This blog was started for Mr. Hughes' English III AP course.
It's full of assigned and freely written journals. Enjoy. <3

Under Construction.

Where is the Protection in Schools? [8] Throughout the past 30-45 years, American education has been struck with mass killings and disastrous situations within school campuses. The security of elementary schools, high schools, and colleges need to be brought up to another level because incidents, like the Virginia Tech killings in 2007, are handled every year. Schools should be more protected because there are situations that harm students, teachers, and on campus faculty. The United States should do something on the high crime rate through America’s educational system, by increasing security.

Schools are very open to many crimes, more so shootings/mass murder attacks, because those shootings/mass murder attacks are not stopped in time due to the lack of security and knowledge of suspects on campus. On April 20, 1999, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold drove up to Columbine High School in Colorado in two separate cars. After setting off a small bomb, the black dressed shooters were never seen before killing 12 students as they came by the cafeteria and library, being called the Columbine High School Massacre (Wikipedia, Columbine High School Massacre). Another case would be a Louisiana Technical student, Latina Williams, entering a class room on February 8, 2008, exiting, only to re-enter in another door, firing 6 shots and killing two people with a .357 revolver (Fox News, Woman Kills 2 Students in Louisiana College Classroom, Takes Own Life). These two cases are where security lacked in the lives of students. They never noticed nor detected anything wrong on the two days, but why? Schools are heavily impacted by violent crimes each year, so wouldn’t that make anyone on campus ready of anything? Not necessarily.

All around the United States, schools should be more protected against student/teacher violence. Many people blame movie directors and game producers for the work they put out on the market because of it’s violent content, but what if it was not just the media industry? Though it is not always seen as a type of security, parents need to watch what their child does throughout their lives and monitor them. To have a safer school, the student must be safer. Schools also need to have more guards and policemen with technical training on how to handle school shootings, as wells as teachers and on campus staff having the same training as a police officer, taking courses on how to see a perpetrator because they strike and how to handle “before and after” scenarios of harmful situations between students. When built, schools should be equipped with metal detectors (Surveillance – Metal Detectors). For lower-income school systems, governmental funds should help aid in what cannot be paid for.

How did the two men walk around Columbine High School draped in black and carrying weapons without anyone noticing them? Was it security’s fault for having the students go through the wrong exit? How did the Louisiana Tech shooter carry the loaded revolver around school campus? Security within schools should be increased, for too many situations happen each year to young people in America through schools.