My first memories of guns in school was actually a strange one, we were in a military dependents school during Desert Storm. The base seemed practically empty with all virtually all of the soldiers gone, leaving after days and days of classes being interrupted by the helicopters flying overhead, drowning out our teachers’ voices. The school shared a fence with the heliport and it was a sobering reminder that as we continued with our days our parents were leaving for war. Not that you can ever forget your parent is leaving for war, but school continued and they tried to give us a sense of normalcy. 🙂 The housing area was patrolled by guards and inside the school there were pairs of soldiers in combat gear patrolling the halls. We laughed about it and there were yearbook pictures of the soldiers, helmets and rifles, but it was yet another reminder that we were considered a target as well – military families left behind, good way to destroy morale if something were to happen to us. (Besides some bomb threats, which I suspect were of local origin, I don’t remember any issues of violence.)
Two years later and back in the states I remember hearing what sounded like a gunshot in the hallway of my high school as we passed to class. The school was huge, over 3,000 students, and I’ve no idea if it really was a gunshot? But I remember watching the hallway flatten as students all dropped. Metal detectors were brought and the lines were backed up for 3 hours as administrators no doubt panicked about what to do and students thought it was all some joke and skipped school for the day. We had a police officer in school full time and I remember students being taken away in handcuffs when fights broke out, but the metal detectors were gone the next day. It was 1993.
Two years later, another school still in the US but back on the military base. The school was a weird layer, two split levels so four floors total. Very few windows, really no way to properly patrol or supervise. The daycare center for the students’ children (yes, you read that right – the high school kids could put their babies in the daycare there) was on the second level, as was my locker. I was pulling stuff out and getting ready to head up to the fourth level for my class, talking with the other year book photographer at the time. We heard some shouting and turned to see a fight breaking out. My thankfully tall friend saw better than me what was going on and grabbed and pulled me away as a flood of people rushed around us, slamming us into the lockers. He got me out of the way and got us up the stairs where we learned we had just narrowly missed a riot that ended up the librarian being flown out by helicopter, paralyzed from being beaten as he attempted to break up the fight. I remember thinking how thankful I was there were no guns pulled. We were all over the news as our school was down the street also from the National Security Agency… that night my mother got a concerned phone call from a school employee, there was rumor that I had my camera there when the fight broke out (I did) and was taking pictures (I didn’t, I was too busy being crushed) and the school had them to ID kids involved and kick them out of school. They were concerned about me returning to school. It was 1994-95.
When I got to graduate school I was TA for a professor that was doing her undergrad work in Montreal when the university shooting occurred, during which 14 women were killed, 10 more women injured and 4 men injured. The gunman entered the classroom, ordered the male students out and then lined up and shot the women. The shooter said he was “fighting feminism” and my professor shared this story in tears, explaining how it influenced her choice to pursue a Ph.d. in women’s studies.
A family member was on campus during another university shooting more recently. And this last week we learned of a campus wide lockdown on one of the colleges in town, a place we go weekly with our children. (It was after a student’s outburst and threats in class, no gun was found and the person was arrested.) But still, I saw the newspaper headline and felt my stomach sink. That was my graduate school, I practically lived on that campus (teaching, attending class, holding office hours, studying) and I take my children there now for one of their therapy programs. I want to feel it’s safe.
I’m not sure how we got on the topic but this morning with C we were discussing violence in schools and universities. We didn’t want to scare him or make him think it’s incredibly common (especially since we are on campuses five times a week!) but I had no idea how many shootings there had been – Wikipedia has some of them listed. Most I hadn’t heard of…
When our kids participated in therapy programs through a local school I pointed out to the therapist some issues with their “security” system and I did notice changes made after that. But it still left me feeling very uneasy about how they handled security and how any measure gave them a false sense that things were going to be safe.
Long introduction as I ponder all of this… how do we help our children feel safe in schools*? How do we feel safe in schools?? How do we explain this insanity? How do you explain what cannot be explained??
* It’s not just schools, of course, but because they are common targets with large groups of people they are often very well publicized vs. the even more common work place or domestic violence situations.
As a student or a parent, is this a concern for you? Does your school have safety measures in place? Do you think they are effective? I remember one of the elementary schools having a lock down drill while we were there for therapy, and I wondered how in the world the parents explained that to their kindergarden children. “We’re practicing locking you in your classroom and having you hide in case someone comes into the school with a gun and wants to kill you!” How do you explain?? Even if the chances of it happening are slim, every school is now influenced by this climate of violence and maybe it’s just hit too close to home too many times for me that it does make me feel concerned? Or is every parent concerned about this and it’s not just me? 🙂 In which case, what do you do and what do you say to your children? If you’re a teacher or student, do you have concerns about your safety on campus? Not just from gun violence but violence in general? Thoughts? Emails welcome, I’m hthaden at gmail dot com.