A school is a place for people to learn, grow, experience, and most of all, be safe. But what happens when a school is not safe mentally and physically for students? Bullying, racism, and threats are ways that schools are turning from a place that kids go to learn to a place that kids dread.
Racism in schools has been a problem for a long time but nowadays people believe that racism is no longer a problem. These people are wrong. About 21% of postsecondary students report feeling discrimination. At my school, I have experienced at least three different racist experiences and interactions in just one semester. But, what do schools do to prevent these kinds of interactions? There is not much schools will do in these instances. Well, there’s not much they can do, technically it is not constitutional to expel a student for racism. The most a school can do is suspension, community service around the school, or a phone call home. And while anything helps to teach people that racism is not ok, for the victims these sorts of actions are not enough and do not help the issue. The perpetrator might get in trouble for a few days but they don’t always learn the lesson.
Another way that student safety is threatened is through school threats. In 2019 7% of high school students reported that they had been threatened or injured with a weapon on school property. But there is a bigger evil at play, schools are being threatened as a mass. At least 80 school shootings have taken place in America during 2023 with at least 51 taking place on k-12 grounds. This is an issue that stems from a lot of kids having access to guns at home. 34% of children in the United States, more than 22 million children in 11 million homes, live in homes with at least one firearm. These instances affect more than a few students with at least 88 injuries and 37 deaths in America. Beyond that, these kinds of things can create trauma in students and affect them for the rest of their lives.
Not all of these things are in the control of the schools and lead to bigger governmental issues along with the way that parents educate their kids. But, more precautions should be taken like more security that is trained to be in schools and to not be threatening to students and education on racism and people of color in the school system. These things shouldn’t be swept under the rug for the sake of our youth and future generations.
