More needs to be done to tighten security and toughen gun laws in the wake of the Feb. 14 slaying of 17 Florida students, agree students and staff at Mission Bay High School, whose students will be joining the March 14 National School Walkout.
\nIn the aftermath of the Valentine\u2019s Day massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, the 12th school shooting nationwide this year, Beach & Bay Press sat down with ASB students, their advisor, and principal Ernest Remillard, who aired their views on what could be done to make schools safer.
\nSeniors Daniel Legaspi IV, Cecilia Lopez, Paige Parkhill and Chloe Meng joined teacher-advisor Lynsey Littlefield in discussing why things “should” be handled differently this time around.
\nLegaspi IV pointed out students today exist in a different era.
\n“I don\u2019t know anyone who goes to this school that wasn\u2019t born after Columbine,” said Legaspi. “They\u2019ve grown up in an age when they\u2019ve seen a school shooting at least once a year. We\u2019ve all grown up in that world. It\u2019s been desensitizing to kids, because they don\u2019t think there will be change. That makes them not care about whether there will be change \u2014 or not.”
\nThe Columbine shooting on April 20, 1999 in Colorado was one of the first high-profile school massacres. Two students murdered 12 students and one teacher, while injuring 21 others, before exchanging gunfire with police and committing suicide.
\nNearly 20 years later, school shootings nationally are increasing, the body count continues to rise and little appears to have been done concretely to protect schools by making them harder targets.
\nASB senior Chloe Meng was “shocked” by Stoneman though she “wasn\u2019t very surprised that another shooting has happened. It\u2019s kind of become the norm, which isn\u2019t OK.”
\nAsked about a better outcome now, Meng answered, “Sandy Hook didn\u2019t change anything. I hope this one does.”
\nOn Dec. 14 in Connecticut, 20-year-old Adam Lanza fatally shot 20 children at Sandy Hook Elementary School between 6 and 7 years of age, as well as six adult staff members, before committing suicide. He shot and killed his mother at home before going to Sandy Hook.
\nFellow senior Paige Parkhill was “devastated” when she learned about Stoneman through Twitter.
\n“I saw a video of a teacher who had been shot and was being dragged out and blood was covering the floor \u2014 It was unbelievable,” Parkhill said. She defended Stoneman students lobbying legislators for gun control and launching the national walkout. “They\u2019re taking the right actions. I think it will push it [change] over the edge this time.”
\n“I was also shocked \u2026 but also more angry,” said senior Cecilia Lopez.
\n“It\u2019s hard to admit in some ways, but we\u2019ve become numb because it\u2019s become such a regular occurrence,” said Remillard. But he noted tightening securing at schools is just one aspect of making them safer. “Our schools and staff need to look for the signs,” Remillard said, adding schools need to personalize relations with troubled students in order to reach them.
\n“Students need to have a trusted adult on campus, that\u2019s the big piece of this,” he said. “MBHS is fortunate we have a school psychologist five days a week, a mental health clinician \u2026 It\u2019s not so much all about weapons. There are a lot of the [student] supports that can be put into play to help kids proactively beforehand. That really starts with their relationship with the staff and other students.
\n“It\u2019s about the fences, and the walls and the infrastructure, but it\u2019s also knowing your kids \u2014 and having the supports in play for those kids who are feeling stressed, or ostracized, those triggers,” Remillard said. “It\u2019s being aware of those, and how do you support the kid along the way.”
\nNeither Remillard, nor the ASB students, thought having guns in schools, other than police with licensed firearms, was the answer.
\n“At this moment, I don\u2019t know who I would trust to have a weapon on campus,” Remillard said. “There would have to be a lot of training, and background work, to ensure whoever carried a gun was trained and ready.”
\n“To have each teacher armed in each classroom is just ridiculous,” said Parkhill. “That would even cause more safety accidents happening.”
\nParkhill pointed out it would be tough to tighten physical security at MBHS and other San Diego Unified School District facilities because, “We\u2019re an open campus. There are so many ways people can get in.”
\nLegaspi would have a problem with more walls and other barriers at schools. “It would feel like a prison if no one were allowed in or out at any point during the day,” he said. “I don\u2019t want to have to go through metal detectors and cross four security guards.”
\nNational protest organizers are calling for students and others to take part for 17 minutes in the event on Wednesday, March 14. The MBHS protest, starting at 10 a.m., will be 18 minutes long, including a moment of silence plus one minute each for the 17 students killed in Florida.
\n“This is a student-led protest, my role is just helping them with the execution of their plan,” said Littlefield, adding students chose to wear white, instead of the Stoneman school colors, to honor and memorialize that school.
\nWill the student protest work?
\n“We don\u2019t know how successful we\u2019re going to be,” Littlefield said.
\nLegaspi had a message to deliver about MBHS\u2019s participation in the National School Walkout.
\n“If you can\u2019t protect us in schools \u2014 what\u2019s the point of being in school?,” he asked. “We\u2019re walking out, not only to protest gun violence, but also to protest the lack of security. It\u2019s to show we\u2019re done with what\u2019s been happening in the past. This is supposed to be change for something new.”
\n“We can\u2019t let this conversation fade,” said Remillard. “Let\u2019s not forget about what happened in Florida \u2014 or in Columbine 19 years ago.” National School Walkout When: 10 a.m. Wednesday, March 14, for 17 minutes, in memory of the 17 people gunned down at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
More needs to be done to tighten security and toughen gun laws in the wake of the Feb. 14 slaying of 17 Florida students, agree students and staff at Mission Bay High School, whose students will be joining the March 14 National School Walkout. In the aftermath of the Valentine\u2019s Day massacre at Marjory Stoneman […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":726,"featured_media":273474,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11559","_seopress_titles_title":"Mission Bay to join National School Walkout on March 14; students discuss school safety and ongoing gun violence","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11559,11551],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-273473","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-beach-bay-press","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/273473","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/726"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=273473"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/273473\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/273474"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=273473"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=273473"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=273473"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}