In response to the gun violence plaguing high schools across the nation, administrations have resorted to alternative methods for answers. Schools have every right to protect their students in the way they see fit, but the question remains if these methods will truly prevent gun violence.
In response to the shooting at their school, Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School is requiring their students to use clear backpacks. The school district has every right to do this, but this is by no means a permanent solution to gun violence. The Parkland students recognize this and several have expressed outrage over the belief of being punished, in a sense, for others’ actions. There has been further discontent over the lack of privacy which CNN captured through interviews. Sixteen-year-old student Nicholas Fraser has compared Marjory Stoneman to a “prison, [that] doesn’t feel like home.” While senior Tyra Hemans’ sentiment hit the nail on the head. “We know what the root of the problem is, [lawmakers] don’t want to make the gun laws strong enough,” she said.
Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, however, is just one of many schools searching for ways to prevent shootings. For two years, Blue Mountain School District, in Pennsylvania, has provided its classrooms with 5-gallon buckets full of rocks as a method to dissuade armed intruders. Others have sought to take more drastic methods of deterrence. Most famously, President Trump suggested that teachers should be armed and offered to provide bonuses as an incentive. This prompted outcries, but at least 10 states permit staff to carry firearms on high school campuses.School administrators are simply playing the cards they got dealt. Their intent is to prevent gun violence in their schools. So they use whatever they can muster from their tool belt to accomplish this objective. This has resulted in the implementation of alternative methods, like mandating clear backpacks, providing buckets of rocks and arming teachers.
However, deterring violence doesn’t solve the root of the problem. Someone threatened to attack my small Colorado high school on May 4, 2017, during my senior year. The threat was found written on the walls prior to this date so the school administration took precautions. The week leading up to that date, our backpacks were searched and a private security team was hired for our safety. We were prohibited from doing other things like the traditional senior prank to promote a sense of safety and unity in our school community. No incident ever took place and the author of the note was discovered. But I will never forget the eerie feeling of walking through the hallways that day; each step I took felt like ones of defiance and strength. That was a time when both staff and students stepped up to present a unified front and it was effective. However, if stricter gun laws were in place this incident could have been altogether avoided.
Therefore, methods of deterrence act as the answer to gun violence today. But by no means do these methods present a permanent solution. Legislation must be implemented to diminish gun violence, so schools can return to their roles of promoting privacy and safety without the threat of armed intruders glooming over the heads of administrators.