Can We Prevent School Shootings

Sadly, violence in our schools is a reality of both our present and our past.  Often, the advanced countries have the highest prevalence of incidents, and the United States is on top.  70% of the incidents involved firearms, most often involving a high school.  

The obvious question does arise is how to provide safety in school?  The word safe, or its derivatives, seem to appear in most school vision or mission statements. It is important how to adapt to changes to school safety, procedurally and structurally. Read Is there really a God: https://rinkudas919.blogspot.com/search/label/God%20Exists

In the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, the number of deaths was 28. 

School leaders are constantly striving to stay abreast with the latest methods to protect school personnel and students from extreme violence. Ultimately, it is the responsibility of the principal to provide a platform for a safe school environment. 

“High profile acts of violence, particularly in schools, can confuse and frighten children who may feel in danger or worry that their friends or loved ones are at risk.” 

It is imperative that parents and school personnel can help children feel safe by establishing a sense of normalcy and security and talking with them about their fears.  The National Education Association’s School Crisis Guide should come into fore to prepare, react, and appropriately respond to a crisis so that such incidents do not occur in future.  The final outcomes report should be a driving force on this.

With the news publicity and television evening newscasts covering school shootings, the scares have become a subject of intense national debate. The debate should be objectively oriented rather than only publicity media coverage! 

We are in the midst of the 21^st century, it is imperative that school leaders need to be cognizant and well-versed about the serious dangers of school violence that are unfortunately a reality of our present.  They need to persist in situational awareness coupled with effective preventative steps that could potentially thwart tragedies on campus. It is vitally important to know what other educational leaders are, and are not, doing in regard to school safety.  

Safety should be our first and foremost priority.  We cannot compromise it.  Feeling safe is important and ensuring safety needs to be a reality. 

According to Newberry 2012 “parents, teachers, faculty, staff, and administration should continue to assist students in more broadly realizing that violence is not the solution to problems of anger or depression and that anti-violence programs, conflict mediation, and simply speaking with an adult could significantly improve the situation.” 

The school administration should be emphasized strongly and clearly that the school climate and culture are moving in the direction of feeling and acting in safer ways. 

Preventive measures should be taken, and some standards will be designed based on real-life experiences of educational leaders to strengthen and advance school leadership. The main motto is to effective educational leaders strive for equity of educational opportunity and culturally responsive practices to promote each student’s academic success and well-being. 

History of Gun Violence in Schools 

It is imperative to gain both a historical context and to understand the current lens through which we are viewing said violence. 

Violence in schools is not isolated to the United States. War-torn countries have often had incidents of horrific violence. In July of 2013, the terrorist group Boko Haram murdered 42 pupils at a secondary boarding school in Nigeria [McElroy, 2013]. 

The first documented United States school shooting termed Pontiac’s Rebellion school massacre which took the lives of the schoolmaster and ten children of the eleven presents occurred on July 26, 1764.  In the 1800s, there were several shootings on school grounds. 

From 1900 to1965, though the targeted shootings of the past century continued on school grounds, there are very few reports of mass killings as the three most violent school attacks involved arson or explosives. 

The first large-scale mass shooting on a school campus occurred on August 1, 1966, at the University of Texas-Austin where the gunman, aged 25, killed 17 and wounded 31 while shooting from an observation deck. This was the deadliest shooting on a college campus until the incident at Virginia Tech in 2007. 

In the late 1980s and into the 90s, large-scale mass shootings on school campuses increased dramatically. On April 20, 1999, twelve students and one teacher were killed, and 21 others were wounded by two 17 and 18-year-old students at Columbine High School. 

The 2000s continued the terrible trend of an increase in incidents of gun violence on school campuses.  In April 2007, a 23-year-old killed 32 and wounded 17 in two separate attacks that occurred on the same day. 

This shows the prevalence of gun violence on campus.  After the series of incidents, the schools across the United States began doing more to fortify their schools and security. 

School Attacks Analysis 

School shootings can have a tremendous impact on students, parents, teachers, and administrators. A series of such killing incidents in schools get a sense of fear among the students across the nation who are apprehensive about the possibility that the same thing could happen at their school. 

Although there has been a rise in the number of school shootings across the nation over the past decade, there has been very limited research aimed at analyzing the characteristics of attempted versus completed school shootings in schools.  

Most of the existing research has been conducted in the form of case studies. Although very important findings have come about as a result of the case studies, the increased number of incidents now makes it possible to study larger samples. This makes it possible to utilize quantitative methods to compare and contrast the characteristics of attempted versus completed school shootings [Agnich, 2014]. 

Perceptibly, these incidents have led to extensive discussion and changes to policy regarding school safety and gun control.  With mass killings within schools, a quantitative comparative analysis could provide additional insight into the traits and characteristics of schools and the individuals who attempt to carry out these incidents.  Also, having armed police/guards at their school during school hours may prevent such violence and it would make the campus safe. 

It is the responsibility of the administrators to motivate the students who are in the grip of fear and violence to revise their school’s safety plan, related to an armed intruder or terrorist. Awareness can prompt positive change. 

Gun Violence 

Every year, more than 30,000 Americans die as a result of gun violence. Researchers conservatively estimate that gun violence costs the American economy at least $229 billion every year, including $8.6 billion in direct expenses such as emergency care [Follman, Lurie, Lee, & West, 2015]. 

It also reports that 6.9% of students reported being threatened or injured with a weapon on school property one or more times within the 12 months leading up to responding to the survey [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2013]. Read Global Hunger: https://rinkudas919.blogspot.com/search/label/Global%20Hunger

SCHOOL LEGISLATION

Federal Legislation 

Year	Law	Summary
1994	Gun-Free School Zones Act (GFSZA)	A person may not bring a gun in a school zone, which is on campus or within 1000 feet of a school. Exceptions include concealed weapons permit holders, unloaded and locked firearms in a motor vehicle, and those contracted to carry a weapon on campus like a school resource police officer. (Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence 2013)
2002	Gun-Free Schools Act (GFSA)	If a student brings a firearm to school, that student must be expelled for a minimum of one year. This law includes a provision that district leaders may offer written modifications to the policy on a case-by-case basis but must report on all expulsions and modifications annually. (Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence 2013)

Conclusion 

Regardless of the reality of current statistics, the bottom line is that the perception of school safety and the care of school personnel and students is paramount. Heightened vigilance, improved procedures, and a vast range of security measures at varying costs will continue to be at the forefront 

It is important to understand the difference between the possibility of something happening and the probability that it will affect our school. 

With school violence occurring too often and being more well publicized, educational leaders and policymakers might want to have an acute acumen of the deeper implications of school safety. 

Closely examining safety policies at every level should be examined by reading research surrounding school violence and safety, and watching violent tragic events unfold in real time in the media, protecting faculty, staff, students, and parents on campus against extreme violence should remain school leaders’ highest priority.  With these immediate steps, we can reduce or eliminate major catastrophes on campus is possible. 

The need of the hour is to look out for a strategy which is a more balanced and comprehensive outlook of school climate and safety assessment. 

Ideally, school counsellors should have the time to get to know students and to be able to work with students who might become a threat prior to a threat occurring. Counsellors can assist students as they work through normal and difficult phases of life, transitions at home, difficulties making friends, etc. 

There is a tremendous need to advocate for change that will ultimately lead to safer schools and a responsive, proactive, intervention-based approach to potential threats.  Everyone must monitor legislation and advocate within our states and nation for what our stakeholders know is in the best interest of children and students.