School Safety Issues

The answer is no. There have been 290 school shootings since 2013 and over 4,400 suicides per year, most being children from the ages of 10 to 18. One in 9 girls and 1 in 20 boys under the age of 18 experience sexual abuse or assault in school.

Now, after 11 years of these problems, you would think we would devise a solution. Even though everyone agrees that we need to do something, not everyone can decide on a solution. According to an article from Forbes, some people suggest tightening our schools’ security by having fewer entrance/exit doors. Others suggest that we have more police officers in the halls so that if a school shooter enters the building, the police will already be there to stop them.

In recent years, bullying-related suicides have finally been brought to attention across the globe. Too many adults see it as “just part of being a kid.” However, it has led to multiple negative effects, including suicide. 15% of high school students have considered suicide, and 7% have attempted it. According to ABC News, 10 to 14-year-old girls have a higher risk of committing suicide from being bullied. 30% of kids that get bullied (160,000 kids, according to ABC News) stay home from school in fear of being bullied.

Problems like students getting assaulted in schools have come up in recent talks when it comes to safety. 82% of victims under the age of 18 are female. 16-19-year-olds are 4x more likely than the general population to be victims of rape, attempted rape, or sexual assault. These effects can lead to mental health problems later on in life, like being 4x more likely to abuse drugs, 4x more likely to experience PTSD as an adult, and 3x more likely to experience depressive episodes as an adult.

In conclusion, we need to stop underestimating how serious some of these problems are and start devising effective ways to prevent them. We need to agree on what we can do and do all we can to prevent them.