Ways to Prevent School Shootings

The very first recognized school shooting was at the Texas Tower at the University of Texas in 1966 where Charles Whitman shot and killed 16 people while injuring 31 others. Who would have understood because that date that we would have more then 200 deaths on school campuses? The most storied shooting in the 90's was most likely the Columbine massacre where on April 20, 1999 Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris eliminated 32 students and professors before turning the guns on themselves. The scary scene from the day will always be kept in mind in lots of lives and will continue throughout the years.

There were many other dreadful shootings throughout the years as well practically a lot of to count however here recently the newest mascaras that have actually occurred have actually been on college schools at Virginia Tech University where 33 lives were lost and Northern Illinois where 5 lives were lost. After all these years and all the lives lost it's time that the school massacres with numerous lives lost pertained to an end.

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The primary step to help avoid another massacre on a school campus is to have a good emergency situation notification system in place to assist warn students when danger taking place.

Right now some colleges are using a notice system to send out a text to student's cell phones to help warn them. By doing this might really help out a lot with numerous of the kids that go off to college have cell phones, but there will be those couple of trainees that don't have cellular phone, so what's going to occur with the notification for someone who doesn't have a phone to get the message with, so it's really not fair to individuals that do not have a mobile phone to not get the message to warn them of risk on school.

Schools likewise utilize e-mails to notify as well, but there is constantly going to be a glitch in the system where not everybody finds out. The mobile phone notice is a good system to use those where it will run the smaller colleges around $10,000 to utilize and the larger universities will run $100,000 (Galuszka, 2008). With all the emergency situation notifications on college premises there still a great deal of work that needs to be imposed to more then simply text and alerts to e-mails.

It could be a long shot but what would hurt by having an emergency siren to go off in cause of an emergency, who knows what will work for colleges but it has come a long way and I believe every bit of notification that can be used will be one less person put in danger during the terrifying time. Elementary, Jr. High and High Schools need to be frequently practicing throughout the year what to do in case of the intruder. Practicing the lock down procedures will help so if that small change of danger there wouldn’t be a single person confused on what to do.

The elementary teachers should really talk it over in class with the students so the kids know what to do in case of danger and let the kids ask all the questions that there little mind might be thinking about when they hear about a shooting or things on the news about bad things that happen on school grounds. All schools should have security guards on school grounds at all times which now days a lot of the schools will in the bigger cities and you will have a few security guards in the smaller towns that will make the rounds to each school throughout the day.

Today’s stats are good with the guards on school grounds with 85% of school security guards actually work in the school buildings with 44% at the high school , 27% at middle schools and 14% at elementary schools. 84% of these security guards work full time, 42% are males and the average age is 48 (Rosales, 2008). The numbers are looking good for the risk of a big violence act to happen should continue to drop but there still is that little chance. Going from the notification to the ways to maybe prevent the school shootings from even happening are huge.

From the pictures above showing some the main points to prevent shooting, bullying and loving parents, which aren’t all the main points to prevent a school shooting from happening but is a big key and start to hopefully preventing our children from pulling off a major crime. Noticing some early warning signs and not being scared to report them can help someone from making the biggest mistake of their life and saving people from harms way should start with the love shown from the parents. Having the parents be in the kids life knowing his or her surroundings at all time can be the key for prevention.

Showing our kids love and attention will not make them want to do harm to others and having your child talk to you if something is bothering them. When you aren’t in the child’s life and not knowing what’s going on with them could easily make them feel lost inside and can turn to depression like our parents don’t care about them, a key fact is no matter how busy our lives with our job and anything else that we might do in our spare time parents should always find time to spend with our child each day, even if its only for a half hour, each time that we show love can be a key for our child not to do the unthinkable.

The key facts from kids that do the shooting is a lot of times from being bullied at school or make fun of that will keep there anger all bottled up inside until one day the anger explodes and the worst scenario happens and that is a school shooting. Parents should also talk to their child to let them know not to be scared to report things that might seem out of the ordinary. Kids should always report to authority or a teacher is he or she hears a student talking about violence, don’t just act like you didn’t hear anything, because the best thing that can happen from that point is helping stop violence before it starts.

If you see someone bullying or threatening someone you should let someone know, and if you are on the end of being threatened or bullied, you do not have to take it, speak up and make it stop. A good sign as well that someone can be subject to do harm is if you witness someone doing harm or being cruelty to an animal or pet (Dowshen, 2008). Seeing the warning signs can be a big plus to help stop the violence, and it all mainly starts with how the parents are with their children. Questions will always surround the causes of school shootings.

What was going on in the head of the person doing the crime? A big question that seems to wonder some people is that why is it only boys who are doing the shooting. A report done with famous psychologist Elliot Aronson reports that boys seem to have testosterone which isn’t used just as a sexual combination but usually will turn to anger as well and girls just really aren’t immune to physical violence, but it doesn’t mean that girls aren’t ever at risk to do a shooting because they are.

Aronson also reports that as much as the warning signs we can look for in someone can be a potential threat to violence that sometimes there might not be a warning sign to look for in the person (Cawley, Janet 2001). With all the years of violence and it seems like each year or every other year we are having a big breakout of violence with at least one person getting shot and killed while at school, now one might not seem a lot to some of us but that’s one too much.

School should be a place to go and feel safe at. I know that you are at risk anywhere you go, but the question is how do we make our schools safe so our parents don’t have to worry anymore. Now the numbers will show that the risk is little to none that a school shooting will happen and twice as many teens will die in automobile accidents then getting hurt at school, but schools really need to step up the security measures to reduce the shootings to zero.

Twenty-eight years have now passed by and we are still having our issues, but the numbers are being reduced to minimal violence on a school campus and I know that we can’t stop everything, but I know the United States has the money to spend and so do the colleges so why not put together the top of the line security measures to limit the capability of getting a gun through doors on school grounds.

The opinions of most parents will say that they feel safe sending their child to school each day and that the thought of something bad happening won’t cross their minds at all and we need to keep it that way in America, cause the thought of losing your child while at school will make our hearts drop and our thoughts and prayers do go out to the parents that have lost a child over the many years while at school.

So let’s just remember to always be on our guard and teach our child to do what’s right in life and to never be afraid to stand up and say something to someone that could be at risk, and if we can all do that we could easily see the numbers drop even more.

In conclusion we will probably never get the number down to zero school shootings, but as parents we would always like to see our children succeed and graduate from high school and hopefully college so lets watch for the warning signs to hopefully stop the bad from happening so we watch our children grow up to be the next doctor or even the next president of the United States and not for our child to make the headlines of the most terrifying act that can be made on school grounds with that of another school shooting.

Remember in life to say no to guns and yes to books to be able to grow up and walk across that stage and get that famous diploma that make a name for ourselves. Resources Cawley, Janet. (2001, October) School Shootings: An Expert Explains How to Stop Them. Biography, 5(10). Retrieved March 27, 2008, from Ebscohost database Dowshen, Steven. (2008 February) Should You Worry About School Violence. Retrieved March 27, 2008, from http://www. kidshealth. org/teen/school_jobs/bullying/school_violence. html Galuszka, Peter. (2008, March 6).

Emergency Notification In An Instant. Diverse: Issues In Higher Education, 25(2), 14-17 Retrieved March 27, 2008 from Ebscohost Database. Patton, Carol. (2008, March) Safe and Sound. University Business, 11(3). 35-36. Retrieved March 27, 2008, from Ebscohost database. Preventing School Shootings: Tips and Tools to Deal With Kids’ Fears and Keep Them Safe. The All I Need. (2005). Retrieved March 27, 2008, from http://www/theallineed. com/family/05033002. htm. Rosales, John (2008, March) Security Upgrade, 26(2), 33-35. Retrieved April 25, 2008 From Ebsocohost Database.