By Emma Dognin
“A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”
— Second Amendment
On Wednesday, September 4th, a school shooting occurred at Apalachee High School in Georgia leaving four people dead. The suspect was only fourteen years old, a freshman in high school. He had come to school with an assault rifle in his backpack and released it in the morning. At around 10:20 a.m. there were reports of an active shooter at the Apalachee High School. Two people who died were only fourteen; they had their whole lives ahead of them. Many throughout the U.S. grieved the tragic losses. The devastating event unfolded just one day before we started classes at White Plains High School.
Recently, these lethal events are becoming increasingly more common within the American education system. Though school shootings have occurred in other countries, America far eclipses their annual amounts. Statistics from a 2018 article showed that there is an average of one school shooting per week in the U.S. According to more recent statistics published in the Washington Post however, there have been up to 417 school shootings since 1999 and over 383,000 students have experienced gun violence at school.
In Colorado on April 20th, 1999, one of the first and most notorious school shootings occurred: Columbine High School massacre. Two students ages eighteen and seventeen went on a shooting spree and killed thirteen people and wounded twenty others, when their bomb attempt was unsuccessful. This event would forever glue itself to United States history.
For many students, the first time they experienced a lockdown drill was in kindergarten. For us it may be a drill, but for many it's their horrifying reality. When our seniors were in elementary school the Sandy Hook Elementary Shooting happened: twenty of the victims were six to seven years old. They would have been our age now.
The recent events at Apalachee have taken an emotional toll on the student body at WPHS and surrounding communities.
“I’ve felt much less safe during class as a result of school shootings, I sometimes find myself planning where I’d hide or where I could run instead of paying attention to learning material” said senior Arin Dean.
Another student said, “I feel like you never know if it could end up happening to your school, because so many people think it’ll never happen to them, and it does. I feel scared because school shootings have been on an upward trend for years now, and the thought of it becoming more and more possible to happen at our school really makes me feel unsafe.”
Additionally, many students reported increased levels of anxiety about school shootings.
“Why wouldn’t I be afraid if it’s becoming more common. When the first shooting occurred, it was said that it would never happen again and that we would never forget the incident. Now as more shootings occur, I can’t even keep track of the shootings. I don’t want to worry about this,” said one.
“We all live in a safe community, but bad things can happen. I want WPHS to be a place where children should worry about homework, and not about if they’re going to die in school,” said another.
Fortunately, our administration is working tirelessly to ensure nothing like this can happen to us.
Jeremy Harrison, the safety coordinator for the White Plains City School district, works to develop operations and safety plans for each building and the district, as well as serves as a consultant to administrators and district office regarding security. He has been working in his position for four years and was a state trooper for twenty-six years prior.
He describes how school shootings have affected security over the years, “it hasn’t really increased the level of security, but it reminds us why we are using the systems we use and training and drilling the way we train. Every time there's an unfortunate incident around the country, it’s just reminding us, this is why we are doing this, so we don't become complacent.”
He describes how there are a lot of procedures involving working together with first responders, the police department, the fire department, ambulance, and rescue teams, in addition to an increase in the number of security guards districtwide.
“We’ve added nighttime security; we’ve added extra security for athletics events; we’ve added a security supervisor...We have more supervision, oversight, and members,” said Harrison.
He also described how threats through social media are handled immediately through law enforcement as part of a working partnership. Additionally, he described how social media has led to more threats; however, this type of thread is easier to track quickly.
He explained that lockdown drills are beneficial for us as they create "a muscle memory” which allows people to not think but simply react in case of an emergency.
Additionally, Mr. Harrison stated that if anyone has any concerns about security, they should go directly to their building administrator and that every building has a building emergency team.
Hopefully, this comforts students who have any concerns. Students can also contact their guidance counselor or the school psychologist if they need support. Overall, in times of such tragic events, it’s important that we share our concerns with each other and make sure we talk about ways to prioritize our safety. It’s essential to recognize that even though these kinds of conversations are hard, they need to happen.
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