School Violence: Physical and Verbal Attack

School violence is characterized as any physical or verbal attack on one while being on school property or grounds. The amount of school violence has been a huge issue in our society for so long, many could say it's become ordinary. Since the year 2000, there has been a recorded number of 64 shootings incidents that have involved public occupied areas. With results with almost 5 shootings per year. Ninety-four percent of the 64 were school-related shootings. This number has aroused countless problems in the nation for the past couple of years. Students are bringing weapons to school including guns and knives and many are using them in ways to harm and kill the people around them. The United States has one of the highest rates of violence among other countries (Winn, The U.S School Shooting). The problem in society today is how to reduce the amount of violence that is occurring in schools in the United States, is there enough effort put forth towards school safety? I feel as if there isn't enough effort put towards school safety, and there needs to be stricter laws and restrictions for the purchase of guns.

Parents send their children off to school every day hoping they are in good hands and that they make it home safe. The school systems in today's society are completely different from what they were twenty-five years ago, teachers disciplined students for chewing gum and talking too much, but today's teachers fear for their lives and wonder if they are going to get shot for giving a student a bad grade. A trend of school violence started to occur a few years ago and rapidly increased in somewhat of a replica fashion. Kids that get made fun of and were seen as outcasts or loners saw others like them and used acting out in a violent way for a type of redemption for the bullying that they had withstood. Which resulted in the violent outburst in school violence and school shootings.

In 2016, the CDC found nearly ninety percent of public schools had a written plan for responding to school shootings, and seventy percent of those schools had drilled students on the plan (Bullying Definition, Statistics, & Risks). Due to an increase in bullying in schools leads to an increase in violence in schools. Bullying is defined as harassing or intimidating another through verbal or physical insults. Socially kids tend to create a position of superiority in groups; putting kids in types of groups based on appearance, social life, and extracurricular activities. There are the popular kids, the loners/outcasts, the athletes, the nerds, and groups based on skin color, race, and nationality. Many kids take strong offense to these types of things and it is considered to be a type of bullying too many. 160,000 kids per day skip school for fear of being bullied (Bullying Definition, Statistics, & Risks). Will all this school violence becoming the main point of all media aspects, in a way it teaches kids of today's society that it is acceptable to act out in violent ways and that it will consider them to be cool.

Today, gun control and gun violence have become one of the most questioned issues in America. Most say that the lack of gun safety laws is resulting in the ability to easily access these guns but in reality, the argument is to implement stricter laws that ensure the firearms don't fall in the wrong hands. In today's society these firearms are falling into the wrong hands; the hands of adolescent kids. The United States of Americans Second Amendment gives the right to bear arms to all American Citizens. Revoking American Citizens right to bear arms would be considered as taking away their rights. Anyone over the age of 18 can purchase firearms, although it is pretty easy for one to get a license in another state, buy a gun, then move back to their original state with an illegal firearm. Implementing further laws and regulations, the government can enforce stricter laws in order to protect crimes including firearms. Over five years of tracking, this data has shown us that gunfire on school grounds takes many forms and mirrors the problem of gun violence in America (The Long, Shameful List). With the outburst of the violence in our country, there is not enough control or restrictions when distributing guns. Purchasing guns illegally through the black market has gotten out of hand, due to the lack of education, training, and usage of guns. The black market is a selling base, in which anyone of any age with no waiting period, no background check can purchase guns. When guns are sold to just anyone, it leads to them falling in the wrong hands. Overall, there needs to be set guidelines and restrictions to ensure the safety of our society when dealing with the purchase of guns.

For so long school has been viewed as a safe place for kids to go have fun with friends and most importantly get an education. Lately, the concern over the horrifying violence happening in schools has arisen many issues and taken tolls on many parents and school administrations. Kids no longer feel that schools are their safe place anymore. 2018 had the greatest number of incidents since 1970, with 82 recorded incidents. 2018 was the highest year for the number of victims killed, including the shooter, with 51 killed (Staff, CS, The K-12 School Shooting). School violence is rising each year, and schools continue to lack the proper safety and high precautions are not being put into play. Schools and universities in the United States are to have a very appealing look: with multiple buildings, entrances, exits, and big windows. With this designs, there becomes protection challenges for many schools. Schools must recognize the importance of good maintenance, good construction, good design, and a fair and equal management style of school operation (Improve School Entrance Security). With including proper safety elements. Having a secure entrance can increase safety; preventing unauthorized entry and detect a potential attacker at first hand. Allowing visitors to enter the school there needs to be a protocol or screening on every visitor the school receives. Also having monitors at all interior/exterior doors and making sure they are closed and locked. Proper staff monitoring of arrival, during school, and dismissal: Properly trained and equipped staff must be assigned to monitor activities during these staff periods. This involves training on intruder response, reverse evacuation and staff should be equipped with radio communications and have the ability to call 911 (Improve School Entrance Security).

A security plan should be something every school should have which include, all information on any attack or situation a school might encounter. Having what to do, what to say, how to handle any type of situation that could occur. This information should be easily accessible to every teacher or administrator in the building. Practicing security drills is as important as practicing fire drillsboth are emergencies. Staff and students should know the difference in their roles. (Reta Security, 10 Tips for School Security). Most schools encounter lows budgets, therefore, funds should be used wisely balancing needs and wants but an increased need in security and safety. Risk is reduced not just with gadgets and guards but with a disciplined program of management, deterrence, detection, delay, response, mitigation that is measured, tested and drilled. Funding should be prioritized and allocated so that the individual school or district improves uniformly from poor to fair to good to excellentjust like a remedial program for a student that has fallen behind (Reta Security, 10 Tips for School Security). Schools need to prioritize what the important goal of school is, keeping kids safe all hours of the day while maintaining a good education.

School violence is an ongoing issue that needs to be addressed in this country. The United States is now known as a country that specializes in violence and for our country to be known for that raises red flags. What can we do to prevent any more casualties of students, parents, kids? There needs to be laws that help regulate weapons and help people feel safer in school. The only action that is currently being taken is implementing more security at schools for kids to feel safe. However, implementing more security at schools isn't enough to prevent school violence. Actual laws and easy access to purchasing armed weapons will prevent school violence. There needs to be an actual change towards how easy it is for someone to purchase a gun. Once a couple of laws are implemented about how one should purchase a gun, it could potentially lower the rate of school violence because not many people will have the ability to go out and buy a gun with ease. School violence is an issue that needs to be focused on right away. There have already been too many casualties with this issue and we don't want anymore.

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