On Sept. 4, a Georgia 14-year-old carried out the deadliest school shooting in the state’s history, killing two teachers and two students. Hearing news like that just a week after school started forced us to think.
We are lucky to be at a school that provides a safe and secure environment built on trust. Marksmen have the luxury of knowing that nobody will randomly search their backpacks; we don’t have to knock to come back into class and we can let our guard down at school to make it feel like home. We have top-tier security 24 hours a day and seven days a week.
But the massacre in Georgia reminds us that we do need to consider what would happen in the event of an emergency here.
It’s up tp us tp realize bad things happen everywhere and we need to stay alert. Our highly-trained security team is equipped to handle any threat on campus; still, most students would have no idea what to do in a crisis.
This brings up a question: are we as Marksmen prepared enough — not just in the event of an on-campus threat, but in any emergency scenario?
The school does a great job of preparing students for things like tornadoes or fires, with monthly drills that have become almost second nature to those who have attended the school for a long time.
However, when doing these drills, we as students need to pay attention and retain the information we’re given.
It is crucial that we learn these robust safety procedures, and practice them often, for any emergency.
Our knowledge on safety needs to extend beyond natural disasters.
After speaking with students on campus and asking, “Where is the nearest AED?” or “How do you perform CPR?” it’s clear that most students don’t know how to answer these questions.
Many of these students might have known the answers at one point, perhaps from lessons in sixth-grade Health and Wellness class or from outside of school.
Knowing how to make a tourniquet, for example, could potentially save someone’s life in a crisis. “Run, hide, fight” training teaches basic self-defense skills and what to do when faced with a threat.
Even if students never have to use it, these are life skills that can take them far.
Students also need to hold each other accountable for what they say, including on social media in our community.
Jokingly saying something without thinking, or allowing others to do the same, can be harmful to ourselves, our peers and our school. We need to be responsible for our own and others’ jokes, be mindful of our voice as a community and cultivate positivity to prevent actions that might hurt others.
As Marksmen, let’s hold each other accountable — to pay attention to our surroundings, to speak up when something is happening and to step in when someone needs help.
These measures can provide us with a plan for any emergency, or protect us from a potential on-campus threat until more common sense gun laws are passed. This does not mean a ban on guns – rather, a call for more protection for students and school employees.
Expanding background checks would ensure that weapons don’t end up in the hands of the wrong people.
For instance, the Georgia shooter’s father purchased and gifted a gun for his son’s 14th birthday, circumventing the system of age restrictions and background checks in place to allow his son to possess a gun. Despite being investigated by the F.B.I. just a year earlier for making threats online about a school shooting — which would’ve shown up on his son’s background check — he was allowed to possess and operate a firearm independently.
Other laws, like mandating safe gun storage will deny easy access to weapons for children like the Georgia shooter.
Making gun safety courses mandatory, like those implemented when getting a concealed carry license, will ensure proper training for all gun owners. Just like a driver’s license is required to drive a car — which is a machine capable of killing other people — mandatory safety courses will teach an owner how to safely handle their gun.
We can’t control everything, but as Marksmen, we must do our duty to control what we can.
Having a plan to be prepared for all emergencies, taking tornado and fire drills seriously, knowing how to perform basic life-saving techniques until medical help arrives or driving safely in our school zone and parking lots are all things we can control to make our community a safer place.
