December 14th, 2012, is a day that no one will forget.
When the lives of small children in the safe haven of their school were lost, the world took notice. Suddenly, you hugged your own son or daughter a little tighter and thought twice about sending them through the brick-and-mortar doors of education without multiple kisses. You became more patient, more grateful, and yes, more afraid.
In your honest opinion, is your child’s school safe?
Unfortunately, the aftermath of such horrific tragedies often involves lawmakers and government officials trying to take action — in the form of passing laws — to make people feel safer. For many, school safety is not simply about gun control, school security, or even mental health. It is about life as we know it, and the shift in our society toward fear-mongering and sensationalism. According to experts in criminology from the University of Pennsylvania, new, stronger, or better laws would likely not have changed the outcome of December 14th for the Sandy Hook children.
The truth is, the world today is filled with crazy people. In fact, it always has been. School violence today — along with bullying — are trending issues. The reality is that bad things have been happening for years, but we were simply not aware of them. Prior to now, journalists and news anchors were not jumping on the violence bandwagon. But let’s face it, in today’s world, violence sells, and it creates quite an audience.
You, like most parents, probably took a moment to assess the safety of your child’s school. Chances are your school system sent home paperwork outlining new protocols and security measures. Over time, though, both schools and parents will likely become less vigilant, slowly forgetting the events that occurred. In many ways, this is a good thing because living in constant fear — either as a parent or child — is not healthy. This isn’t to suggest that everyone should walk around with a false sense of security regarding safety, but rather, we cannot spend our lives consumed by dread and fear.
Plus, according to statistics, you and your children are at more risk riding in your car than they are going to school. More kids are injured and killed in car accidents than in school shootings or violence. Your child has a higher chance of developing a rare form of cancer than being hurt at school. They are even more at risk of being injured on a set of monkey bars than by school violence.
Of course, fear pulses through our parental veins. We want action. We want change. We want more — hoping it will cover us with a false blanket of security. As adults, even though the reality is that criminals will be criminals despite laws, we want something that makes us feel better about keeping our children safe.
In the last couple of months, many school systems sent home materials outlining new procedures and safety measures. Nearly 2,000 schools across the United States requested grants to install better security measures at their front doors. The push to arm school administrators has become a hot topic of discussion. One such measure is to restrict parents from using school bathrooms or minimize their ability to enter schools during hours.
While it’s reassuring to see that schools are trying to keep our kids safer, one has to wonder: are visitor badges and restricting parental access really the solution to school violence? Sure, as parents, we appreciate the extra effort, but it still won’t be enough to guarantee that something awful will never happen in our child’s school.
Is keeping parents out — while doors are still unlocked and back doors are often propped open to let in fresh air — really going to stop someone like Adam Lanza? Many schools are lucky enough to have an armed police officer patrolling the hallways. But is one police officer really enough to stop those who mean harm?
These are just measures to fend off fear-mongering, to respond to the sensationalism of mass shootings. These are band-aids. Schools across America and the government are handing us these band-aids, knowing that soon, most of us will forget about the horrific events at Sandy Hook once the hubbub dies down.
Still, in the end, despite the flaws in the system and the dangers that exist in today’s world, most people still feel their children are safe at school. A poll conducted by FOX News reported that around 81% of parents feel school safety is not an issue in their district. Do you feel like your kids are safe at school? What choice do we have as parents but to send our kids to school without buying into fear-mongering and sensationalism? Do we lock them in our homes and confine their lives ‘just in case’? Do we turn our children into paranoid kids who are afraid to walk out of their own front door? No. We move on, keep living, and hope and pray that something like this never happens again, even though deep down, we know it will.
What actions has your school system taken to protect children? Overall, do you think your kids are safe at school, or do you think your school system is still not doing enough to protect your children?
