Doesn’t Every Child Deserve A Fighting Chance?
As troubling as active shooter events are, when they happen inside our educational institutions, they somehow feel much worse. They create this sick feeling in the pits of our stomachs as we think of all the young, innocent lives that have been forever changed, solely because they were trying to raise their level of knowledge in the hopes of a brighter future. The sad thing is, school shootings are not a new occurrence in the U.S.
School Shootings Deeply Rooted In History
The American Counseling Association (ACA) reports that the first recorded school shooting in our country occurred in 1764. Known as the Pontiac Rebellion School Massacre, this event resulted in the death of 10 of the 13 students who were in the school at the time.
More school shootings continued thereafter, with 49 total incidents reported in K-12 settings during the 1800s and another 207 in the 1900s. And since the year 2000, there have been at least 152 more, indicating a 19 percent increase in violence in these types of educational settings in recent year.
College campuses have seen their share of active shooter incidents too. FBI data reveals that, since 2010, Umpqua Community College (Roseburg, Oregon), Florida State University (Tallahassee, Florida), Seattle Pacific University (Seattle, Washington), Santa Monica College (Santa Monica, California), New River Community College (Christiansburg, Virginia), Oikos University (Oakland, California), University of Pittsburgh (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania), Ohio State University (Columbus, Ohio), and the University of Alabama (Huntsville, Alabama) have all witnessed active shooter violence. Why?
Why Do Active Shooters Seek Out Schools?
One of the first questions that incidents like these raises is why active shooters would choose to target schools. While no two school shooting events are the exact same, there are some commonalities and trends that exist among these types of perpetrators.
For instance, 63 percent of these active shooters had shown in interest in violence, whether via movies, video games, or in books according to the ACA. Additionally, 78 percent had previously either attempted suicide or had suicidal ideations, with many (61 percent) also having a history of depression.
Bullying appears to be an issue as well, with 71 percent of the shooters reportedly being tormented prior to the attack. Approximately 87 percent left evidence that they had been severely bullied prior to carrying out their assault.
Creating An Effective Active Shooter Response In Educational Settings
While dealing with these issues is the first step to preventing or stopping future attacks, educational institutions must be ready should an event occur on their grounds. This involves creating an effective active shooter response.
ALIVE Active Shooter Survival Training provides educators with this type of effective response plan—to Assess, Leave, Impede, Violence, and Expose—which can be used in educational settings to help secure the safety of instructors and students alike, while also enabling compliance with governmental recommendations.
By arming educators with the knowledge and skills necessary to respond to these attacks, lives can potentially be saved. And doesn’t every child deserve a fighting chance?