A big part of everyone’s life consists of attending school and obtaining an education. Everyone must learn the basics of reading, writing, math, science, and history to thrive in a society. How can we ensure such learning when the learning environment is not a guaranteed safe place? Year after year, the number of school shootings continues to rise within the U.S. Whether it takes place in Elementary schools or High schools, many students and staff have been injured or even died because of these shootings. Students leave their homes every day of the week and attend school not knowing if they will ever return to their families. They have to live with this constant worry that someone in their class could be the next school shooter.
The Issues of Mental Illness
As we all may know, mental illness is a serious condition. Those who suffer with mental illness should indeed be provided with several resources and with all the help that they need to help them. When it comes to these mass school shootings, I was not surprised to see that many people believed mental health plays a huge role. According to a teen survey “86% of teens say that preventing people with mental illnesses from purchasing guns and that improving mental health screening and treatment would be effective” in preventing school shootings (Graf, 2018). Everyone tends to blame mental illness for these shootings because it is so easy to blame the illness rather than the root of the problem. Yes, there are in fact several times where the shooter is dealing with a mental illness, but I genuinely do not believe that mental health screenings or restricting people who suffer with mental illness will solve the issue of school shootings. I think we should look into another solution, which I will discuss later in this post.
Seeing such a high percentage of people agreeing to go with the mental illness solutions comes across as assuming everyone who commits these mass shootings have a mental illness; and that is certainly not the case. As I previously stated, you can’t just put all the blame on people who suffer with mental illness. The percentage of these shootings being conducted by people with mental illness has actually decreased over time. In fact, “Half of all mass shootings are associated with no red flags—no diagnosed mental illness, no substance use, no history of criminality, nothing.” (Is there a link, 2022). According to an associate professor of clinical psychiatry in Columbia University, Ragy Girgis, the majority of these mass shootings are done by people who are not even diagnosed with any mental illness. If half of these shootings are not done by people with mental illness how would putting screenings/restrictions prevent school shootings?
Metal Detectors
I was honestly surprised to see the statistics on having metal detectors to prevent such school shootings. Only “(79%) say that having metal detectors in schools would be effective and 66% say the same about banning assault-style weapons.” (Graf, 2018). I think placing metal detectors at schools will be more effective than mental health screenings and mental illness restrictions. When I was in highschool, my school used metal detectors to ensure the school’s safety during Halloween time. Every year around Halloween, my school would conduct random metal detectors checks because students were often caught bringing in small weapons like pocket knives to school. If there are active metal detectors in place, students would not be able to make it past the entrance of the school with any weapons.
Possible Solutions?
As I said, I believe metal detectors can definitely help prevent a lot of these school shootings. We should also have stricter regulations and background checks on the people purchasing guns. How are guns so easily accessible and available to these shooters? There should be a stricter process in place when it comes to purchasing guns. It may not solve the issue, but I believe it is the most effective solution. In order to solve this issue, I say look at the root of the issue, but what exactly is the root of this issue? In the film “Bowling for Columbine ”, Michael Moore documents one of the nation’s massive school shootings at Columbine High School in Colorado. Moore goes over all the potential causes of such gun violence in America. He debunks a few claims such as, the American history of violence, violent movies/bands, or the fact that millions of people own a gun, as the reason for these school shootings. He visits Canada (which is known to be one of the safest countries) where they do not have such high numbers of mass shootings despite millions owning guns and watching violent movies. Moore also brings up the fact that countries like Germany and Iran have such violent histories as well, but do not have high numbers of school shootings like America does. After watching Moore disprove these claims, I am still left stuck with my previous question, what exactly is the root of this issue?
So, what now?
After conducting research, it would be extremely helpful for schools to look into what is called the “technical packages”. CDC developed resources for action that can help everyone “to shape individual behaviors as well as the relationship, family, school, community, and societal factors that influence risk and protective factors for violence.” (National Center, 2021). As a future educator, I can definitely learn from these resources. I can even meet with the school board members so we can introduce these resources to families and other communities; who fear for their children every second that they are at school.
Resources
Graf, N. (2018, April 18). A majority of U.S. teens fear a shooting could happen at their school, and most parents share their concern. Pew Research Center. https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2018/04/18/a-majority-of-u-s-teens-fear-a-shooting-could-happen-at-their-school-and-most-parents-share-their-concern/
Is there a link between mental health and mass shootings?. Columbia University Department of Psychiatry. (2022, July 6). https://www.columbiapsychiatry.org/news/mass-shootings-and-mental-illness
Moore, M. (2002, October 11). Bowling for columbine (2002). WatchDocumentaries.com. https://watchdocumentaries.com/bowling-for-columbine/
National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, Division of Violence Prevention. (2021, September 2). Fast fact: Preventing school violence |violence prevention|injury Center|CDC. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. https://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/youthviolence/schoolviolence/fastfact.html?CDC_AA_refVal=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.cdc.gov%2Fviolenceprevention%2Fyouthviolence%2Fschoolviolence%2Findex.html
Hi Sthenia, I thoroughly enjoyed reading your post and the ideas that you had to share. Personally I feel that the strongest part of your work was the section in which you commented on the various ways we as a society can work together to find solutions for the huge problem that is school violence. As you mentioned, safety measures such as implementing metal detectors in schools and conducting mental health screenings could greatly reduce the number of tragedies our country faces each year. I believe that this can somewhat tie into the topic of discussion from last week’s blog on gender diversity. Oftentimes, students who deviate from the heteronormative standard can get picked on, which leads to mental health issues and crises. To address the issue of school violence, specifically gun violence, we as a community must first start off with the day-to-day, more discrete violences that students face. Since this is such a large issue that involves all members of the community, I have to ask, did you consider how you may bring up this topic and discuss its implications with your future students? For me, I feel that this would be difficult as I plan to teach in the younger grade levels, so there has to be a balance of preparing my students while not instilling fear in their minds. I know that you spoke on the “technical packages” and how you plan to meet with families to discuss these resources, but one suggestion for your post would be to tie that back into how you could use these materials to directly address your students. Overall, I really liked hearing your thoughts on this week’s topic.