In the past year of school there
have been more than five school shootings.
The first shooting happened in Cleveland,
in October, where a 14 year old suspended student, dressed in black, shot four
people and then killed himself. Another
school shooting happened in December, where two physical doctor students from India were found shot to death at Louisiana State University. There were two shootings in February, on
February 8th where Latina
Williams opened fire during an emergency medical technology class at Louisiana Technical
College in Baton Rouge, where she killed two students
and then killed herself. The other one
from February happened on February 21, where Stephen Kazmierczak
shot and killed five others, and then himself at Northern Illinois
University. At another high school in Atlanta, a student shot himself at a school
assembly in front of over 100 classmates.
Locally, Reitz
High School just had a
scare, and while the gunman never made it into the school the school still was
on lockdown while the situation was figured out. Principal Vicki Snyder’s response to the Reitz event was that “it is every
principal’s nightmare, but the way that Reitz and all the law enforcement agencies
responded was very good.” Snyder’s first
response here at the school was “To get all kids back to the school and go into
a lockdown situation.” When asked about if the incident were to happen here at
Signature, Snyder’s responded, “I
would immediately call 911. I also hope
that we would be to respond in the same way they did at Reitz. I believe we are also at an advantage, since
we are right across the street from the police station, I have always found the
police quick to respond.”
Law enforcement agencies have also
changed their tactics of handling school shootings. Officers now practice what is called “Active
Shooter Response,” which where officers as soon as they get their go into to
the school or building in order to gain control, and confront the shooter. This is something new that came out of the
Columbine school shootings, where police stayed outside of the building. In the case of the Northern Illinois
University shooting, Kazmierczak was in a lecture hall on the stage, where he
began shooting his shotgun, and then he got off the stage and walked up and
down the aisle shooting at random. After
this he returned to the stage, where he shot himself as officers came through
the doors. Kazmierczak shot his gun over fifty times,
and still had additional ammunition, and a fully loaded handgun, where had officers’
not executed a swift response, the murders could have continued.
There are many incidents that have
happened in the past year. As school
ends, hopefully school violence will also begin to end.
Sources:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23277632/
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23184494/
