Safety First by Holly

Safety First by Holly - July 2022 Scholarship Essay

The American public education system has faced widespread criticism from its students and teachers, parents, and taxpayers due to a plethora of perceived shortcomings. Among them are lack of adequate funding, limitations of standardized testing, and inequities between districts. However, in the past decade the news has been flooded time and time again with a too-familiar, yet always-tragic incidence of a school shooting. While the aforementioned issues in public education are surely important, it can’t be argued that any of them should supersede the issue of safety in schools. In the next decade, it should be the top priority to increase the safety of school children and reduce the occurrences of these avoidable tragedies.
Despite attempts to make the issue of safer schools one that is inherently political, it is clear that the goal is absolutely shared and that is to prevent the deaths of children. What is less clear is the best path forward toward achieving that goal. Some people insist that stricter gun laws would be effective while others are in favor of stricter security at the schools. Others argue that educators and school systems need to do better in identifying students that display warning signs that they could become violent with others. It’s my opinion that some combination of those three would be the best path forward to ensure immediate safety of students and prevent occurrences in the long term. Students deserve to feel safe in their schools and no parent should have to endure the loss of their child through a senseless act of violence. Yet, Americans are becoming numb to the headlines that show these shootings occurring week after week. In the next 10 years, I hope that Americans can put politics aside to make real changes to protect some of its most vulnerable members of society.