School Gun Violence headlines News

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Originally published January 25, 2022

As gun violence in schools becomes more and more a part of day-to-day life, ASD schools are taking precautions to stop any incidents from problems. This includes educating students on what to do in the case of having an active shooter on campus.

Over the past several years ASD has adopted the “Run, Hide, Fight” curriculum to give students an idea of what to do if an active shooter situation were to occur on campus. This year, MBMS students watched a video that explained the basics of safety in the unlikely case of gun violence on campus.

“The video is provided by our school district, and it's on our school district webpage for anyone to view,” Principal Brown said.

Families can find the video on the ASD Homepage, under the tab “For Families” and in the section “School Safety". There are different versions of the video, with slightly different information. This is so that younger age groups can receive an age-appropriate introduction to the topic.

Students can do quite a bit to prevent gun violence on the MBMS campus. For example, if a student sees or hears something suspicious they should report it immediately.

“I think it's just being friendly to kids and being welcoming,” Mr. Wenger said.

It seems that most students who participate in gun violence at their school feel like it is just them against the world. They may feel like they have no one to go to.

“To maximize school safety, anyone who sees a warning sign should report it,” Mary Ellen O’Toole said, according to the CNN article “Watch out for 'leakage': These are some of the clues students can look out for to help prevent school violence”. O’Toole is a former FBI Special Agent and has been studying school shootings for more than 20 years.

There are also precautions put in place nationwide to help protect against gun violence. Social media apps are often monitored by the government, in order to catch any potential signs of someone who is planning something. If a student were to make a post about doing something violent at school, it would trigger the system. That would put in motion a whole process, involving local police force and school administration.

“I think the biggest thing kids can do is if you see something, say something, that's the biggest thing,” Brown said.

The Canine Chronicle anonymous survey found that about 51 percent of students feel safe on campus, about 43 percent said they felt somewhat safe, and only about six percent said they did not feel safe on campus.

If dangerous items are ever brought to schools students should tell teachers or administrators immediately. If any students ever think badly about their name being out as the one who told teachers about the hazardous item they don’t need to worry.

“We will never tell anybody who told us something. And we're very good at keeping that secret. No one will ever know who told us something,” Brown said.