In just the first month of the academic year, Clark County School District has had to deal with seven incidents involving high school students bringing guns to their schools. On top of just carrying weapons in their backpacks, Canyon Springs High School had an act of gun violence that resulted in a casualty at the edge of their campus. Based on what’s been happening at other schools in the district, how can we be so sure that we can trust the people here?

With so many accounts of gun violence happening in just one month, we need to realize that this is a growing problem that needs to be stopped before it worsens. There is a difference between security and attack–guns can be used as a self defense mechanism, but they shouldn’t be handled impulsively.

Although the school administration has tried as much as they can to ensure that we are safe, it’s hard to feel like we are because of what we’ve seen in the headlines. Every day we wear our student IDs to let our peers know that we belong and lock the doors to keep out intruders. However, there is no way to censor us from what is really happening in our community, which makes us feel unsafe regardless of admin’s efforts.

There needs to be more emphasis on what we can do when we notice suspicious behavior on campus. We have SafeVoice printed on the back of our IDs, but the significance of it is not commonly discussed between us and faculty. Teachers need to take a few minutes out of their class periods to talk about SafeVoice’s importance. How can we be safe if we don’t understand the tools that we have access to?

Counselors are also available to reach out to when we have concerns regarding personal issues. We shouldn’t be afraid to approach them when we need someone to talk to because they’re here to provide counseling.  Communication plays an important part of awareness–don’t be afraid to spark a conversation.

Our lives matter and it is up to us to take action. If we want to prevent our school from being added to the list, we have to speak up when we see something happen. Instead of hiding in cabinets and under desks, we should be able to learn comfortably and without interruption. Our right to education should not come with the condition that we should fear being at school.

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