by Venus T.
Every day, these hallways are filled to the brim with all kinds of students. All have different thoughts and feelings regarding school, and how safe they truly are walking down the hallway every day.
Students shouldn’t be living in fear when they walk through the entrance. No child should ever have to ask themselves if they’ll come home after school one day. My own mother has begged me to stay safe at school, where I should always be safe, never having a doubt about if I’ll make it through the day.
November 2nd, the students at Mountain Range got a series of emails pertaining to a “hold” being placed on the school for safety reasons. It was later revealed there had been a gun threat at the school. It was a day like any other, nothing out of the ordinary- and yet, within an instant there was a questionable feeling among the students, asking if they’d make it out of the hold. “...While law enforcement investigates a report of a potential weapon on campus,” read the email.
“I think about it every day,” Kylie T, a 10th-grade student stated. “No, I don’t feel safe at school.” Most students laughed when asked if they felt safe like the answer should’ve been an obvious answer. “I’m not sure If I feel safe in school,” Idzel M answered, stating she almost always had a thought in the back of her mind regarding gun violence at school.
Both Anthony Lopez and Elizebeth Clear, campus security officers at Mountain Range agreed that they aren’t worried about gun violence at school- only thinking about it a few times during the school year at the very least.
Though, simply saying “guns are the problem” is an untrue statement. Restrictions on guns would help, but the problem isn’t just guns- its people. The Chenpeng Village Primary School stabbing, for example, taking place on December 14th, 2012. China has extremely strict gun laws, China Justice Observer says. Civillizans are very rarely legally allowed to carry firearms, and usually it is under no circumstances. This does not stop the killings or attacks on schools, because if someone wants to, they will.
Yes, placing tighter restrictions on the gun laws in America would help the problem to a certain extent- but truly, helping the people that have the ideas of killing or hurting kids should be the priorty.
Rehibilitating and helping the mentally ill would give a sense of safety and protection to the kids and adults going to school everyday, and the more accepting and helpful we as a soceity become- the easier it will be to help the people that need it. Children shouldn’t be worried about being shot in their place of learning, they shouldn’t fear for their lives after getting a worried email from their school.