This morning, a middle schooler brought a handgun owned by his parents and opened fire on his classmates and teachers, killing one teacher and wounding two 12 year old students. The student who brought the gun shot himself shortly after, leaving the motive of the shooting unknown to police officials. Mike Landsbury, a math teacher at Sparks Middle School, was a former marine and a coach to the students. He loved teaching, and was probably trying to calm the shooter down, as his brother told Anderson Cooper 360. School has been shutdown for the week at Sparks.
This deeply saddens me that we can have kids in America so young and disturbed to bring a gun to school and use it to kill someone and himself. We have suicide awareness, but we don't really think about the sadness or anger that brings upon teen suicide. I pray for Landsbury's family in this time of mourning because he probably did everything he could to calm the boy down. But it got me to thinking, did they have a safe evacuation drill? What about a safe lockdown drill? Did the kids take action to not be in the way of danger because i certainly hope so. But does every school in America know what to do when these severe circumstances become reality? We need to be cautious of handling life or death situations. Also, did anyone check his bag that morning to check for suspicious items? Kids can walk into school with weapons and conceal them with ease. I mean, let's be honest, do our security lines stop us from bringing dangerous objects into school? (I'm not saying people bring weapons, but it's a possibility) Kids can virtually get away with bringing anything into school, and that's not safe or right. My prayers go out to the families affected by the shooting, but I'm glad that almost everyone made it out safe. Hopefully safety precautions will not be taken lightly anymore.
click the link for more information http://www.cnn.com/2013/10/21/justice/nevada-middle-school-shooting/index.html?hpt=hp_t1
I completely agree. I did my current event on the same topic as you. You included points that I did not mention, but agree with 100%. Maybe if they had a proper evacuation or 'take cover' drill the students would not have been injured. I am not at all saying this is the school's fault though (although they should have had better security in the first place). The student obviously killed himself after he was done shooting so he wouldn't have to suffer the consequences of the actions he just did. He is immature and foolish and deserved to be taken off of this earth.
ReplyDeleteThis is a good point! Evacuation/safety drills need to be practiced more often and need to be taken seriously to prepare for when a tragedy such as this occurs. Also, the fact that the 12 year old kid had such easy access to the gun shows that his parents are not being cautious when it comes to having the right to bear arms. This has probably brought about the debate over gun control laws in the U.S.
ReplyDeleteYou know, we can take all the percautions possible, we can do all the drills and practices we think is neccessary. But, it seems like when somebody sets out to do something horrific like this, there is hardly any way for some people to dodge it. I am saddened that this happened to such young children. I mean, 12 years old. It is absolutely devistating.
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