Being students in today’s world, the issue of school safety is constantly on our mind. The unsettling reality is that school shootings have become alarmingly common. In the case of a real emergency, we don’t think Staples students would be prepared for what to do.
At the core of any real lockdown is inescapable fear and uncertainty. But there could be more reassurance if we practiced them more.
Truthfully, we can’t even remember the last time we had a lockdown drill. In most of our classrooms we would have no idea what to do or where to go. That scares us, considering school safety is a pressing issue in our society. With everything that students can see on social media and the tragic stories we hear, it would alleviate some stress if we were more prepared.
The problem extends beyond students. Teachers from across the nation have voiced their opinions. According to NBC 15 News, “Nearly 40% of [teachers] said their school is doing only a fair or poor job preparing for an active shooter.” This statistic concerns us because it is unsettling that the adults we rely on are not confident in our safety.
As this issue becomes more present here in Connecticut and isn’t something we only see in the news and online, we feel a sense of worry and anxiety we hadn’t felt in school in previous years. The reaction of the administration to these events hasn’t made us feel any better and we think more should be done in light of the recent events that have taken place in and around our community.
Many people feeling the same way might wonder what the school can do. Well, I think that schools should be having students practice one lockdown drill per quarter. If we were more familiar with the plan and the actions we need to take when the lockdown alarm starts blaring, then we would be less confused and worried in the case of a real emergency. It’s never guaranteed that all students will be safe and protected, but if Staples had more preparation, we think that all students and staff would benefit.
We both can remember many years back where we would have lockdown drills in elementary school. We can recall sitting in a corner of the classroom for a few minutes, maybe talking with friends. Given the amount of threats we are now seeing, we wish that we had taken those drills more seriously and that their enforcement had been more rigorous.
The issue of school safety continuously lingers in our minds. We see stuff online and can’t help but wonder, what would we do if it happened to us? If someone dangerous came into our school, where would we hide? What would happen? The fact that we don’t have answers to those questions is a scary feeling and we believe more must be done.
