MLA

Gonzalez 4

Gonzalez 5

Angelica Gonzalez

Professor Hart

English 101

April 10 2018

Shooting in School and Prevention Measures

Most recently, there was a shooting incident at Parkland Florida that took place in a high school resulting to seventeen death and similar number of people nursing injuries. A 19 years old Nikolas Cruz was identified by an eye witness as the responsible criminal for the shooting that occurred. Although there has been confession from Cruz, police and the prosecutor are yet to give the motive behind the shooting as still there is ongoing investigation on disciplinary issues as well as any unnerving behaviour. What concerns me more about the incident at Parkland Florida are the worries of my children who go to school who might become victims of such criminal activities. It is also evident without doubt there has been several violent school shooting reported across the United State. As most of the shooting has happened without being detected, it raises a lot of question about the well-being of our children if immediate solutions are not implemented. To prevent school shooting incidences, authorities need to implement various strategies and address the prevalence of bullying as and the main underlying factor. The essay will therefore tackle way of preventing school shooting incidences.

To begin with, most states in the United State have implemented various anti-bullying legislation but unfortunately most of the laws implemented are less effective. To enforce the laws, the government should ensure that schools giving room for bullying are held responsible to act as an example to others. This is by ensuring that schools that do not intervene to stop vice from escalating facing tough sanctions. Before many schools in US were enlightened, some individuals has been unfortunate by going through victimization in their schools which make their life to get along with those of their peers or teachers. For instance, the killer of thirty-two innocent college students and member of the faculty in 2007 at the Virginia Tech decided to target less vulnerable group as surrogates for his former classmates who had bullied him in middle and high school. Such occurrences, could lead to someone like Nikolas Cruz using the same psycho-logic in executing his crime. As a parent have children who attend school it of big concern to the safety of my children on how they are treated and how they behave at school. Some children may start as bully but may end up in other big crimes such as shooting maybe because they were not dealt with early while they were practicing bullying. For the safety of children and school at large, vigilant action need to be taken while dealing with bullying case to prevent the cancer of vengeance from growing wide and thus parent like me will not be worried about the well-being of my children at school.

Another way of preventing incidences such as shooting is by breaking the culture of silence. Silence culture among the student in United State School has negative effect on prevention of cases of school shooting. This was a result of students ignoring remarks about some criminal plans and decide to remain silent as snitching is considered uncool behaviour even where it could potentially save lives. There has some improvement about that although is at the expense of death since 1999 Columbine massacre which made student change their perception on the willing to report any security issues to the resource officer, their parents or their teachers(Jack Levin, n.p) .Due to perception change by students some school planned massacres including the New Bedford and Marshfield have been averted .If Nicolas Cruz classmate had broken the culture of silence after know the suspect was fascinated with guns and violence , they would have reported to the authorities and avert any impending problem .School stakeholders should do anything possible to ensure that reporting a threatening behaviour becomes socially acceptable among students .Parent should play major role of ensuring their children have the required discipline and also has the courage to share with the issues that maybe of danger to their security at school.

Another way of preventing the chances of school shooting is by reducing media coverage to a reasonable extent .Media plays a noble role in informing the public and also in giving comfort to those hit by tragic actions such as residents of Parkland Florida. However with their noble role, too much of coverage regarding to school shooting may give criminals a copycat phenomenon thus motivating them to execute their plans in different locations .For instance, most student who attacked their classmates in 1999 were influenced by the columbine massacre activities. Media has the role of informing the society and also protecting the society by ensuring they are responsible with their coverage so as not bring more problems that good.

Reducing accessibility of semi-automatic rifles which are mostly used in school shooting and another way of preventing the problem from occurring. Ban on assault weapon may not be necessary to all people but it should be regulated carefully to ensure it doesn’t fall in the hands of trouble people suffering from various mental and psychological problems. Nikolas Cruz had psychological condition as a result of his mother death and also there was bad relationship with the family that took him and more to that he was expelled from school. The authority has the duty of monitoring all those owning any rifles and they should be cleared of any psychological conditions as they are easily offended (Ray Sanchez, 1).

To wind up, they are many factors that leads to incidents such as school shooting in different parts on US. Some maybe as a resulting bullying while others result from psychological factors. For the case with Cruz psychological factor lead to the death of many innocent human due to the need of revenge by the victims. The school stakeholders include the parent and the authority needs to be vigilant with the school environment and students behaviour if they want to win the war against school shooting. To prevent further shooting in future both students and their guardians either at school or home have to work together in order to be able to share information regarding to their safety.

Work Cited

Sanchez, Ray. A Call for Action: Responding to the Tragedy at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. http://www.lhcss.org/pdf/callforaction-2-26-18.pdf. Accessed 7 April 2018The Boston

Jack Levin. How to Prevent School Shooting. The Boston Globe December 2012. https://www.bostonglobe.com/. Accessed 7 April 2018