Are Schools Really Prepared?
Elizabeth Vandergeest and Kirsten Jandrasitz
On Oct. 1, 2013 at about 7:15 a.m., a school shooting occurred in Sparks, Nevada. Twelve-year old middle school student, Jose Reyes, brought a gun into school and killed a faculty member and injured two students, all before shooting himself. Having so many school shootings occur lately really raises questions on how aware and prepared schools really are for intruders.
We were able to interview the head of Bloomsburg University’s education department on his opinion on how safe Bloomsburg’s campus is for its students. Dr. Ralph Feather stated his concern with guns being in the hands of the wrong people. His concern was mainly due to rash reactions of people who possess these guns. Feather believes that although people should have training with guns, all professors will not have the proper and necessary training in order for all to posses guns at the University.
Feather talked positively about the University’s safety precautions. Although Feather believed that the school does a very good job, including the emergency call boxes that were recently added to campus, he does believe that more state funding would only help with more safety to its students. He thinks that more state funding will allow for there to be more officers to be visible, which is the main key to decreasing crime in the area. “People think that bad things won’t happen to them,” he said. “Which is why they walk alone, and unfortunately bad things can occur.”
Interviewed for this topic were: Upper Merion High School Student, Jane Vandergeest and Bloomsburg University Student Meghan Friskey
Ideas for improvement:
– Have drills at schools once a month
– Make a code word incase there is an intruder on campus
– Alert all students if there are suspicions of intruders
