Battlefields within wars and students within classrooms; settings that should be nothing alike, yet do indeed contain a similarity. Within combat, the risk of losing one’s life is a threat known, and sometimes expected. However, within this day in age, the possibility of dying from a firearm has extended far beyond the battlefield and has entered classrooms full of students. Within just the 2024 year alone, 81 school shootings have occurred. Meaning every four days, instead of children fearing the dark, vegetables, or thunder, they are fearing the possibility of death from the threat of a gun. Still, this is an issue not taken seriously or cared about very much by society, as the rights of guns contain more advocacy than the safety of children. Instead of long-term solutions such as prominent gun control, where avoiding these initial attacks is possible, local law enforcement instead have police on school campuses, shielding students from the problem rather than fixing it. But how surprising can this be when we are currently living within a world where an 18 year old can buy a gun, but not a cigarette?
School shootings have become so integrated within the American education system that it is now often considered unsafe for a police officer to not be consistently present on school grounds.
Despite this, it is not the officers themselves who are to blame, as they are simply responding to a grim reality. The blame falls on lawmakers who refuse to prioritize essential gun control measures, and governments unwilling to challenge the systemic issues enabling these tragedies. They must not only take responsibility for this failure, but also commit to creating long-lasting solutions instead of a Band-Aid on a literal bullet wound. CUSD resource officer Jeff Dunbar mentioned his perspective on the matter.
“I think it’s beneficial to have school resource officers, because we’re not just a normal patrol officer who comes on campus when stuff goes wrong.” Dunbar said. “We’re here daily, walking around, almost like a school proctor, a familiar face, and if something happens then we address it.”
Just because police on campus have become a necessity, it should not be mistaken as normal. Officer Dunbar and his duties are essential to ensure the safety of students, teachers, and administrators, but this necessity is a reflection of a system that allows such tragedies to occur in the first place.
The American obsession with a lack of gun control has created this crisis, and if societies desire any future for their students and teachers, change needs to be taken seriously and seen as essential because it is. Lawmakers and governments need to tackle this issue head on without leaving the burden to fall on students, teachers, and now police officers. The protection of children should never be secondary to the protection of the rights of guns. Without greater measures surrounding gun control, schools will remain spaces to fear, rather than environments to learn.