Hamilton City School District’s superintendent, Larry Knapp, said in a board meeting last week that the school would be undergoing serious changes in regards to security and safety. They would be installing new devices like bulletproof film windows, and employing more armed security officers on campus.
The school is going to conduct a 13 building-wide safety assessment with an array of officials, including some from Ohio Homeland Security.
The school district also plans to make school available more in-school counseling.
I think the measures and changes are not a bad idea, after the recent school shootings in both Texas and Florida. But, I also would ask the question about financials. How much are changes like this going to cost, and will this affect the educational experience my child gets?
I think we can all agree children’s safety is above that of their learning experience, no doubt, but I wonder if this would be taking it too far, in terms of adding the physical components of this safety change procedure.
I do believe the best, most important thing that Hamilton CIty School District, along with every other school district in America, could do is implement more ways for students to get help dealing with mental illness. I think a big part of the problem of school shootings has an incredible amount to do with mental illness and broken homes, than it does with guns.
As a nation, our main goal should be to stop the problem before it happens. If we can help students suffering from mental illness’ get better before there is another problem, we could save 10, 20 maybe 30 lives. Yes, maybe adding security feature can change some things, but it won’t keep a situation from happening. Mental illness is very real.
Also, guns, regardless of how much regulation or control is on them, will never go away. Often, people who want to commit senseless awful crimes like we’ve seen in these school shootings will go out of their way to commit them.
I wish as much as any person these awful, disgusting things didn’t happen and it breaks my heart to see the suffering people are going through.
As a nation we need to look at the whole picture and make educated thoughtful decisions. We need to discuss change, and see how we can help keep tragedies like these from happening.
Kelsey Fitzpatrick
Staff Writer
