Mass shootings cause anxiety for students

by Jada B.

As more mass shootings arise in South Carolina, more students grow increasingly more anxious to go to school.

“I think they are really bad for society, and make kids not want to go to school because they don’t feel safe,” says a sophomore at Airport High School. To try and prevent these shootings, he suggested, “I don’t want to say that we should not popularize it, I want to say that we shouldn’t make it seem okay and to stop giving the shooters the attention they want.”

Awareness wise, many people know about these shootings but how should we advocate action actually happening? “I guess talk about the warning signs more, so people can look out for them,” said a 10th grader from Airport High School. This school year, there have been about 3 or 4 threats made to Airport and other nearby schools, he says, “It makes me not want to go to school because anyone could be a shooter and you would never know until it happened.”

But what if you knew someone who was going to shoot up the school, how would you handle that? “Call the police and report it obviously, but if one were to happen I feel like they should make the windows on the doors not so easily accessible,” he said.

These shootings and threats are very traumatic for many people. “It can mess up someone's life in the long run,” he comments.

Mental health is obviously critical and important in these situations, the victims go through immense amounts of trauma and the shooter most likely was struggling also. “If I were to be a victim of a school shooting and survived I would not want to ever attend school again,” he says.

These shooters are usually young, and so are the victims, mental health plays a big part in these situations, should we offer more mental health options for both sides? “Yes, it’s a very traumatizing experience that can mess people up psychologically and physically and without proper care it can get worse,” a 10th grader at Airport said.

With that being said, all these younger generations have to be educated about these shootings and know what to do if one potentially happens. How do you feel about all these younger generations having to become knowledgeable about these grim topics? “I feel like it’s good to know about the dangers of school shootings but not so young in life.”

Teachers in this sense have a lot to think about with these shootings rising. What precautions do you think teachers should take in the case of a school shooting? “Make sure the kids have a way to defend themselves just in case of a shooter or intruder, and try and make it possible for everyone to evacuate via the window or something like that if a shooter or intruder were to get in,” he said.

Lots of these shooters have ended up being students or even being students at the very school they attend, which means they know how the lockdowns go and what's happening in one, which brings the question of if we should change the lockdowns? Would it even be possible to do so? “I think it would be extremely hard to change the lockdowns since every student knows how one goes down, I think if a student shows the warning signs and is acting suspicious, or has voiced violent thoughts, I think they should at least be questioned and even searched,” said a sophomore at Airport High School.

News coverage is obviously going to happen either way, but the way these shootings are being portrayed, do you think the news coverage is making these shootings better or worse? “I feel as if its split kind of down the middle, on one side, they’re kind of giving them the attention they strive for, but on the other hand the public needs to know and be informed, so it’s hard to form an absolute opinion on it I would say.”

“We should educate people on the subject better and take more action and precautions instead of acting so casual about all the casualties, we need better precautions,” said the sophomore.

We need to see more action, not just talk.