After Uvalde, Are My Children Safe?
With the arrival of the new school year, the overwhelming emotion expressed from my parent listeners and readers is fear. News stories, social media sites, and family and neighborhood gatherings seem blanketed with conversations about school shootings and guns.
News stories tell you gun sales are soaring and shootings are too. People who never would have thought about getting a gun or keeping their kids home from school are having that conversation around the dining room table.
Before you take either of those actions, put the pin back in the hand grenade and take the time to look around you. As a parent myself and the mother of a middle school teacher, I know it’s tempting to think those are your best solutions. But maybe not. Let’s talk through some practical ideas that will slow your heart rate and give you a bit of confidence as the school year fast approaches.
First, all this talk about guns and shootings isn’t just in your imagination. It is rather a by-product of a perfect storm of activities in the past 90 days.
Considered that on May 24, the end of the school year in Texas witnessed the agony of 19 dead children and two dead teachers as disorganized first responders waited 77 minutes to enter a classroom in Uvalde to confront a shooter. Just a month later, on June 23, the U.S. Supreme Court issued its decision striking down a New York law and making it legal for nearly everyone to carry a gun in public places. Then two days later, June 25, President Joseph Biden signed into law a bipartisan gun bill seeking to prevent dangerous people from accessing firearms while also increasing investments in the nation’s mental health system. It was the first bill on gun safety measured passed by Congress in nearly three decades.
In response to all of this, schools district board members, school resource officers, and police departments are focused more than ever on school safety. One market study I read estimated schools and universities spent $3.1 billion on security products and services last year compared to $2.7 million in 2017. And the new federal law, for example, provides $300 million in grant money over five years to schools that seek to enhance their security posture and improve mental health resources to support those under stress.
What can you as a parent do to give you confidence as you shop for a new backpack and pack of pencils? Believe me when I tell you schools in America are safer than they have ever been for the 50 million students attending. The Uvalde shooting was shocking in part because school shootings are so rare, particularly in elementary schools.
But as parents, we don’t play the odds. So instead, get yourself and your kids ready with these two simple tasks:
First, call your school district, and principals, if need be, to find out about policies and how the school is training your children to respond if a shooting occurs. Most schools I find spend more time concerned about scaring kids or ignoring the subject altogether instead of teaching them common sense safety.
Many schools are permitting teacher and staff to carry guns now. Have you spoken to your children about gun safety if they were to run across one of those guns at school? If your school isn’t teaching the students, or maybe is just teaching staff, advocate for a change in that policy. Write emails or letters which are more difficult to ignore than a phone call. Be prepared to help and read up on best practices so you can come to them with solutions. My podcast is a great place to learn some tips.
Second, talk to your kids about how unusual and unlikely a school shooting is and how studies show kids are safer in school than at home. Ask them if they are trained, and how they would respond if there was a fire in the school, a tornado, a power outage, and, yes, a dangerous person who might be carrying a gun. Empower them to take care of their own safety above all. Know and teach them the federally endorsed run, hide, fight plan of protection (maybe leaving out the fight discussion for the elementary school crowd). Give them confidence and permission to run away from a teacher and even the school if an escape to a safe neighborhood business or home is their best option. Students who have fled these shootings have lived to talk about it.
