Not too far away from my school, there was an active shooter situation. I believe that this, alongside other school shootings that have happened since the beginning of 2018, warrants a blog here talking about it. Now, one of the biggest things that impact a school shooting is school security. So, in case anyone is reading this that can impact schools, I’ll delve into that. The other biggest factor is the attitude of students within the school, which I’ll also talk about here.
A school’s security is its only line of defense against a shooter, and thus must be strong. Firstly, a bad idea is to have doors leading to the outside have glass in them. Now, there are always windows, and perhaps glass doors make the front more attractive. But who’s to say the guy won’t just smash a window anyways? Doors have to be secure, as they’re the most obvious and easiest point of entry. From your doors in, you should likely then have a difficult way to get to the school’s population. I’d recommend another set of doors before you get into the building proper, and don’t make the inner doors have glass in them, either.
Of course, there is no shooter scenario if there is no shooter, that much is obvious. One of the biggest things a school can do to help prevent the creation of a potential shooter is to lessen bullying. This prevents the possible mental stress a student may go through, and therefore lessen the chance of these types of thoughts happening in that student’s mind. The next important thing is to have everyone see what others are posting and don’t move past it like it’s empty. Reporting someone who is acting suspiciously is a very big part of prevention. Other than that, it’s mostly up to mental health services to assist students in getting help if they have thoughts like this, and up to the potential student to seek assistance.
Heated Gaming 