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Arkansas State University
Student Examples
Bang Dang, “What Does Life Mean to Us?”
What Does Life Mean To Us?
Safety is something considered quite crucial and essential for everyone in a developed country such as the United States, especially for children and adolescents. Adults walk down the street everyday, going to work, doing their daily routine, knowing they are protected by the criminal justice system. But why are their children, can not be safe, nor even feel safe in schools, which is considered to be “the safest place” the youth can be at their age? At school, there are many problems the students have to face everyday without the knowledge of their parents.
Whether it is the amount of school work and stress they have, or the mental illnesses from the stress, or the wicked comments from all the bullies schools have, the adolescents have had enough on their plates. Now, a new and most serious issue ever called school shooting has occurred, and it has generated an abundance of problems for students and their guardians. What is school shooting? In simple words, a school shooting is an attack at an educational institution, relating the use of firearms. The first recorded school shooting was in the 1840s, with only 1 death and no injuries. But ever since the first school shooting incident back in the 1840s, there have already been a total of nearly 500 school shootings scattered all over the country, or more specifically, 489 cases; and with those cases, there have been almost 600 people killed and 900 people injured. The trend of school shootings seems to move upwards, as the closer to present day, the more school shootings happens, and they happen everywhere.
According to CNN, by May 2018, there has already been 23 school shootings in the year 2018 alone. That means on average, there is around a school shooting per week. If the math is correct and continuous, by the end of 2018, we would have approximately 60 cases of active shooter at institutions. The number of shooters and school shootings cases keep rocketing, the number of people injured and killed follows; yet the US government and criminal justice system have not provided realistic solutions or kinds of extra protection to the students.
One of the solutions given by the authority was to give teachers and professors guns and training so that they can fight back in cases of an active shooter. This idea was immediately condemned by the public and became a controversial topic, as you cannot solve a gun problem by adding more gun to the mix. Unlike fire, which can be put out by fire, more guns and people with guns can only create more chaos and destruction. It takes police and law enforcement officers around 800 hours or more to handle guns and the situation, so it seems so impractical and dangerous to give someone a gun to protect so many lives with not enough training and practices. In a risky and time sensitive situation, can the teachers and professors handle the shooter(s) and the gun gracefully and effectively? What will happen if they messed up and cause even more casualties?
Due to this, many people have had other opinion about what we should do to limit the number of school shootings, or at least the number of casualties. First, it is believed that students should be informed and trained on what to do in case there is an active shooter on campus. For starter, this will help the students keep their sanity in the situation, and being calm is the most effective way to stay alive. This preparing method has already been put into reality, as many schools and universities have policies that students must attend a conference to learn more about the subject. However, some institutions have not look deep enough into the way of teaching and training their students; most only go through things briefly without enough details or practices. For example, as a freshman at Arkansas State University, I would want the program to have more training, to really show students what they should do in urgent times instead of just watching video and bullet points on slides.
Another solution is to try to solve the roots of the problem, which is the mental health of the students. In an article, John Malcolm pointed out that in most cases, the attacker is a student who has been through hard times, whether it is at home or at school, creating a constant pressure on the shooter. A trait usually seen in a shooter is also mental illnesses; even though there might not be any serious mental illness present, there are always signs of “extreme resentfulness, anger, and a desire for revenge because of perceived social alienation”. To prevent anyone from becoming a school shooter, it is best if we take more notice and help the students wherever and whenever they feel stuck or are stressed out, not only on the matter of school work and classes, but on every aspect of life. Even though mental health has been getting more attention in schools and life in general, it does not completely focus on every aspects of mental illnesses. Like nearly all educational institutions, ASU mostly concentrates at depressions, with campaigns trying to raise awareness to stop people from commiting suicides. What should really be focused on is how to help lift the weight of the students’ chests, and showing them what is the best way to deal with the difficulty they are having. Through that, lessen the stress, aggressiveness and the anger of a possible future shooter.
Overall, school shootings are a serious problems of the modern day US. With the unbelievable increasing trend of school shooting and its casualties, it is crucial for the lives of many students and faculty members that the matter is taken more into consideration for new and different changes to the current criminal justice system, the educational institution care system and the overall law of the country. From then, that is how we help possible future attackers and prevent future shootings.
Works Cited
Ahmed, Saeed, and Christina Walker. “There Has Been, on Average, 1 School Shooting Every Week This Year.” CNN, Cable News Network, 25 May 2018, https://www.cnn.com/2018/03/02/us/school-shootings-2018-list-trnd/index.html
Malcolm, John, and Amy Swearer. “3 Common Traits of School Shooters.” The Heritage Foundation, 26 Mar. 2018, www.heritage.org/education/commentary/3-common-traits-school-shooters.