By: Brooke
In the US in
2015 alone, there has been a total of 52 school shootings leaving thirty dead
and over 50 injured. “Of the 52 shootings, 21 have been at colleges and
universities, 15 at high schools, three at middle schools, 10 at elementary
schools, two at preschools, and one on a school bus” (52, 2015). In order to
establish routines for what is to be done in situations like school shootings,
schools have implanted lock down drills for teachers and students. As helpful
as lockdown drills are, they do not prevent attacks. Hiding behind a flipped
table with paper covering the windows of the classroom does not keep a gunman
on a mission away. Lockdown drills seem like an easy drill to practice, but in
reality lockdown drills can be a nightmare to teachers of early childhood
classrooms.
Preschool teacher Launa Hill states in her blog post, after an especially
difficult lockdown drill, “When you’re guiding 4- and 5-year-olds through a
drill, your choice of words can mean everything. ‘Activity,’ not ‘game,’
because in a game it is okay to laugh. The word ‘police’ can be scary and some
children cry when they are scared. Saying ‘quiet,’ is tricky because young
children tend to shush one another and that would catch a gunman’s attention.
And in a harsh reality, being quiet is simply not enough”(Hall, 2014). The only
way students and teachers can survive is if they are completely silent, almost
non-existent. That is difficult for any classroom on any given day, even if the
children have their own space. But when they are piled on top of each other,
basically sitting in each other’s laps, it is almost impossible, especially in
early childhood classrooms.
Lockdown drills are extremely
important at every school so that in case of an emergency teachers and students
are prepared on how to handle the situation. But, if that is all that is being
done…is it enough? What is being done to keep these harmful predators off our
school campuses?
Phillip Holloway said it best in his CNN article, stating that, “Meaningful security exists
in courts, public buildings, and even at major media organizations. To me, it's
a moral obligation to provide security. To put it another way, even sheep have
sheepdogs. Shepherds for millennia have realized the wisdom of protecting their
flock from deadly predators, yet schools and colleges across the nation can't
seem to absorb this ancient wisdom” (Holloway, 2015).
In
the horrific situation of a school shooting, the only person to blame is the
gunman. But, it is important that every school has security in order to keep
our schools safe. Never should it be okay for a person to be able to come onto
a campus without being checked in. Gates
should never be left unlocked. The public should never be allowed to enter
through unlocked doors surrounding schools. The only place visitors should be
able to enter is through a door that is visibly seen by the office in order to
be sure everyone at the school has a purpose on being there. In order to keep
our teachers and students safe, it is important that our schools are doing
everything in their power to keep unwanted guests out.
References
52 school shootings so far this year leave 30 dead, 53
injured. (2015, October 10). Retrieved November 10, 2015, from https://www.rt.com/usa/318169-school-shootings-statistics-year/
Holloway, P. (2015, October 3). Now is Not the Time to
Debate Guns but rather School Security. Retrieved November 12, 2015, from http://www.cnn.com/2015/10/02/opinions/holloway-gun-and-schools/
Hall, L. (2014, October 28). Rehearsing for death: A
pre-K teacher on the trouble with lockdown drills. Retrieved November 17, 2015,
from https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/rehearsing-for-death-a-pre-k-teacher-on-the-trouble-with-lockdown-drills/2014/10/28/4ab456ea-5eb2-11e4-9f3a-7e28799e0549_story.html
No comments:
Post a Comment