BY TYLER DUNLAP, Freshman
BLYTHEWOOD-- According to Governing.com, a Marysville-Pilchuck High School freshman shot five students in his high school cafeteria including himself on October 25th.
Since this shooting, voters in Washington State have approved universal background checks on private gun sales.
According to Governing.com, after the school shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, legislatures in four states passed new laws requiring universal background checks in Connecticut, Colorado, New York, and Delaware.
With the occurrence of this school shooting, people are mainly concerned about what Blythewood High School does to prevent like this from happening.
According the Cedric McKnight (over safety at Blythewood High), Blythewood High School has on campus security, facilities are locked throughout the day, and faculty, staff and students are required to wear ID’s to allow faculty and staff to be aware of who is supposed to be on campus.
Freshman student, Carly King says because of the officers on school campus, she feels safe.
“Administrators have created a safety plan that has been designed to handle crisis situations, while providing the safest environment for our students,” McKnight said.
King believes the school has enough rules and enforcement on not bringing weapons, because she has not seen or heard of anyone at our school having a weapon yet and feels this is a good enough sign.
According to McKnight, there is a zero tolerance policy established for weapons in Richland District Two.
McKnight believes no one thing such as social media, or mental stability drives students to jeopardizing the safety of their peers or anyone else in the school, but a variety of different things drive students to jeopardize the safety of others.
“Gun violence continues to be a problem, because in some areas students have greater access to guns and secondly students are making poor choices when they decide to possess a gun,” McKnight said.
According to McKnight, if someone possessed a gun at Blythewood High, the campus would be put into lockdown mode and the Richland Two Sheriffs Department would begin to secure the campus.
Mcknight believes the new gun laws play a role in the actions of teenagers to a certain extent, more strongly he believes teenagers can get their hands on guns illegally.
According to McKnight, the mindset for students on violence and scenarios like this begins with parents or guardians who should monitor and be aware of their child’s social media, friends, activities, and everything else that goes on with them.
“We should worry about the possibilities of things like this at our school and everywhere else, because some kids are bullied and feel the need to take matters into their own hands,” King said.
According to King, the school has enough rules and enforcement on not bringing weapons, because she has not seen or heard of anyone at our school having a weapon yet and feels this is a good enough sign.
Since being at Blythewood High, King says there has been no incidents which have made her doubt her safety.
