Years ago, we could feel safe in a school environment.
Educational institutions, where America’s next generation of leaders and
scholars are being shaped, were a place that parents could send their children
and not have to worry about their safety.
Yet, here we are today, and hardly a week goes by without
another tragic school shooting. It appears that no one is safe, as all ages of
students have been touched by these tragedies, in all fields of education from
elementary school to colleges.
There is no doubt that all Americans can still remember that
gut-wrenching feeling while watching reports of the heartless killing of the
children of Sandy Hook Elementary school this past year. The images of the distraught,
devastated faces of their families being interviewed is seared in our brains.
The tears that the country shed together at various tributes to the fallen
angels at sporting events showed us how sacred life is, especially a young one
In the past week alone, there have been three shootings at
college campuses. A student was shot at South Carolina State University,
another was murdered in the electrical engineering building at Purdue
University, and another was shot and critically injured at Widener University
near Philadelphia. If that isn’t alarming, I don’t know what is. We are
fortunate to live in America, where so many have fought and died for our
freedom and safety. So, I ask, why shouldn’t we feel safe within our own
borders from ourselves?
It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency to
act on this and assume that it will work itself out. Just like the foundations
that our country was built on, we must conduct ourselves on the high plane of
dignity and discipline. On top of that, we need to take proper steps to ensure
the safety of the nation’s young minds at learning institutions. This means increasing
security on all academic institutions of all ages. Since the Sandy Hook
incident especially, elementary and high schools are stepping up security.
However, keeping college campuses safe is more difficult because they are often
accessible to the public.
Therefore, what we need to accomplish is educating citizens
about the danger of firearms when they are used improperly. No matter what
legislation is passed, firearms will be available to anyone who wants to get
one, but the key is being well informed and keeping documentation of who
possesses firearms and for what purpose.
When this happens, every precious life at America's educational institutions will be more safe, and every precious life is just as valuable as the next. This is our hope, that every person brought to this world can reach their true potential.
Go back to Columbine, go back to Sandy Hook, go back to the
Virginia Tech massacre, and remember the losses that families of the victims
and the country as a whole. Now is not the time to turn the other cheek. Now is
the time to act and ensure the safety of America’s future by protecting our
youth by any means possible because they are the future that we, and every
other American citizen has been fighting for.
