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The issue of school safety has become one of the most serious problems in contemporary schools. The mass media have discussed numerous cases of school shootings happening over the past 10 years. For example, 27 people were killed in Sandy Hook Elementary School on December 14, 2007. On February 14, 2018, 17 students were killed in Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. Furthermore, “On the 18th of May 2018 8 students and 2 teachers were killed at Santa Fe High School in Santa Fe, Texas” (CNN Library). Nine students were killed on October 1, 2015, at Umpqua Community College in Roseburg, Oregon (CNN Library). These are just some examples of school shootings. In the reality, there are much more of them all over the country. In fact, Ahmed and Walker have stated that if to gather all the cases of school shootings in the USA in 2018, it became evident that such instances took place every week. The number of school shooting impresses with frequency and number of deaths. Besides, it is confusing how easy students can bring weapons to school. Thus, the major question remains, which has not received an answer yet, whether the affordability of weapons for the US population provokes the increased number of weapons use or whether it is wrong upbringing and increased cases of bullying, which leads to the raised level of aggression and the desire to kill.

Watching the news about a new case of school shooting or reading about it online, people become terrified not only because of how frequently the cases take place, but also because of how severe people can be and how easy they can commit a crime. In March of 2010, I first came across a case of gunfire on the Pleasant Hill campus. It was not a mass shooting; two players started a quarrel, which further resulted in the gunfight. However, I remember how this case impressed me. I understood that each student can bring a gun to school or college. I was impressed with this fact. Even now, when 8 years have passed, students still can easily bring weapons to school. There arise questions whether school safety means nothing, whether there are any possible ways to improve school safety and prevent the cases of school shooting. When trying to answer these questions, I do not refer to the affordability of weapons in general as I am sure that it is possible to protect schools. However, in order to understand how to prevent school shooting, it is important to study contemporary measures schools take in order to prevent school shooting. Hence, some schools and colleges apply counseling measures only, which is obviously not enough according to the statistics presented above. However, the knowledge is limited by personal experience and observation of the situation.

Rationale for the Research

Undeniably, school shooting is a serious concern in the contemporary society. I do understand that every day I am under the risk of being shot at my educational establishment because the cases of school shooting are numerous. Moreover, I have noticed a tendency of the increased use of weapons in educational establishments. I do not want to be shot in the place where I get knowledge for my future occupation. That is why I have decided to study this question. The understanding of currently taken safety measures in educational establishments in general and in Diablo Valley College in particular may help me feel more protected during classes. I cannot say that each time I enter the campus I feel terrified, but I still feel some pressure. I cannot say when I started being afraid of a possible school shooting, but the knowledge of the existing safety measures may help me assess their quality and provide some recommendations of how to improve safety at school and make my life less stressful.

It is impossible to state when I started collecting observations devoted to the issue of school safety. However, when I received a task to write the essay about the issue that may change my life, the idea of studying school safety and possibility of school shooting was the first one, which came to my mind. I recollected the case when threatening graffiti were found in two campus bathrooms. The campus was closed for two days and the classes were cancelled in March of 2018. This day deeply entered my mind and I wanted to learn whether the campus was safe. As I have already said, each time I go to college, I observe the situation. I try to find people who behave inadequate. I am sure that a student or any other person who wants to commit a crime behaves a bit unnaturally. It does not mean that such people will intentionally attract attention, but they will act not as they usually do. I am sure that observation of people and their behaviors can help me identify a person who wants to commit a crime. I want to be safe and secured at school I attend. That is why I have started studying possible signs of school shooting. In fact, identification of such signs in my college may help me prevent the school shooting case and increase safety.

However, analysis of warning signs, which may lead to a case of shooting in a college, requires additional research. Healy has indicated that absence of remorse, violent activities, presence of social and emotional disturbances in the past, obsession with weapons, lack of ethics, absence of friends, and family dysfunction are among possible signs of shooters. In turn, Keneally points to the need to scan the social media of a person. The analysis of these factors shows that it is impossible to predict a possible case of shooting by means of observing behavior only. As a college student, I can notice the lack of friends and violent activities. Nevertheless, knowledge of other information requires deep analysis. Thus, the fact that I have observed the behavior of other students does not provide me with a full picture of possibilities of school safety and violence. Analyzing the case of school safety, I have managed to notice the presence of the guard on the territory of the campus and cameras in several public places. These are the only safety measures I have noticed in my college. In turn, the research may help find breaches in the safety system of the college and assist me in developing the program for safety improvement, which may help me feel more secure when I attend the campus.

The Research

The research devoted to the analysis of safety in college and the possibility of school shooting is to take place in Diablo Valley College. I have interviewed the counselor and the police officer who took a shift on campus. I decided to use the unstructured interview as the subjects performed different tasks and could not refer to the same problems in a way that allowed me to compare the findings. I prepared a plan of the conversation and several main questions, which interested me. However, I was ready to direct the discussion to any other point. Still, I gave the interviewees a freedom of choice of aspects for discussion during the interview. The first point in my plan was the presentation of myself, goals of the interview (to understand the level of campus safety), and desired goals of the conversation (to see whether the subject is ready to predict the case of a school shooting before it begins). Then, I wrote several questions I wanted to use for the interview. However, they were not obligatory as I wanted to focus more on responses and direct the discussion to the sphere interesting for the particular subject. My drafted questions were as follows: ‘what do you think about the safety on campus?’; ‘do you think it is possible to a student to bring a weapon to classes?’; ‘what is your role in preventing school shooting?’.

The interviews were conducted during the working hours of the interviewees. Overall, it took about 25-30 minutes to explain the reasons of the interview and its goals, as well as discuss the points that interested me. First, I talked to the counselor. She was responsible for communicating with problematic students and resolving conflicting situations on campus. She agreed that safety was at the low level in the college and every student could hypothetically carry a weapon to classes. However, she also indicated that her job was to notice alarming signs and deal with them. She tried to contact students from unfavorable families, as well as the aggressive and violent ones. Besides, she tried to communicate with them, find necessary words, and develop trust between such students and her. She said that the major strategy she used for developing friendly relationships with students she talked to was the desire to find main interests of the students and help them develop their skills with respect to those interests. She said it was not easy. It could take a lot of time to find a common ground with a particular student. However, she said that this time was worth it.

Another person I interviewed was a police officer. He was responsible for maintaining safety on campus. However, his responsibilities were limited by the working code he had to follow. Hence, he could not check all students. Any attempt to check a student had to be supported by the confirmation of some strange act or suspicious nature by one more person. The presence of another person during inspection was a must. Moreover, he had to check the entire territory of campus for the presence of some strange subjects. He also had to identify people who were not the members of a campus (students, teachers, or administrative staff) and ask them to leave if they could not confirm their belonging to the campus. Finally, he agreed that safety on campus was not sufficiently ensured and that everyone could bring weapons even if they seemed to behave naturally.

Learning Outcomes

As a result of this research, I have come to the conclusion that the counselor had more opportunities and more influential power to protect the campus from a weapon attack. Currently, even after numerous cases of school shooting, no serious preventive measures have been taken to ensure that no one has an opportunity to bring weapons on campus. I have learned that even the recent warning about a possible violent crime on campus have not caused serious changes at Diablo Valley College. I see that the staff is concerned about the possible schools shooting cases; however, they do not apply radical measures. Freedom and immunity still remain the major concerns of the school administration. Living in a free society, the school administration cannot limit students’ rights by means of imposing some serious checks of each student or setting some limits related to crossing the campus (Akçay et al. 1960). The administration understands that there are no serious reasons to deprive students of the freedom of movement.

Although I have learned that the staff is preoccupied with safety issues, they do not have an opportunity to impose some ideas they have as they would limit freedoms of others. As such, it seems that there are no other means of improving safety on campus, but to limit freedoms of students, which is not an option. I have also learned that the past experience related to school shooting on campus has not taught important lessons to the school administration. However, the counselor and the police officer on campus perform their responsibilities to prevent the possible cases of school shooting, yet they agree that their actions are not enough. As such, I have learned that more research is required about possible ways of preventing schools shooting and improving safety on campus. Moreover, the current research has shown that students can also be responsible for preventing school shooting.

Conclusion

Therefore, it can be concluded that the current research has contributed to my understanding of the safety patterns in Diablo Valley College and the possibility of the occurrence of school shooting. The interview conducted with the police officer present on campus and the counselor who deals with students allows concluding that school shooting is possible. Even though there are some safety measures implemented on campus, the possibility of the crime still exists. More research is required before discussing the possibility of implementing changes. As such, even though school shooting is a topical issue in the US community, no serious steps are taken to prevent the possible disaster. Thus, the change is required with respect to the campus safety.

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