Imagine what it would be like if the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas hadn’t happened. Seventeen students and teachers would have returned home on the night of Valentine’s Day. Sadly, they didn’t. The police in Parkland, Florida would have carried on with a normal work day. Sadly, they didn’t. The news on the night of Valentine’s Day would have been weather forecasts and small burglaries. Sadly, it wasn’t. These tragedies will continue to affect our country if nothing is done to strengthen the safety of our schools. We’re not asking for an international difference, we’re asking for a difference right here in Tennessee. A team of psychologists that works for the school system and examines the behavior of suspicious students with counseling …show more content…
According to Gallup News, one in 10 U.S parents say their student has voiced concern over their safety at school. 29% (3 out of 10) of U.S parents with school-aged children have said that they fear their child’s safety at school. These statistics don't even include the anxiety students may face from standardized testing, situations at home, bullying, and even just being accepted for who they are. The fear over safety can be prevented if a team of psychologists is set up to monitor students and counsel the students who are found to be bullied, involved in fights, or seem insecure about their appearance. An article from The Atlantic states that anxiety in students has been on the rise since the 1950s and has not only affected the suffering student, but the administrators trying to help the student. If students can feel more secure in one area of their anxiety, such as the safety of their surroundings, less pressure will be put on the administrators and students …show more content…
An ongoing study by Washington Post has found that more than 150,000 students in at least 170 elementary and middle schools have experienced a shooting on their school’s campus since the Columbine High School shooting in 1999. With plans set in place for potential shooters, the overall safety of schools will be greatly improved. After solving problems having to do with people and their actions, the other safety problems will be mainly related to natural events such as tornadoes, fires, and earthquakes, which can´t be controlled. We need plans in place for the events that can be prevented! From PsychLaw Journal, the odds of a shooting happening at a high school are 1 in 21,000. This means that these odds will only become greater as time goes on if nothing is done to prevent such events. Many may think that decreasing these odds with psychologists will be too expensive, but there is a possibility that low-budget schools can use these professionals as needed on a contract, for world peace doesn’t happen overnight. This is why we need to start with smaller plans such as monitoring the behavior of students in the classroom and on social media with a team of psychologists and move on to greater plans if
Large schools had a ratio of 90 serious violent incidents per 100,000 public school students, compared with 38 per 100,000 in medium-sized schools” (Klonsky 66). With rising numbers of school shootings and the like, small schools drastically reduce the chances of these events happening. The small stature of these schools generates a community in which anonymity does not exist as
One source found that “anti-depressant prescriptions for young adults in the vicinity of school shootings tend to rise after they occur” (McKnight et al. 2). The rise of anti-depressant prescriptions further proves that school shootings create mental health issues. Mcknight illustrates the effect such a tragic event has on a community. While anti-depressants provide relief to these sufferers, they also have harmful side effects that may interfere with their physical health, such as fatigue, nausea, and fatigue (Mayo Clinic Staff 1). In addition to increased prescription rates, school shootings affect children in the community more than violence in other locations because children know the victims, and school shootings break children's trust in school safety (Rossin-Slater 2).
A simple way to stop school shootings in our district would be by eliminating all the factors that form a school shooter. Most school shooter suffered from bullying or had some sort of mental illness. In order to minimize the chance of a kid becoming a school shooter, we need to increase awareness.
This should not be a worry for the child or parents but it has to be because at this point any school is a threat. So a possible factor in decreasing shootings is arming teachers, by doing this teachers can fight back instead of shielding or running from the shooter. Reason #2 teachers can defend their students by changing this law and using correct training teachers should be able to carry a weapon. By doing this not only insure safety it will give relief for parents all over the country. This tactic will give school staffs a chance to outnumber a possible shooter.
As a concerned citizen and college student, I recommend several policies to create a safer environment at school campuses. As there has been an increase in school shootings within the last ten years, the safety of students on campus has become a major concern. The problem of the increase in the number of school shootings has resulted in an unsafe environment for students affecting overall development. I am writing to seek your assistance on the issue of schools not having proper safety measures to prevent and respond to mass shootings, this issue must come to an end by finding an appropriate resolution. Gun control is a controversial topic that has been placed on the agenda for several years.
Many schools in today’s society suffer from shootings at some point while children are attending school. Shootings in schools are not a new occurrence, and America has dealt with multiple shootings in public schools in which the lives of many children and teachers have been undeservingly taken (Elliott 528). Because of school shootings, this leaves our children in danger with no way to protect themselves. Gun violence in schools is an evident problem, and there are several ways to reduce the number of incidents, such as mental health screening for owners of guns, interconnectedness of communities, and more school funding.
School shootings are a reoccurring problem in the United States. As of 2018, there have been over 18 school shootings in America (Cuddy). However, this is nothing new to us. Every year they are countless reports of school shootings ending in injury or death. It should be obvious that schools are the safest place for parents to send their children during the day, the sad truth is, it is not.
A nonprofit group that attempts to prevent gun violence called “Everytown for Gun Safety,” released a statement about school shootings. The organization claimed that the school shooting at “[Marjory Stoneman Douglas High] is the 18th school shooting in the U.S. in 2018.’” (Cox and Rich). In less than three months, there have been eighteen school shootings. This shows that schools are no longer a safe environment.
Resolutions are vehemently being sought to protect schools from possible attacks and to objectively eradicate deadly school shootings altogether. Commonly, security officers are placed in schools in hopes that increased surveillance will inhibit violent outbreaks (Crawford and Burns 2016). Mixed evaluations have been found in association with security officers, while some benefits reportedly transpire, experiences of disparaging consequences remain a regrettable reality as well (Crawford and Burns 2016). Additionally, active shooter drills routinely occur at schools across the nation, however, as Jillian Peterson and James Densley report in their CNN article titled, “The Usual Approach to School Security Isn’t Working,” studies indicate that
(Sub-subpoint 1) 87% of students said that the main cause of school shootings is because they want to level the playing field. (Alfred University) 2. (Sub-subpoint 2) For example, a 12-year-old from Nevada opened fire at school because he was bullied. He was called “an idiot, a retard and gay”.
The Vicious Cycle School Shootings Create As school shootings are on the rise, so are students’ fear all across the nation. “According to Everytown for Gun Safety, there have been at least 149 school shootings since 2013, 52 this year alone” (Board). This shows that school shootings have become more prevalent over the years. Violent people who feel depressed, attacked, or alone, may become school shooters. While some feel these may be the causes, others think that accessibility to guns is the number one factor in these attacks.
School safety is a very controversial topic in the U.S. There are many cases of people questioning the safety of schools. Recent school shootings raised concerns over school safety. While this has received a lot of attention, other things such as drugs, ara problem in schools. Even teachers have spoken out about the lack of safety of their schools.
As teachers earn student trust more desirable forms communication can take place. Next, students who show physical or social aggression towards peers that is motivated from a desire to preemptively provide personal security motivated from of a lack of safety in their personal lives, may decrease their behaviors when provided a consistently safe environment. Finally and most importantly, a teacher who has consistently adequately provided a safe learning environment will help to positively change and reshape students’ world
Since I made the initial decision to pursue school psychology as a career I wanted to work in Chicago with students of color. Specifically, I want to work on the South or West sides of Chicago. Working in these students necessarily means addressing the traumas that students experiencing gun violence face on weekly basis. The evidence of the long-term detrimental effects of adverse childhood experiences have on a student’s life and their ability to learn is clear. And it is imperative to have more school-based professionals who understand these issues and who can work with students and their families.
According to Ladd et al., children who are regularly ill-treated by their peers experience negative psychological consequences, which can deter their involvement in the classroom and diminish their academic achievement (Espelage et al., 2013). Therefore, bullying and victimization threaten a safe learning environment for children. This compromises their school attendance, school involvement and consequently their academic achievement. Basch (2011) indicated that violence and aggressive behavior have a negative impact on academic achievement by adversely affecting cognition, school connectedness and