Analysis Of The Sanctuary Of School By Lynda Barry

In her article, “The Sanctuary of School,” Lynda Barry compares her primary school to a sanctuary—a “secure, warm, and stable world” (Barry 86). When schools are no longer safe, what happens to those children who attend them? Recently, rampage school shootings are becoming more frequently in the U.S., which has arisen public attention over school security. In the meantime, a controversial issue has been whether schools should have armed security guards. Some argue that armed security staff will not effectively prevent gunfire in school from occurring, while others argue that armed guards on site will significantly reduce the risk of school shootings. In an effort to mitigate the risk of school shooting, schools ought to enhance its security

by bringing armed security guards. Other solutions can be by teaching emergency preparedness to student and staff. Consequently, these measures will ensure a safer learning environment for children. The problem with gun violence in schools is at stake today because it has stirred up great public concern over guns, and most importantly, safety of children in schools.
Everytown for Gun Safety, an interest group who is against gun violence, supplies with definition of school shooting: “anytime a firearm is discharged inside a school building or on a school campus or grounds” (par.3) School should be a place filled with knowledge and happiness, but not as a target where gunmen aim at. In recent years, however, school has been a place suffered frequently from gun violence. Particularly, to take a case in point, the Sandy Hook tragedy occurred in 2012: when a young adult gunned down 26 people inside the school building, including 20 children aged from five to ten, at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, CT. While most people condemn on such shameful brutality towards innocent children, some people begin to question about the underlying reason for pervasiveness of gun violence in American schools. A poll is conducted by the Pew Research Center, one of the questions asking Americans perspectives on “what broader problems does this shooting [Sandy Hook rampage shooting] reflect?” It turns out that 46% of 1,219 interviewees reveal social climate, 30% of them trend their answer towards mental health, and 22% of them think it’s issue associated with guns. The poll can be generalized to reflect the cause of school shootings is that the act of school shooting is becoming an abreaction for those mental ill or irrational individuals. By shooting those vulnerable unarmed children and young adults, huge but negative impact will have on the society.
Furthermore, following the Sandy Hook rampage, more and more people advocate each state for stricter gun control laws when guns are almost everywhere on this land, but their biggest challenge is National Rifle Association of America, a pressure group who is favored the right to own guns, which impedes anti-gun and strict gun control laws in every possible way. Nonetheless, gun violence in school is indeed affecting every student and their parents, especially those victims’ heartbroken parents and those survival children who are living in this nightmare. Everytown for Gun Safety also provides a statistics which tallied gun attacks in school setting, “Since 2013, there have been at least 149 school shootings in America — an average of nearly one a week.” (par.1) This figure can be surprising or not, but it exposes the pervasiveness of school shootings. If people do nothing about it, admittedly, any children in any American schools can be potentially victims of destructive gun violence.
While it is quite unreasonable to control behaviour of troublesome individuals, school should prepare countermeasures for such frequent atrocity. A solution is to have armed security personnel stationed in every school; the goals of security staff are to reduce the risk of school shooting and protect children and staff on the “front-line” whenever a crisis takes place. In reference to National Center for Education Statistics, in the school year 2009-2010, only 28% of all public schools in the U.S. have its security force regularly carrying a firearm. This figure serves to illustrate that most schools lack a necessary armed security force to be able to oppose the intruder in a crisis. Every school ought to employ armed security guards: there must be at least one armed stationary guards in primary and middle schools, and a group of dedicated security force stationed on each school sites in high schools and colleges. The responsibilities of a dedicated armed school safeguard are to patrol a school building, campus, or ground and defend all people in schools against the risk of crime. Specifically,
if a gun violence is happening on school ground, witnesses should go to the nearest officers and ask for emergency assistance; if a shooting is happening inside school building, staff can immediately contact all school security personnel via two-way radios for support.

Based on Reason-Rupe Poll conducted in Dec. 2013, among 1,011 interviewees, who are being asked about which provided measures might have averted the Sandy Hook shooting, top three options are better mental health (27%), better parenting (22%), and employing armed school officials on site (20%). Because prospective culprit who would commit school shooting cannot be easily recognized, better mental treatment and parenting for possible wrongdoers seem to be unfeasible in an effort to avoid such crime. The poll reflects that putting armed guards in schools is acceptable and functional, as compared to the other factors, in dealing with gun violence in schools. Moreover, the Daily Caller, a news agency, quotes from Robert Curran Sr., chief information officer for IT, “They’ll [armed guards] be able to respond immediately to armed threats and be a deterrent to anyone planning an attack, [...]” (Campbell) In other words, Curran believes that the presence of armed guards in schools serves as a firewall to lower the risk of gun violence. Curran is surely right about the advantage of patrol officers on campus, because the critical time that armed security staff can save is critical to the lives of those endangered children and adults in a shooting

crisis.
There are more and more schools have been implementing the solution by requiring their security staff to carry firearms. For instance, in Arapaho High School, CO, a gunman fatally shot a student, and then himself when he saw an armed deputy getting close to him. “Former Arapaho County Sheriff Grayson Robinson said the appearance of a uniformed officer likely prevented further casualties” (Campbell) Robinson’s point is that the positive effect of armed security on school sites is that it saves more barehanded people from gun violence; his assumption is meaningful since it sheds the light on how is this solution can significantly increase school security.
Hiring armed guards or equipping guards with firearms in schools can be achieved quite quickly if local school districts can afford to pay and willing to pay for it. However, the reality is that most schools, especially elementary schools, are incapable to pay for putting even one security guards. Can you imagine that your child maybe attending one of those schools that lack of security guard? Who is there if an incident occurs? What can unarmed children and staff do? To effectively lower the risk of school shooting, parents and even students should petition against their school district for placing armed guards in their/child’s school. If there is a shortage in budget, then parents and students are encouraged to accomplish this solution by fundraising.
Some critics argue that the presence of armed guards in schools is ineffectual in protecting fellow students and others against gun incidents. Since most school shootings that have been occurred only in a short time, it is challenging for armed security staff to take down a culprit, and might even hurt more innocent people. Some also allege that armed school security could instead create panic atmosphere for students on campus. In reference to school stories, a media focusing on education, “Principal Berry Kevorkian of Ditmas Middle School says that guns in his building would rachet up students’ fear of a potential intruder. It would make parents feel that he didn’t have control of the building” (Gluckman) Kevorkian is corroborating that armed school personnel will not lessen fear of gun violence in school, but disquiet students.
Conversely, more and more people advocate schools to require its safeguards to carry firearms, because an armed security officer is trained and is able to confront an armed thug. For instance, schools in Paterson, NJ have had armed guards for two years and there has not been a gun incident happening. (Clark) It is suggested that absence of a security guard at Sandy Hook Elementary might contribute to further casualties caused in the rampage. Plus, instead of worrying about kids’ fear over security measures taken by schools, schools should employ armed security force so they will feel relieved if they realize their school is trying to increase school security, rather than doing nothing for them.
Besides putting armed safeguards in schools, one of the proposed solutions by others to avoid school shooting is by offering emergency course. Both students and teachers are required to learn necessary knowledge and skills during an emergency through safety drill, therefore they will be adequately prepared to a sudden attack. Particularly, students and teachers should be aware what is the best way to handle a gun violence, by lockdown, escape, or even resistance. Lockdown, for example, is implemented when students and teachers in classrooms are notified or detect that a gun incident is taking place, teachers must give clear direction for lockdown: the doors will be locked promptly; all people in classrooms should keep themselves out of a wrongdoer’s sight by hiding. Though this solution will help students and teachers to respond quickly to an emergency, often students do not take safety drill seriously based on the assumption that their school is unlikely to be a target for gun violence. When a real crisis occurs, students will be panic and the situation becomes even more uncontrollable.
Sure, it is not a surefire solution, but it can significantly mitigate the risk of school shooting, and save more lives in such incident. Children deserve to learn and play in a more stable school environment; parents also deserve for a chance to change the status quo—that gun violence in schools has been so prevalent—by petitioning school districts to put more armed security force or require security guards to carry firearms. Hockley, whose son died from the Sandy Hook shooting, “[...] It comes from love, and perhaps if we let love lead us we would more easily find a course of action and create solutions to protect the future of our country our children." (Russo)