To the Ohio State students, faculty, staff, parents, families and college students ALL over who are scared, my thoughts are with you.
I’m sure you’re aware of the event known simply as Columbine. Most of us in school now were too young to understand the events that took place at Columbine High School on April 20, 1999, but as we grew up, we learned about it. Teachers hid us in closets during school hours to practice what would happen if the school were to be “locked down.” My middle school had a code that was announced over the speaker; we all had to know what the code was, and we all had to know where to go in the event that such a tragic thing would strike our school. No one thinks it will happen to them, and young children don’t realize that this is a real thing. Children don’t realize that “lock down drills” are being practiced because school intrusions are becoming so common in America. I remember sitting in closets during drills in middle school and having my classmates talk and joke during the drill as if it were just time away from the books. Since graduating from both, middle school and high school, both schools have extended their security much more than when I was attending. They are taking a step towards the precautions that all schools should be taking for the safety of their students.
Since the Columbine High School massacre, there have been hundreds of school shootings, and school intrusions in America. The emotional toll and reality of someone breaking into a school no longer hits me as hard as it once did. How can something so serious and real barely strike a fire within me anymore? We dismiss school intrusions because they are becoming so common. Why are we not enhancing security in every school and university? Why are we not stopping intruders before they can even get into buildings?
I know that scanning a card to get into every building on campus would TOTALLY ruin your entire day. But do you know what else would ruin your day, much worse than having to scan your card when you enter a building? An intruder breaking into the main building of your school and shooting people that you know and love. Schools should be receiving funding for metal detectors in their buildings. There should be more security officers in the morning, and afternoon when children are let out of school. For those of you who ask where your tax money is going, why don’t you ask why it is not going towards ensuring the safety of your children’s schools? For those of you who ask, “Where will this money come from?" To tell you the truth, I don’t know, but it needs to come from somewhere, and we should be demanding that it does.
School shootings should shock us, not numb us. We should be in fear when “SCHOOL SHOOTING” reads across our television or computer screens. We should not say the words, “There was another school shooting,” because there shouldn’t have been any to begin with. We should not be accustomed to mass shootings, and school intrusions. But we are. We are so used to seeing real life horror shows on the news. We no longer pity the victims of the tragedies like we once did. No one wants to admit this, but it is true. This isn’t because we don’t care. We do care. Just not nearly as much as we once did, or should. We have grown to know school shootings as just “something that happens,” but who said that they have to happen, and who said that they have to happen so frequently? This isn’t normal. Someone having full access to a school where they do not belong is insane.
School shootings were uncommon around the time of Columbine which is why everyone has heard about it. Most of us have also heard about Sandy Hook, because we were all old enough to understand what was going on. But why did we not hear about the other school shootings that took place after Sandy Hook? And if we did hear about them, why do we not remember exactly where they happened? Why are we hearing about an intruder on the Ohio State campus and brushing it off as if it is normal? Because we’re numb. Americans as a whole are numb.
So, in conclusion of this article, I am asking you to push for security enhances at your child’s school. I am asking you, college students, to be open to the idea of scanning your ID card when entering a campus building. I am asking you to find that shock that you once held for every mass shooting that took place. I am asking you to help make school intrusions happen less. I am asking you to make schools the safe place that they should be and that they were made to be.
