School Safety, Relative Risk, and Sleeping Giants
As an environmental studies major, I learned much about relative risk. Environmental issues cannot be solved completely but, instead, risks can be minimized for the benefit of the greater population. When RI jewelry companies were required to reduce the metal content of their water waste, a hazardous sludge was generated and required disposal in special landfills. The risk of exposure, for both wildlife and people, was reduced, even though the waste material remained. Laws governing a variety of environmental concerns has reduced, yet not eliminated, our overall exposure to contaminants.
Likewise, there is no one law or practice that keeps us safe when we get in a car and drive out onto our nation’s roadways. We are required to pass a test, reach a certain age, use safe vehicles, and adhere to a myriad of laws governing the use of motor vehicles. When a new law is proposed, no one argues that it won’t keep us 100% safe; of course it won’t! Every effort, however, contributes to our overall safety that, data shows, has been increasing steadily since the 1960’s. The Center for Disease Control hails motor vehicle safety as “A 20th Century Health Achievement” (see https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm4818a1.htm).
We need a variety of approaches, as well, to achieve the same improvements in safety related to gun violence. School districts, including Smithfield, have created safety plans, devising steps to be taken for a variety of threats. We have practiced drills, including A.L.I.C.E. (Alert, Lockdown, Inform, Counter, Evaculate) training, which prepares participants for active shooter events and empowers them to make their own life-saving decisions. We employ a school safety officer – a trained member of the Smithfield Police Department. Most importantly, we work to create a school culture where every student is known well by at least one adult in the building and where mental health issues can be addressed and treated.
This is not enough.
We need laws related to background checks before gun purchases. Laws prohibiting semi-automatics are also needed. While automatic rifles are illegal, one can make a semi-automatic rifle automatic with a few simple tools. We need a minimum age for purchasing a gun and rules for keeping guns secured. We need a comprehensive approach toward mental health. None of these steps, themselves, will stop gun violence but, taken together, they will reduce our risk for experiencing a tragic event involving a gun.
To achieve any of this, we need politicians who devise laws in the best interest of our nation’s most precious resource — our children. The second amendment is not an excuse (please read it!). People who want guns can still have them but under definied conditions, so that risk is reduced. A donation from the NRA is not an excuse. The fact that the particular law will not solve 100% of the problem is not an excuse.
I call upon the adults in our community to demand change. If we can’t or won’t do that, I have confidence that our children will do it for us. When I heard the impassioned speeches from the students of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland I thought, The sleeping giant has awoken.
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