April 17, 2013
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“Increased Security” at School
As most of you know, I live and go to school in Connecticut. Fortunately, I don’t live in Newtown/was not directly affected by it in anyway (although I do know someone from Eastern that is from there, we are not close so I don’t know how much it impacted her). The only way that the Newtown massacre has impacted me has been with all this talk about gun control. There’s possible gun control laws that could be passed locally in CT and there’s also national ones that failed to pass today.
What I am about to talk about is related to that.
Four months later my school has decided to do something to “crack down on security”.
I bet you’re excited to know what, right?
I’ll give you a second to think about it/guess what it might be before you read below.
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Before the change I am about to talk about happened, we had security guards. They basically walked around campus, unarmed and did nothing. Now, in an effort to “increase security” they are only having the main entrances of the school open during most of the day. The security guards are still unarmed. Someone told me today that the guards are not allowed to touch anyone if something like a fight breaks out. I spoke with a security guard today about the new changes and he said that the dean specifically did not want them to be armed.
I respect the fact that the school is trying to make things more secure. I also recognize that the likeliness of someone coming to shoot up people at a community college is low, at least I hope it’s low. But I can’t help but feel like the measures they are taking are totally pointless.
Ok, so if I want to shoot up the school I have to go through a main entrance. Or I get there earlier and go through a side entrance. But if I have a gun a bunch of people are going to die either way. Obviously a person would eventually run out of bullets, but still. By the time the police got there, multiple people would have already died/been wounded. Honestly, it makes me feel a little unsafe that the dean cares more about some democratic bs than the safety of his (I honestly don’t remember if the dean is a he or she, so just go with it!) students and staff. What it really comes down to is this: If someone comes in with a gun, who is going to stop him/her from killing as many people as he/she can? If no one is armed, then no one can stop this guy in question. The people in school are at the mercy of the police. I’m not sure how close the local police are to my school, but it has to be at least 2-3 miles away. How does it make sense to let people have to wait for the police?
I wish I was allowed to do something about this. I am seriously thinking about writing a letter to the editor of our school paper or directly to the dean. It just does not make sense. AT ALL.
Maybe I’ll get totally shot down, but I just feel violated in a way. Maybe that’s not the way to put it, but I don’t know. I just feel like it is trying to put a band aid on something that needs stitches. The problem is being walked around instead of dealt with.
I just don’t get it. If my thinking is wrong, somebody tell me, but this just doesn’t make sense to me.
