To know how open and accessible our schools used to be when I was in school, and even once I started teaching. Through these years, school safety has become a hot topic. Safety is not only protecting schools from predators, but also from the poorly maintained aging school buildings. We need to find ways to make our schools accessible, and not feel like we are locked in a jail at the same time. The buildings, especially older schools, need be closely monitored for any type of hazard that may hurt the occupants inside. Gun control in the past couple years has caused much controversy; therefore, many states have not approved teachers to carry a concealed weapon into the classroom. There are some people who believe this would be the answer to protecting our students; however, there are also some who believe this will give our students a sense of fear, they will always feel they are in danger. Finally, we also have to ensure that our children feel emotionally safe in the classroom and not fear the idea of learning something new. There are steal security shutters on the windows, all exterior doors are locked, and all doors within the building must stay locked, you must check in the office and run your driver’s license to get a visitors pass, and sometimes you may have to walk through a metal detector. This is not a jail; however, this is a school in today’s society. In order to be considered safe, there are safety procedures all schools must follow. The
In this day and age where school administrators consider backpacks, lockers, and baggy pants to be potential dangers to students and faculty, what will be next? Perhaps pencils, pens, scissors, and glue will be added to the list of items to ban from schools. These, along with other hazardous educational necessities pose real threats to maintaining an orderly school and should be prohibited.
School should be a place of peace and opportunity, but gaps in the system of gun control threatens the safety of faculty and students. School shootings have killed a total of 297 lives, young and old (Slate Magazine). Gun control has been a continuous nationwide debate for many years. It seems that no one wants to take a stance against guns unless they are personally affected. In order to take control of the matter and prevent more incidents from continuing schools need to change. To achieve a safe environment in schools need to educate faculty, safe and students, heighten security, and assess mental health issues.
You hear almost every day another school goes into lock down or some crazy lunatic takes a gun to school its every tragic to hear of students and teachers getting shot. You hear of parents so afraid to send their child to school or not knowing when they drop their son or daughter off it will be there last. What if we can take preventive measures to help prevent a troubled individual or make them think twice about taking a gun to school? There are many things that schools can do to secure the students inside and are being implemented, but who are the students always around? And who sees the students more than anyone else? The teachers and I believe we can do the most good by arming them with guns after the proper training and
School shootings are a common occurrence on daily news. Students shouldn’t terrify going to school with the mindset that a shooter will show up with intention of killing people. Ideally, students leave home for school to learn, and not worried someone will come in and shoot everyone. When I was younger I would go to the bathroom worried a shooter would enter my school leaving me alone in a life or death situation. School security improvement is extremely important because children should feel safe and never in danger. Also, schools need better ways of helping children feel safe when they come for six hours everyday. More could be done for students, not only as prevention from shootings occurring but from relieving young children of unnecessary anxiety.
After the Sandy Hook, there were countless ways for students to be safe at school. In Preparing for the Unthinkable: School Safety after Sandy Hook news article, Vicki Bauman said, “ Instead of gates, guns, and metal detectors, let’s invest in the things we know will make us safer: counselors, health care, teaching positive behavior, and making sure we have services to reach out to disconnected youth and pull them back on track.” Therefore, violence is not the answer to any question or issue. The community and school system should take a stand and get the necessities that the schools need to have a safe environment for the students and faculty and staff. The school can invest in law enforcement. The law enforcement will be able to conduct a consistent search through a metal detector. The law enforcement will help the students to avoid bringing prohibited weapons to school as well as, there to protect the school.
Imagine the notion of being defenseless against an individual holding the purpose of wreaking mass devastation on the students and faculty inside of a school. In 2012, Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut endured a tragedy that carries historical significance to the notion of shielding those inside of a classroom in a worst-case situation. When twenty-six students had their life taken away during a school massacre, the thought of permitting teachers to carry handguns during class drew more consideration than ever. The safety of the students inside of a school facility may be in jeopardy as manifested in school shootings such as the ones which transpired at Sandy Hook Elementary School and Virginia Tech, where thirty-two students and teachers lost their lives (History.com). While many feel that presenting teachers with handguns may prove harmful to safety efforts, inflicting such standards would provide instructors and students equally with enhanced protection and overall security.
Of all the places in the world, you would think that a school is the safest place for a child to be. Sometimes this isn’t the case. In this speech, I will talk to you about how allowing teachers to carry concealed weapons will be a good idea. I will talk about the advantages of allowing teachers to carry a concealed weapon, how allowing teachers to carry concealed weapons is helping other countries, and why Gun-Free zones aren’t working. Let’s start with the advantages of allowing teachers to carry a concealed weapon.
Safety: Students know that they are physically safe and that they are not in danger in the classroom. Safety also includes students emotional and mental well-being, meaning that they will be free from emotional damage such as bulling or name-calling.
During the past few years, the number of school shootings has increased markedly. In 2013, there were 19 school shootings that occurred, taking so many innocent lives. Some may remember the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting on December 14th, 2013. It was the second deadliest massacre shooting in United States history, behind the 2007 Virginia Tech Massacre. Adam Lanza shot twenty children, six staff, his mother, and himself that day. School shootings are tragic. Violence continues to increase with these shootings, as well as with violence within the schools among the students. The big question is, how do we protect ourselves from these horrible occurrences? How do teachers protect the innocent lives of their students? One common suggestion is for the teachers and administration to be armed. The premise is that if the school staff has possession of firearms this would discourage shooters, thereby making the schools much safer. However, it is my belief that teachers should not be able to have access to weapons. There should never be any type firearm on a school property, excluding trained security personnel, such as police officers and security guards.
Numerous studies have been conducted to determine if teachers should be in possession of a firearm while on school properties and if this will decrease the number and magnitude of school shootings. Many scholars believe equipping teachers with firearms will be costly and end up unnecessarily endangering more students, but many scholars claim that a teacher should be the last line of defense against a school shooter. The question this paper hopes to answer is how can equipping teachers who teach grades K-12 help to prevent school shootings in the United States. This paper will attempt to answer that question by examining the perspectives of school administration and law enforcement, the impact on student’s safety and education, the
School shootings are terrifying and a big problem in today’s society. Schools have added lockdown drills, bullet proof glass and metal detectors. School should be a safe area for children to learn instead of fearing for their life. Instead of buying metal detectors and hiring more officers, there is a much easier solution in order to decrease and prevent school shootings. We have to be more alert about securing weapons at home and being aware of suspicious behavior at school in order to keep children and faculty safe.
In school, students should not have to fear for what may happen that day and if they will be protected. Parents should not have to fear of their kids not returning home because the school does not provide the security it needs to protect the students and staff. Trained, responsible teachers that are armed with guns can take away the fear
The idea of a periodic police presence at school and having layers of security at school is as effective as arming teachers. It wouldn't be as noticeable. "Teachers aren't really supposed to have favorites but you know, you have the ones that are close to you," she said. "But if that student made the poor decision to endanger everyone, I'm going to have to do something about it." The school now has posters at every entrance stating that some of its teachers are armed.
Over the past few years fatal shootings have happened at schools around the country. Teachers have been in these shootings and they could 've stopped the shooter if they were carrying. Arming and training teachers with self defense and handguns has become bigger thing over the years. Arming and training teachers can save students lives in the future if there is a school shooter (Henigan).
During the past decade, school safety has been at the forefront of many school districts safety polices and plans. With recent high profile school shootings, the question school districts continue to ask is how do we keep our schools safe? Administrators face heavy scrutiny when weighing approaches to school safety and student discipline. Likewise, school employees have the right to work in safe environments devoid of life-threatening behaviors (Fenning and Bohanon, 2006; Skiba and Rausch, 2006). America’s founding fathers understood the importance of a public school education. They believed educating its citizens would allow them the opportunity to learn new skills while becoming successful and productive people in society. However, our founding fathers did not predict the severe behavior changes our schools face in educating disruptive and dangerous students. America’s school districts are charged with providing solutions for disruptive and dangerous students (Fenning and Bohanon, 2006; Skiba and Rausch, 2006). School officials must address these issues with research-based interventions and collaborative resources that provide a safe learning environment for all stakeholders (Elliott and Mihalic, 2004; Schoenwald and Hoagwood, 2001). Boards of education continue to support school efforts to rethink best practices for disciplinary alternative middle schools (DAMS). Many school districts focus on research-based interventions and resources that manage aggression and