Can Schools Prevent Shootings?

 After another tragic school shooting at Oxford High School in Michigan, I wondered, can we prevent school shootings? As teenagers read the articles and stories on the tragic events, we get angry because the school systems still aren’t doing anything to change and prevent shootings. More and more keep happening as students ask, “When will it end?” It seems like hallway passes and tardies are more important to schools than figuring out how to stop the shootings. We need to do more effective things to slow them down to eventually stop because everyone has had enough. 

That brings us back to the main question though. Can we even prevent school shootings? Or do we have to just deal with it? Turns out, there are plenty of ways to reduce gun violence. If we invest in pro-social classrooms and mental health support, we can try to prevent any ones in the future from happening. We need to strengthen the gun laws. In no way should it be allowed for a 16 year old to have an armed weapon. By doing this, we can ensure that those who have ownership of a gun are mentally stable and have proper training.  

Speaking about mental health is also important. Counselors have become more crucial in schools more than ever due to this. We need more and it would be helpful if they were younger as well. Many active shooters in schools were and are mentally unstable, so if this is the root of the problem, we should be tackling it head-on with the improvement of mental health services.  

Building a supportive and loving school environment is key to preventing shootings and traumatic events. Students should feel safe to talk to each other and to staff. Everyone should have at least one teacher who they can respect and trust, so if threats are going around the school then go to that teacher as soon as possible. Policies and procedure should be focused on when and how to intervene when someone says they want to harm themselves, others or both. 

After reading these ideas, it is shown that there ARE ways to reduce the times that school shootings happen. It is impossible to completely stop them, but there are a lot of things the school board could be doing better to help reduce these incidents. With mental health getting a lot of attention in the recent years, it is important to make sure that every student gets an opportunity to learn about  lessons where they can take control of their emotions and social skills so administrators can tackle the issues of strengthening mental health early on.