An
interesting question was put to me by my sister, "America, a land of
opportunities and a dream destination for many, how could schools there after
31 school shootings don't have their security level strengthened a bit that
anyone can enter a school premise at any given time and randomly shoot children
and how could guns be accessible to any Tom Dick and Harry that any psychopath
can target children and innocent people to vent his outrage?" Isn't a
school supposed to be one of the safest places in the world so that mothers
while sending their children off to schools don't feel fear of their children
returning dead or injured riddled with bullets?
The school
where I used to work in Kolkata was a very ordinary government run school but it too used to close the gate of entrance the moment the school started its session for
the day. At least one security guard was placed in front of the gate throughout
the time the school was in session to ensure that anyone entering the school
did have proper reasons for a visit. The big renowned schools are all guarded
with security personnel to keep constant vigil; every car is screened before
passing the school gates. Thanks to almighty, till now we have no incident of
school children being randomly shot at point blank range to their deaths.
Despite a lot of law and order problems in our country, India is safe at least
so far as killing people randomly on roads with guns is concerned.
Why these minimal
security measures like screening people before allowing entrance in schools are
not put in place in US schools to ascertain safety for children? Instead, most
of the people are here talking about training teachers in gun usage. Is it a
viable option for teachers to enter a classroom with guns making a school turn
into a potential field of battle? Is there any guarantee that not a single
student will be harmed caught between the exchange of gunfire between teachers
and the assailant? What if a naive student out of curiosity taking the
opportunity of the teacher's moment of absent mindedness clicks the trigger in
the classroom shooting someone, may be accidentally, fatally? There are a lot
of risk factors involved in introducing guns to teachers, rather, what could have
been a very simple action like strengthening security in schools is totally out
of discussion. The schools instead of giving guns to teachers could install armed
security personnel at the entrance making sure every unknown person is frisked
before allowing entrance in schools just like they do in airports.
