I was always told in middle school that school should be like my second home. I always felt that way until I opened my eyes up to the fast progression of gun violence in my native land. As a child you know a couple of places well, home and school being two of them. Slowly but surely, school did not seen like such a safe haven anymore to me. Now that I am in college, on a huge open campus, I feel less safe than ever. Getting crime alerts every day and turning on the news to see another school shooting or gun threat in universities or schools as close as an hour away from me, you can’t help but get scared.
Educations have been compromised. They say that education is your most powerful weapon, but today guns have proved that wrong. My education and thousands of others were compromised on October 5th 2015, when what turned out to be an empty threat won out over education. Although it did not personally effect my institution today, I could not help but get an eerie feeling at two pm when I was taking a test wondering what was (or was not) going on in the Philadelphia region. What was not going on, was knowledge, but instead, fear of the unknown. But in a way it did affect my education in the sense that it could have very easily been the region I am educated in that was evacuated or recommended that I am cautious to my surroundings throughout my day. Also wondering if anything would happen did effect my education in the sense that it distracted me and tons of others who were worrying about friends, family, and loved ones in that region.
At school, we are supposed to be concerned about our studies, not that someone could walk in any moment and decide to shoot up the class for a vendetta or no personal reason toward you whatever, but just because you are there. There comes a point where unreasonable paranoia for the unknown becomes reality, and with over 100 school shootings in the past five years, it is not a far fetched idea of a mass shooting in your area, it’s no longer just a plot in a movie, but it has become a reality for far too many of this nation.
America lost of piece of my and many others faith in our country. Today we lost a part of ourselves. What was once the land of the free and home of the brave is now a hub of paranoia, violence, total shame, and if education continues to be compromised, soon to be home to lack of knowledge.
