Opinion on School Shootings

By Avery Naughton

School shootings attract mass media from all over the nation. Most recently, Christopher Krumm killed his father, James Krumm, at Wyoming Community College with a bow and arrow after stabbing his father’s girlfriend to death. The motive remains unknown, but this is not an uncommon trend in school shootings. Closer to San Diego, there were four injuries at a shooting that occurred over Halloween at University of Southern California.

However, not only colleges are subject to shootings. In 2010, two were wounded at Kelly Elementary School in Carlsbad, California.  This shooting was widely known by the San Diego public, and evoked fear in several students and parents. If their child isn’t safe at their own school, where are they protected?

School shootings occur on a nearly annual basis in all countries. Many of the shooters are students themselves, specifically in high school and middle school shootings. Although some may point to bullying as the main cause of school-shootings, perpetrators have nearly all of the motives that other criminals do: jealousy, revenge, personal struggles. But what causes these criminals to attack innocent students and teachers? Given, students spend a large amount of time at school facilities: about 35 hours a week. Over time, it’s only natural to develop grudges regarding several teachers or students.

However, these multiple killings bring up an important question. How can schools protect themselves and its students from these shootings? It is relatively difficult to protect colleges against these threats, as students are often not in classes but instead in the library or in the dormitories.  However, in elementary, middle, and high schools there need to be stricter codes in order to help protect children. In times of an emergency, each school should have a gate that completely surrounds the campus that can be locked in times of an emergency. Although many students(and even a few teachers) may find the self-defense tests to guard against intruders a waste of time and non-applicable to certain communities, it should still be taken seriously. Therefore, the government on local and state levels needs to place education and safety as some of their largest priorities in order to protect innocent students and teachers.