When asked by The Eye of the Storm, Junior Gabe Adam said he felt unsafe at times on our school campus. Sadly, 41% of students around the world say they, like Adam, feel unsafe in their schools, according to a national survey conducted by Youth Truth. Preventative measures have been taken by schools, often funded by the government, but are these precautions really enough?
There have been 427 incidents involving danger to students and faculty on school grounds in the United States alone since 2013. In one horrible example from 2018, a New Jersey football coach, Joseph L. Jones, was shot and killed in his car in a school parking lot by an unknown attacker.
Knowing how to prevent, minimize or handle these emergencies effectively is a responsibility that schools owe to both students and teachers.
TABC has a system in place for emergencies, but it may not be the most secure system possible. Reviewing and revising one’s system is a fundamental skill. It’s crucial to the task of preserving human life.
In this spirit, TABC has just hired a new security team to focus more vigilantly on everyone who enters and exits school premises. Junior Ben Bessaches observed that “having security guards on campus promotes a safer-feeling work environment for me.”
However, Bessaches also said that he, along with many of his peers, would feel safer if TABC renovated its windows and allowed them to be opened. This would grant a quicker means of escape in the case of both a fire or any other incident demanding an easy exit.
The Eye of the Storm recently conducted a survey of TABC students and asked them for suggestions on how to improve TABC’s already secure system. Students offered the following:
Perform proper security checks before employing teachers and other staff.
Practice emergency procedures multiple times per year and test student performance with “false alarms.”
Form a security club where ideas and discussions on security would be the focus.
When asked about these suggestions, Gemara teacher Jake Berman expressed his confidence that the school already performs background checks. For the other items on the list, Berman said, “I am unaware if these provisions are [already] in place. However, I do believe that these ideas are feasible and wise.”
When asked specifically about an emergency drill, Berman said, “This is something which I have not yet experienced.”
The third proposal of a Security Club truly captivated him. He expressed the opinion that creating a club to both entertain interest in school security while establishing useful defense techniques was brilliant.
One might well wonder, are school systems around the world generally secure? While many educational institutions in this country share many security measures with TABC, others could stand to take much more precautions.
Following the ways of “doomsday preppers” (those who prepare for the worst case scenarios possible) may be a good idea in modern-day education. Technology presents us with a paradox: it’s great at increasing our capabilities, but it also creates more threats for us to deal with.
The case of David Hahn 26 years ago provides one such example. Then 17 years old, Hahn was an ordinary boy fascinated with science, particularly chemistry. He independently conducted multiple experiments in his backyard.
Absolutely no one expected that he, a teenager, could and would build a fully functioning nuclear reactor. But he did. Hahn was able to circumvent the system preventing such things, having easily obtained radioactive material from batteries, old clocks, and lanterns.
Luckily, Hahn had no malicious intent when he built his reactor. But will that be true for the next David Hahn?
But this worry is much smaller than what is a much more statistically dominant concern: school shootings. TABC has already taken multiple precautions to safeguard against this threat, such as emergency locks for our doors, magnets to cover the door’s windows and an evacuation map in every classroom.
There are, however, still ways to improve this system. TABC could use metal detectors to screen for hazardous objects. As mentioned above, TABC can also unseal its windows.
“The School Shooting Database Project” offers interesting data on school shootings at the national level. This research project is a widely inclusive K-12 school shooting database; it has documented that there were 1300+ instances since 1970 where a gun was raised or fired, or that a bullet hit school property for any reason.
A more detailed analysis broke down how these incidents ended for the assailant: 58% fled, 7% were apprehended, 8% barricaded, 2% died in attempted suicide, 13% officer involved, 2% surrendered, and 10% with unknown circumstances.
To conclude, these preventative measures should be instituted into TABC and considered by educational institutes worldwide. In order to correct a problem, the problem must first be recognized; only then can a corrective plan be formed. School safety is a serious topic and new measures must supersede those that are outdated and less useful.