Schools are considered to be the safest places for children. Although many schools are safe, others can be as susceptible to crime and violence as other environments. Major news stations have been abuzz with multiple stories about misconduct on school campuses. The sad truth about these cases is that they range from elementary schools to post secondary schools.
Prior to these disturbances at the educational level, school boards in the United States specifically had been advised to make schools feel more welcoming and open to the public. Unfortunately, these design configurations are not conducive to security and lockdown. In fact, they invite violence. The number of mass shootings have increased within the U.S and among those has been a noticeable increase in school shootings as well. Consequently, instead of trying to change this, a conference held last July in Reno, Nevada about school safety included products such as bullet-shield backpacks.
Photo by Maggie Starbard
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Parents send their children off to school in the hopes of sending them to an engaging and safe place and yet, some students never made it home from school in 2018. These kids were victims to shootings and other forms of violence that happened in their school. Not limited to shootings, students part of the LGBTQ community or those who are disabled in some way, fall victim to being bullied or worse, being killed. Schools are meant to be safe havens where children are able to make friends and find out who they really are, not be killed for being themselves. A change needs to happen in terms of campus safety.
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Student led protest outside the white house following the Parkdale shooting
Photo via Nancy Scheper-Hughes
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Some ways that students can stay safe on campus is by using a foot patrol resource. When students feel unsafe or afraid to walk through campus alone, they can have a person accompany them to where it is they need to go. Another security measure that can be used at school is to ensure that students are made well aware of various outlets that may be available at their school in order to get help. Having the knowledge of what to do in case a school disturbance arises will help to ease stress.
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Photo by Fabrice Florin
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However, simply educating the student population about the possible consequences at school is not enough. Instead of educating people on how to deal with violence, people should be taught to not be violent in the first place.
Campus safety has become a big issue in today’s world, with students feeling unsafe and not wanting to attend school or walk around school alone. Instead of showing people to treat each other with respect, people are being taught how to deal with handling such scenarios. These are not things people should be taught to think of at school, they should be focused on dealing with how to tackle a math problem or what to do to make it on the football team. Unfortunately today, a vast majority of students as well as parents are left wondering if they will even make it home from school each day.
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Photo via Campus Safety Magazine