Columbine, Sandy Hook, Arapahoe; All of these names bring about a common subject—school shootings.  It seems like every time you watch the news there has been one after another somewhere in the US.  These tragic events seem to be increasing at an exponential rate ever since Columbine in 1999 which sent waves of despair throughout the country. The same feeling arouses every time one takes place.  It is a dark and sensitive subject but it must be brought to light for change to occur.  An extremely alarming statistic has been discussed on thinkprogress.org. This site stated that within the first two weeks of 2014, seven school shootings have taken place.  That is one shooting every other day. For comparison, there were 28 shootings in the whole year of 2013.  Put more simply, half of all the school shootings in 2013 have taken place in the first two weeks of the new year.  Hopefully this trend will not continue throughout 2014.

Purdue University was the scene of the latest shooting when a teaching assistant, who was 23 years-old, was shot four times inside the school’s electrical engineering facility.  The only victim was a 21 year old senior named Andrew Boldt.

Safety measures have been taken by many schools across the US ever since the tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary. One precaution is having armed security called “resource officers.” However, it has been reported they have done little to help.  Many of these school shootings greatly affect the people of Weedsport, especially high school  foreign language teacher, Mrs. Brown. When asked if she felt safe at Weedsport High,  Mrs. Brown responded saying, “I guess I do feel safe here, mainly because Weedsport is such a tight-knit community, but I do always have that piece of me that thinks ‘What if…’” She also added, “And to hear how many of the shooters have been tormented by fellow classmates is really heart breaking.  Bullying is definitely an issue that needs to be addressed, one that Weedsport is trying fix.  As for a solid answer, yes I do most certainly feel safe here at Weedsport, but there is always part of me that thinks anything could happen.  You just never know.”

Our thoughts and prayers go out to the victims of school shootings and their family, and hopefully the number of shootings greatly decreases in 2014.