Many school districts face the harsh reality of school shootings, and as the topic becomes more common, safety concerns surrounding lockdowns have become a great issue. One way in which schools are attempting to prevent these events is by developing emergency solutions. Big Spring High School has had to face this problem, and has implemented several security measures in order to ensure the safety of their students.

According to History of School Shootings in the U.S, the first school shooting was recorded on July 26, 1764. Ever since then, schools have been relentlessly trying to solve this issue. According to EducationWeek, in the United States there have been 158 school shootings since 2018, and 51 of these have resulted in incidents or deaths in just the past year.

Chief of School Safety for the Shippensburg School District, Dave Lindenmuth, said that school staff and teachers need to build bonds with students and create a safe space so that students can be comfortable when reporting suspicious activity. “Safe schools are not just lockdown drills and preparing for an active shooter. 

Approximately 85% of school shooters tell someone ahead of time that they are going to commit the shooting.  So, safe schools are creating an environment where students can build bonds with and have trusted staff members who they can confide in and report suspicious behavior and threats.”  Students and teachers need to work together in order to address potential threats.  He said, “The objective of a mass shooter is to inflict as much devastation as possible before they are caught, shot at or end their life.  We have seen in multiple cases that shooters will bypass locked doors and continue looking for open doors.  They look for the easiest targets.” 

SaraBeth Fulton, a teacher at Big Spring High School, said, “The one thing we need to do is secure the doors and have employees watch who goes in and out in the morning. We have multiple doors open and students going through the building prior to the start of school. Hopefully, it would become a routine for students to know what to do. It is only effective if  students take them seriously. In a real situation there would be panic and if we practice, it should become routine.” 

Students need to do their part in helping make this school a safe place. As long as students and staff work together they can help prevent an attack from ever happening.