banned guns) they have more gun related violence by 42% than the United States” this is do to the United States criminals are more afraid of being shot. While you may say that in Australia there is much less gun violence since they got rid of personal guns this isn’t true because they have been losing their violence since many years before they banned guns.This will make sure that most of the schools are safe for the next day. Having Veterans as armed guards will also be an easy transfer between jobs. Veterans are already pre-trained by the military. This means that our tax dollars are not being spent on training, but rather the actual defence.
Having armed veterans will also help the economy. Once you decide not to sign up for another year in service of the military, many veterans will struggle to go from a very different lifestyle in the military to a civilian lifestyle. Having armed Veterans in schools will give them a closer job to what they used to have rather than to have a much larger jump. This will make sure that many veterans would want the job because many veterans end up working in police, security, and guards . Finally, having armed veterans in every school will add many job offers to so many people it will be insane. This will add more money going through the economy to make it stronger and more reliable than ever before. All in all having armed veterans will only help with the problems we face
Veterans in our schools will change the world for the better. We can change the world today by taking part in our government to change it for the better. All you have to do is go to you towns/cities conferences that are made to help you town/city for the better and make a difference today.
Mental Health In Schools
ReplyDeletePaige Edwards
School safety is a very popular topic right now because of all the recent shootings. I don’t believe that this is a problem is because of the abuse of guns instead I think this issue stems from mental health. There are many things we can do to avoid this problem getting any worse and I would really like to see those things done. Schools with become safer when students feel welcome and feel they have someone that they can talk to.
In order for children to feel safe at school, several things need to happen. One counselor for every 100 students should be mandatory in a school, kids should also feel safe in their peers, by starting a program that makes it possible to have safe, healthy communications with other students could also allow kids to feel safer. Teachers that are better trained in the mental, emotional field could benefit mentally damaged kids as we don’t want to aggravate them even more because let’s face it kids won’t always be able to be with their counselors.
This type of system has been proven to work. If kids have more people to trust at school they will become less aggravated with people and cause less problems. Right now many districts don’t have a person they can always go to talk to that they trust and I feel that would beneficial. With more counselors they won’t be as busy and have more available time for the kids that need it.
There are many great examples of how this has worked but a really good one comes from a school district in Massachusetts. This school uses a survey at the beginning of the year to see who they should target first to supply help. If the family wants it the school will provide extra resources to get the child help. This program was developed and maintained by a group of qualified nurses.
Although it could be said that every school should now have metal detectors at the door or that arming teachers is the best way to avoid more shootings in the future I think the mental health end of this issue should be dealt with first. Imagine if you had lots of pent up emotions with no one you can release them on, that can drive you to do really crazy things you otherwise wouldn’t do. Schools will become safer when students mental health becomes a priority.
Keeping America’s School Safe: School Resource Officers
ReplyDeleteAccording to CNN’s Saeed Ahmed and Christina Walker, from January 1 to March 24, 2018, there were 17 school shootings. This is an average of 1.4 school shootings per week. We need to do something to stop another one of these terrible events from happening. The smartest and most effective option are SROs, if we hire SROs at every school district in America we can greatly decrease the number of school shootings that occur in our country, and help keep our country’s students safe.
To start, School Resource Officers (SROs) should be stationed in every school district. If we have one (or more) SRO(s) at each district that rotate between schools they will be much safer. SROs are police officers that are stationed in schools to provide safety and help to students of that school. Police officers must meet certain qualifications to become SROs. They must have at least two years of experience as officers, they must be good at public speaking, they must be able to function as a role model, and they must go through a strenuous special training program. SROs do a variety of different things in school. Obviously, they stop school violence and stop dangerous weapons from coming into schools. However they also help in different ways, they can help counsel children and give them someone to talk to, they also can build relationships with students and help make them less afraid of police officers. To sum up, SROs are fearless police officers that when stationed at schools, help greatly improve student’s safety.
Furthermore, there is much evidence for the effectiveness of SROs. In a study in which 19 programs where involved, there was much proof found for the helpfulness of SROs. 24% of the SROs studied had taken firearms from a student which could have been used to hurt someone, also 87% had taken knives or other deadly blades that could have ended up severely wounding another student. Next, 67% percent of the SROs reported having stopped some sort of assault on school grounds. Finally, 94% had been told about violent threats that they could then help stop. All in all, the findings from this study show that SROs are very useful, many of them have been able to do things that have helped protect our country's innocent students and staff at schools.
Finally, the idea of SROs has not been around that long, but there has already been some success of stopping active school shooters at specific schools. For example, at Great Mills High School in Maryland, a brave SRO, Blaine Gaskill, rushed, and stopped a shooter who had already opened fire. However, there was also an SRO at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, he did not help stop the shooter who brutally killed 17 people. Although this could be seen as a sign that SROs are not effective, it could also have been that this SRO simply didn’t have good enough training to stop the shooter. If we are going to have SROs they need to be qualified and well trained outside of just police officer training. To sum up, there have been actual instances of an SRO stopping an active school shooter, but if we want this to happen more often at terrifying, potential school shootings we need well trained SROs.
Having SROs in schools helps both defend students and prevent dangerous weapons from entering our schools. It also helps to discourage students or other people from attacking schools and has had great results. Although it could be argued that the best way to reduce school shootings is with gun control, clearly this is not true. Gun control will not stop anyone who really wants to get a gun from getting it, they can purchase one through illegal methods. SROs on the other hand are physical protection for the students of our schools. Help make all children safe while they learn, School Resource Officers make schools safer and are the best solution to one of our nation's biggest problems.
Mental Health in Schools
ReplyDeleteCollin Neitzel
While school shootings are currently taking the news right now they may be more dangerous than you think. The average school population is around 600. The most recent school shooting that has taken the news is almost having 2.5% of student dead. Imagine hearing on the news that there is a school shooting where your child is. This means your child has a 97.5% chance of living. Although this may not seem like a lot of odds of your child getting hurt, a life at risk is nothing to joke about.
Some people believe that we should have mental therapy for schools, but some people may not know what this is. Mental therapy is a treatment used to stop and prevent heartless mental disabilities. The idea of having mental therapy for desperate schools would deal with districts having a unit set up for kids to come to. Kids would each spend 15 minutes a day at therapy. Overall the schedule of the times would equivalent to 32 kids for the average 8 hour day.
Most people may fall for things just by being told what is going to be planned but evidence can really secure the idea. The odds of someone becoming ill is extremely high with a rate of 1 in 5. These odds have a 50% chance of happening before the age of 14. The depressing part about this is that only 38% of people will ever get fixed from this. All in all, the odds secure fact that this needs to be fixed.
Everyone loves the idea of an expert having some intel on an idea. Beecher Bater (a school supervisor) says that,“Early intervention is key”. The reason why Beecher says this is that mental illnesses can progressively get worse. This is one of the reasons of why the Florida shooter got corrupt enough to actually shoot up a school. Another expert from TED says that, “Early intervention”, is also key. Some experts know how to fix these problems but they also know what happens if people don’t get treated. TED experts also say that, “If extreme this can cause suicide”. They also say that this can make kids fall into the line of drugs and gangs as they try to find out who they are.
When I first thought of the idea of having mental therapy it didn’t really stick. I would think to myself, “These schools that are getting shooting must already be too corrupt to fix.” And while this statement can be correct it doesn’t mean that the next generation would be affected by therapy. Even though mental therapy isn’t an instant fix on the current problem in school it could still help the kids of the future.
If you have seen or heard the news in the last couple of months you may have a heard of the school shootings occurring in the U.S. There are many reasons as to why they’re happening so there are also many solutions to the problem as well. You may disagree with me but I also beliebe that one of those solutions would be for the majority of schools and communities to have an available psychologist.
ReplyDeleteFor those of you wondering what in the world a psychologist is, a psychologist is a social scientist who also may work along side and is not to be confused with a psychiatrist. They help there patients with issues in their life and a lot of the times they also help them sort out the pros and cons of decisions that the patients are struggling with making. A psychologist is also not to be confused with a therapist. While therapists usually have taken a few classes and recieved a few degrees in their field, usually a psychologist will have recieved a PhD or a doctorate making them a slightly better decision over a therapist. A psychologist would also be able to spot potential shooters and help people who still need help even if they aren’t putting other people in immediate danger.
One reason to have more available psychologists is that it’s easier to spot people who may put others around them in danger. After the Sandy Hook Elementary Shooting it was stated that both shooters had displayed worrying behaviours before the tragedy. Maybe if they been able to find and get the help that they needed nothing to serious would’ve happened. It’s also much easier to keep up witha mentally healthy school and community than to risk any tragic occurences.
If you are wondering why you should trust what has been written so far, fear not, for here are some professional organizations and people who know what they’re talking about. I don’t know if you’ve heard of the Community Counseling Center (CCC) is so maybe I’ll be able to explain it well enough. The CCC is an organization that helps create and keep up with a mentally healthy communtiy. This organization helps with treating with mental illnesses and recovery of both mental and physical injuries. The beliefs of Professor Glenn Geher also seem as if they collide with the CCC as I quote “...our nation is getting less and less mentally healthy with time. And yes, it is a problem.” If you don’t agree with what these people have said and what they believe, maybe this solution isn’t the one for.
Like I said in the beginning yo may not agree with my ideas, but this is only one of the many solutions. And even if you don’t agree with me I still believe that a more available psychologist, or form of psychologist, could help both schools and communities immensely.
Andrew LaCrosse
ReplyDelete6th Hour
DeVries
Anonymous Reporting Systems
With school safety issues on the rise, it is more important than ever that we address the issue of school safety. According to CNN’s Saeed Ahmed and Christina Walker, there were 17 school shootings from Jan. 1 to March 24. This proves that we must do something to make sure that our kids stay safe in school. The best way we can do this is by implementing anonymous reporting systems for the students to use.
First of all, you need to know how this system would work. An anonymous reporting system would be an outlet for students to tell teachers, administrators, and possibly law enforcement about dangerous situations in the school. It is a hotline, website, and app where students can submit anonymous reports concerning issues about things like suicide, mental health, and school safety. Skilled operators then decided whether the report is relevant to personal or school safety, and decide if it is relevant or not. If something or someone is in danger, the operators then contact trusted administrators, counselors, and law enforcement about the issue.
Secondly, there are numerous reasons that this system can help benefit schools. About 70% of all deadly school shooters tell someone about their plans, and 60% of suicidal people tell someone about their plans. With an anonymous outlet, everyday students will be more inclined to get them help. Most students who are suicidal or mentally ill also post many clues about it on social media. An anonymous reporting system would give students an easy way to help stop those things before because they saw the clues online. This will decrease the amount of suicides and school shootings.
Finally, we can see the proud success of this system with Colorado’s Safe2tell. This system which has been in use in Colorado, has proven to be very effective. The system has thwarted several school shooting events, and has gotten much need help for suicidal and mentally ill students. It has worked so well the Colorado has made it law to have the Safe2Tell program in schools, and the Sandy Hook Promise wants to make their own anonymous reporting system.
All in all, the effects of an anonymous reporting system could greatly increase the safety of our schools, and the happiness of our students. Student will no longer have to be scared to come to school because they know that their school is safe, and they can help save lives if someone seems off. All schools should implement anonymous reporting systems because they greatly improve the school environment.
Self Defense
ReplyDeletePicture yourself as a typical kid in a typical school. Except, you are not in a typical situation. At least, the situation that you’re in shouldn’t be typical. You are trapped in a corner, huddled together with your classmates. You are terrified and vulnerable, with a shooter roaming the halls. He could bust through the door any moment, because what protection can be found in a door? You would be in plain sight. You have no idea how to defend yourself. But what if you could? What if you were trained in self defense? Schools would be so much safer if both students and teachers are trained in self defense. This is clear when you turn to the statistics and the experts.
First of all, what does this idea mean? Self defense is a growing idea that is being widely accepted by parents and teachers because different threats are becoming more common in schools. The idea is that both teachers and students would learn it so that if there was a threat in a school, such as an angry shooter. Both staff and students would be able to protect themselves better. Classes for these take place in a physical education class, or if on a college campus there are courses available for it. Staff typically take classes outside of school hours. Useful techniques that are learned in these classes include tae kwon do, using the body to protect the individual, and utilizing common classroom objects or other casual items that might be around somebody.
Now, let’s take a look at the statistics. Many places are taking to the idea. Grand Canyon University is offering classes for self defense to students that want to be ready and prepared for a threatening situation. These classes teach strategies to use in case of a real scenario, which they call “real world physical training.” UC Davis Police Departments have been offering monthly training sessions, because the local campus has recently had an increase in robbery and sexual assault. The class teaches participants how to use school supplies, and it also includes “self- awareness education”. Studies show that teaching self defense to students is becoming a more common includement in physical education classes because these sorts of threats are becoming more and more frequent.
What do the experts say? Experts on this subject include Hudson, who said that “kids aren’t dying in fires. They’re dying because they are being shot. That’s the truth and that’s the threat.” Hudson teaches his classes many unique strategies, including how to turn the gun away. CNN Kim Segal reported that parents are now believing that it should be “mandatory for educators.” This is because these threats are becoming much more prominent, and naturally a parent or guardian would be concerned for their student’s safety. Frank Taylor, another expert, noted that “...if we have knowledge of how to use our bodies and our surroundings, that in itself is the best form of arming ourselves.” Frank Taylor taught his students how to use classroom objects, how to run from the sound of bullets, and how to find the room’s “blind spot.”
So many things could help students, teachers and staff to be safer in school when faced with a school shooter. Infrastructures, gun control, and student mental therapy are all great steps that could work and have worked so well. However, training in self defense is the first step to school safety. It allows kids and teachers to be able to protect themselves with themselves, even outside school. It also puts the minds of parents at ease, knowing that their kid is in safe hands- their own hands.
Recently, school safety has been a very popular topic. There are many different ways that we could prevent our innocent children from harm, but based on statistics and experts, most shootings are committed by kids who are victims of bullying. To keep students safe in school, schools must enforce more anti bullying programs.
ReplyDeleteAnti bullying programs could be used in schools to decrease the chances of something terrible happening. Some ways these programs could help are having a website or another way to report bullying anonymously whether you are being bullied or witness bullying. Another example of what these programs could do is to get students together to teach empathy and coping skills and make new friends to help students be more understanding of each other. A final example is a way for parents, students, and teachers to communicate with each other. Homelife can affect a student's behavior at school and if parents, teachers, and students had better communication, problems at school could be resolved easier. There are many more useful ways to use these programs.
Bullying in schools happens much more often than it is witnessed by adults. 1 in 4 students get bullied in school. Bullying can lead to feelings of isolation from peers and cause kids to feel like nobody cares about them. 12 out of 15 shooters are known to have experienced bullying. Anti bullying programs may help prevent acts of violence in school and help students reach out before it is too late.
Experts are studying the effects of bullying on kids. Adelphi university assistant professor of sociology, Jessie Klein said “...this perpetrator who have clearly violent proclivities are more likely to act on them in a society where bullying takes place, where people have very little time to stop for one another and support one another.” Jessie Klein’s statement shows how kids who are being bullied may feel the need to act out. Professors Michael Kimmel and Matthew Mahler found that most boys who committed high school shootings were bullied in middle school. Anti Bullying programs could decrease bullying in schools overall.
Although it could be argued that gun laws are the real problem, kids being bullied is just as great of a problem. Anti bullying programs will not only prevent school shootings, but it will also help students make new friends. If schools enforce an anti bullying program, schools will be much safer.
According to CNN’s Saeed Ahmed and Christina Walker, there were 17 school shootings from January 1 to March 24 this year. That’s an average of 1.4 school shootings a week. To keep students safe governments/districts must improve how schools address mental issues.
ReplyDeleteTo keep schools safe the idea is that school officials will identify mental issues like bullying because it is one of the main causes of school shootings. They will address the bullying problem in their school and learn about the bullies and their victims. Then they will go through the list of potential metal signs like depression, anger, and behavior in classes of the bullies and their victims. If the school decides that the student is at a high risk of violence they will contact the authorities. This is the first step on how to keep schools safe.
Bullying is one of the many symptoms for someone to cause violence in schools. First of all, school officials must be able to identify what bullying is and how the school deals with bullying. Even though many people would think improving school infrastructure would keep schools safe, addressing bullying and other mental problem is the first step. Many people would think that the bully would be the one as the school shooter, it would actually be more likely the victim because of verbal and physical abuse. Many schools have a hard time addressing bullying because of the limited time and money they are supplied. Experts say that the best way to stop bullying is to stop it before it starts. This is why we need to identify and stop bullying to keep schools safe.
Finally, to be able to stop the threat from ever happening to a school is to identify the shooter before it happens. Many experts say that the best way to find a school shooter is for students to report “leakage” about what the student is planning to do. It is important of kids to report these things to someone they trust to alert the school before anything bad happens. Peter Langman the author of Why Kids Kill states “Someone who’s a bit odd is not a danger. Someone who’s a bit odd and is talking about bringing a gun to school is a potential danger.” This really show how their is a fine line between a danger and a regular person. Many other warnings sign are being very depressed and acting withdrawn.To identify the threat is how we stop violence in schools.
Although many people think that having more police officers on a campus or improving school infrastructure will be the key to keeping schools safe, the first step is actually identifying mental illnesses. Kids from ages 13-18, 1 in 5 have a mental illness. This will help my school and many other schools because so many kids and potential school shooters suffer from mental illnesses. Addressing mental issues will help the government/districts keep schools safe.
Violence must be stopped. So, we need a solution. From this year, there were 17 school shootings between Jan. 1st to Mar. 24th all within this year. That adds up to an average of 1.4 shootings per week. These are the reports of CNN’s Christina Walker and Saeed Ahmed. These acts of violence are not what the generations now and in the future should have to worry so heavily about. School marshals are the best solution to keeping our schools and the people in them safe from harm.
ReplyDeleteSchool marshals are teachers or staff members in a school specifically trained to carry a weapon on campus. School marshals can be anyone on the campus premises. These include janitorial positions to sports coaches. School marshals require an extensive amount of training. Their routines include 80 hours of training, extensive background checks, recurring training to keep their skills sharp on confronting and neutralizing shooters, and mental health screenings. School marshals are actually a new branch of peace officer created in Texas. School marshals can’t always have their weapons on their persons though. For example, if a teacher happens to be a school marshal, then they must put their weapon away, but it has to be in an easy to access place in case of emergency. Such as a desk droor. It’s away from children, but still within reach of the school marshal. The only time school marshals can carry their guns on their persons is when no children are present. This is just a brief explanation of what a school marshal is and does.
Two experts on the matter of the school marshal program and school safety have given their opinions on the school marshal program. In the article “Texas Schools can choose to arm their teachers. Here’s how it works.” from the Public Broadcasting Service website, Jason Villalba, a Texas representative and the architect of the school marshal program says, “I hear this program often called arming the teachers. That’s not what this is. What we’re really trying to do is train individuals to be peace officers.” This quote sheds light on the fact that arming teachers is not the direct goal or purpose of the school marshal program. Rather, it’s that they are training certain school staff members to be comforting officers of peace ready for an emergency. While it could be argued that improving schools’ infrastructures is the best way to keep schools safe, it is actually school marshals because there may not always be a place for students to stay safe and away from harm, but a school marshal will be right there with students taking care of the situation, but with one goal in mind. Keeping the innocent children in their care alive. Also, Joe McKenna, associate director for the Texas School Safety Center at Texas State University had a few things to say in the article “Texas schools marshal armed staff to curb school shootings” written by John Austin, LLC State Reporter. Mckenna said, “We haven’t had any major incidents in Texas. All we can say is, it appears that Texas is ahead of the curve in terms of safety.” In other words, the amount of problems in this area are greatly lowered. Because of it, they are more ahead in ideas of increasing school safety.
The school marshal program has shown proof that it does show improvement and the use of the program is spreading rapidly. In the year 2013, Texas allowed its schools’ staff members to carry licensed guns in the schools or even become a school marshal. Since then, there have been no gun related accidents reported. Also, the school marshal and guardians programs have eased the public’s fears of school shooters. This shows that because of these programs, people in Texas can now send their children to school with more assurance that their children will be safe in their school environment. In addition, more than 100 school districts in Texas have allowed teachers and personnel to carry weapons on the school premises and receive training on how to respond when being violently attacked. This information clearly shows the growth of not only the use of the program, but also the improvement it has made to the school environment and the people in various communities.
ReplyDeleteThere are many ways to keep schools safe. From having more emotional counseling for students, to improving the school’s infrastructure. While these are all very effective, we should first and foremost acknowledge the school marshal program because the staff and innocent students inside the school witnessing the danger should be the people we protect first. With school marshals, this could happen. We have all of these ways to keep schools safe, but with school marshals, the safety of not only the people inside the schools will be more insured, but the communities and families outside of the school environment will be safer as well by knowing that their children will be safe in school.
The most effective way to keep students safe at school, would be to ban high capacity magazines. According to CNN’s Saeed Ahmed and Christina Walker, there were seventeen school shootings from January 1st to March 24th this year. On average, that’s 1.4 school shootings each week. Now, imagine being a student and being scared for your life as you walk into the school building, wondering if someone would bring a gun to your school. Now imagine feeling secure and safe at school. A federal ban on high capacity magazines would help innocent students be protected and safe.
ReplyDeleteFirst of all, a ban on high capacity magazines would help keep students safer at schools by lowering the amount of bullets a gun can fire. High capacity magazines, according to the Huffington Post, are, “...devices that dramatically boost a weapon’s firing power…” Or in other words, an add-on to guns that increases the amount of bullets a gun can fire before reloading. By banning high capacity magazines, it would decrease the number of people dying in mass shootings, by lowering the amount of bullets fired. Some magazines can fire up to 50 bullets without forcing the shooter to stop and reload the gun. If the shooter has to stop and reload, it gives victims time to run, or get the gun from the shooter. Large capacity magazines were federally banned from 1994 to 2004. After the federal ban expired, the number of deaths as the result of gun massacres skyrocketed. Altogether, the evidence supports the banning of high capacity magazines.
Additionally, expert opinions and research studies support this belief. According to a CNN article, “An analysis performed by CNN found that states that have enacted magazine restrictions are associated with fewer mass shooting events.” Another research study done by Louis Klaverous, at the University of Massachusetts at Boston, and author of “Rampage Nation,” showed similar results. Klaverous said, “We have found that when large capacity mags are regulated, you get drastic drops in both the incidence of gun massacres and the fatality rate of gun massacres.” In his research, he defined gun massacres as a massacre where six or more people were shot and killed. In addition, he found that in the decade following the end of the federal ban, there was a 183% increase in massacres, and a 239% increase in the number of deaths in a massacre. Another expert who agrees, is Michael Siegal, a community health professor at Boston University, who stated, “Whether a state has a large capacity ammunition magazine ban is the single best predictor of the mass shooting rate in that state.” All in all, banning high capacity magazines would help keep our country, specifically children and schools safe.
Lastly, investigations, studies, and gun experts’ opinions conclude that a ban on large capacity magazines would be most beneficial for keeping our schools safe. Evidence that supports this, is that in a Mother Jones investigation, it was discovered that high capacity magazines had been used in at least half of the mass shootings from 1982 to 2012. There were 62 occasions, during that time, when a mass shooting occurred. In addition to that, they found that if a high capacity magazine was used, the death rate of mass shootings increased by 63%, and the injury rate rose by 156%. Also, The New York Times questioned thirty-two gun policy experts on how effective different gun changes would be at preventing mass shootings, on a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 as not effective, and 10 as highly effective. The gun policy experts gave a ban on high capacity magazines (and an assault weapons ban) a 6.8, which was the highest rating given to the almost 30 policies or laws they were questioned about. In conclusion, the experts and researchers agree that high capacity magazines would be the most successful at preventing mass shootings, and keeping schools safe.
ReplyDeleteAs was previously stated, if there was a federal ban on high capacity magazines, it would severely improve children’s safety at school. It has worked in the past, and will work again. It would also lower both the death rate and injury rate of mass shootings. So, help children focus on learning instead of fearing for their safety by supporting a federal ban on large capacity magazines.
According to Saeed Ahmed and Christina Walker of CNN, there were 17 school shootings from January 1 to March 24 this year. That averages to 1.4 shootings each week. Think about how many innocent children are killed in those. This needs to be changed. Those numbers would decrease and schools, that are educating America’s next generation, will become safer when there are School Resource Officers (SRO’s) patrolling schools and school grounds.
ReplyDeleteTo start off, the federal definition of an School Resource Officer is, a career law enforcement officer with sworn authority who is deployed by an employing police department or agency in a community-oriented policing assignment to work in collaboration with one or more schools. In simpler terms, it is an officer/security guard who is placed in a school to serve the purpose of whatever the school needs them for. Some of their purposes range from perking up students to directing bus traffic to settling disputes to keeping an eye out for threats. Their main role is to make students and staff in schools feel safer. School Resource Officers provide a higher level of security for the school and are educators on issues related to safety and the law. Some of the more positive parts of an SRO’s job are to attend and participate in school functions, be visible within the school community, and to have close contact and positive relationships with the school staff, students, and parents. When people say that counselors would work better than SRO’s, think about the fact that while counselors help students get over bullying, harassment, and other problems, SRO’s are there so those things rarely/never happen in the first place. Those things not happening would make a big difference in a young child’s life.
Next, there are many statistics that support School Resource Officers in schools. Before SRO’s 74% of the nation’s schools reported violent incidents of crime that lead to arrests. In schools that gained SRO’s, juvenile arrests dropped 17%, arrests for school-based assaults decreased 52%, and there was a 73% drop in arrests involving weapons on school grounds. Also, in a survey of 119 high school, middle school, and elementary school principals, they found surprisingly high results. It was found that 98% of high school principals support SRO’s in high schools, 94% of middle school principals support SRO’s in their middle schools, and 50% of elementary school principals support SRO’s in their elementary schools. Because of that support schools gained SRO’s and 88% of schools with SRO’s believed crime decreased after gaining one. All in all, School Resource Officers are supported by many statistics that make them seem like a good idea.
Finally, there are facts that support School Resource Officers in schools too. Such as, even though this may seem like an SRO’s main job, on-campus law enforcement is their least important job. To support SRO’s, New York City, Chicago, Miami-Dade County, and Houston schools all have more SRO’s than counselors. That shows that there is a real difference between the two. Also, in schools with SRO’s bullying and harassing seems to happen less, so SRO’s not only keep students safe from outsiders, but also from insiders/other students. There are many types of SRO’s so they differ on what the school needs. Overall, school-based policing is one of the fastest growing areas of law enforcement, so that proves that SRO’s are doing something right.
Even though other ideas could work, such as arming teachers or changing the schools’ infrastructure, SRO’s are the best choice because there are many reasons to support them, and they can do so many different things. School shooters hurt schools and School Resource Officers protect them, which would you rather have?
School Safety Position Paper
ReplyDeleteAccording to CNN’s Saeed Ahmed and Christina Walker, there were 17 school shootings from January 1st to March 4th this year. That is an average of 1.4 school shootings each week. As a student I think that school violence is a problem that we need to fix. Schools will become much safer when resource officers are in all schools. A resource can stop many instances of school violence. There is research to show why it will work. And, I will explain how it will work
A resource officer of some kind would help to keep schools safe. Here are some examples of what they can do. If there was a shooter inside of a school a resource officer could disarm them. The officers can do it much faster than someone who doesn’t have as much training as them. Another thing a resource officer can do is stopping fights between kids. Fights can break out in schools and the officers can stop them quickly. A resource officer can also check people before they enter the school. If a person is hiding something dangerous to kids, an officer can check them and take it away. Now that you know what my idea is here is why my idea will work.
A resource officer can do many things. This is why putting them in all schools will work. For example, school shootings have been in the news a lot lately and a resource officer could stop them. The officers have been trained know about guns and how to use a gun and disarm people with them. A lot of people wouldn’t know what to do during a school shooting besides some teachers. A resource officer can help kids get to safety and tell them what to do. Although some people say kids would be scared of the guards that they wouldn’t be if they get to know them. Just like how firefighters go into elementary schools and show kids they shouldn’t be scared of them, the resource officers can do that too. Once kids get to know the resource officer and see that they are a good person they won’t be as scared. Now that I have told you why my idea will work I am going to show you where this has worked before.
Resource officers have helped in schools before. This is why having more will help. Richard K. James, from the university of Memphis, made a survey for 800 security guards in schools. In that survey, 75 percent of the guards said they had taken weapons form students at school. Also, the New York State police made a program that sent officers to schools in the region. Those officers said they had overseen 2,006 criminal incidents, 52 bomb threats, and had confiscated 92 weapons including 11 guns. That is a lot of things they did. One of those kids could have started a school shooting and killed helpless kids in the process. If the guards hadn’t taken away those weapons there could have been a disaster. If the guards were not there there could have been an explosion killing kids and hurting families.
In conclusion, I think that putting a resource officer in all schools is the first thing we should do to make schools safer. I have told you what my idea is, why it will work, and how it has worked before.
SCHOOL SAFETY
ReplyDeleteCurrently, many people are very concerned about the safety of schools across the country. One of the biggest things that can be done to prevent school shootings is to appoint School Marshals. Although many people are against the idea, school marshals will reduce the chances of someone attempting to hurt people, and they could stop a threat to the school.
If there were school marshals, any potential school shooters would know that they will be stopped. A school with marshals would publicize the fact that there were armed staff members inside the school. This way, potential threats wouldn’t even attempt to harm anyone, and other students would feel safer. As President Trump said, “When a sick individual comes into that school they can expect major trouble.” School marshals would reduce the risk of threats to the school, which makes for a much safer environment.
A school marshal could also stop a shooter who was already in the building. Since they have a concealed weapon on them at all times, they would be able to protect students in danger. According to Texas law enforcement, “The sole purpose of a school marshal is to prevent the act of murder or serious bodily injury on school premises and act only as defined by the school board/ governing body.” This shows how school marshals will make schools safer places while effectively protecting students and saving lives.
Even though school marshals create much safer schools, many people are against the idea of arming staff members. First of all, a lot of teachers are scared of being forced to carry a gun. However, this would never happen. Becoming a school marshal is a long process, and a candidate isn’t even considered if they don’t want to be. In fact, before becoming a school marshal in certain states, the candidate has to be employed at the school, have a valid license to carry, pass a psychological exam, and complete the 80-hour training course before they’re ready to protect students. Despite these misconceptions, school marshals will keep students safe from harm.
Implementing school marshals is one of the most important things schools can do to keep their students safe. Not only could they stop a shooter in the school, but they will prevent shootings from happening in the first place. Parents and students are calling for action, and school marshals will make a big impact on the safety of schools everywhere.
As a student in 2018, the amount of school violence going on around us is worrying. We have to worry about whether or not we are going home each night or if we are safe while trying get an education. Having someone in the school to protect students would make them feel a lot safer. Resource officers could be very helpful to the need for better safety and security in schools.
ReplyDeletePutting armed/on duty resource officers in schools would provide the students with a sense of security. They would be required to train for certain situations that could occur while they are on duty. Also, the officers on duty would be there to protect the students and be friendly with them in the halls during school. Two officers would be on duty at a time, and would switch off half-way through the day. That way someone would always be on duty. Also, they wouldn’t jump in on every issue there is. They would only jump in on things that are life threatening for someone in the school or if a student/ faculty member is in serious danger. It would make the students feel much safer knowing that someone is there to protect them.
Having officers in the schools will help get kids that are afraid of them to become used to them, and starting to get used to them at a younger age. Also, students would go to them more often when they are in trouble or need help with something. Another helpful thing is that they are already trained to handle a gun and be in situations where one is needed. There is an association called the School Resource Officer Association, their officers are call SROs (School Resource Officers). They have over 500 members in the association, and about 95% of them are officers themselves. This association creates more jobs for people that need them, and helps protect the children in schools all over the nation. Whether or not the schools use this association, having an officer just from the local police station would help prevent the students from being afraid of them and help them feel safer.
Resource Officers have helped in a lot of schools in many different places. At a high school in Maryland, their deputy, Blaine Gaskill, was on duty during a school shooting. One of the students pulled a gun on two other students, and wounded them both. The officer on duty there jumped in between them and fired towards the student with a gun to make them stop. Officials aren’t sure if it was the officer that hit the student or if the student had turned the gun on themselves, but the deputy was able to prevent the student from turning this situation into something that could have been much worse. In another case, the sheriff in Sarasota county added officers to their school along with help for students with anxiety. The officer on duty at their school was able to stop a physical fight between two students that was getting really out of hand. One of the students in the fight was injured, but the officer was able to jump in and stop it before it became worse.
I used to believe that having resource officers in schools was a bad idea, I didn’t think they would be able to work in/with the schools very well. After reading about it I’ve realised that having them in schools would make the students feel safer while getting their education, and they really would be safer. Resource officers could be a great solution to giving the schools better safety and security.