You can lead a horse to water, but.......
The blame game is fast, furious, and intense after each and every school shooting, both large and small. Social media is always awash in memes and stories following school shootings, both large and small. Most times, school shootings, both large and small, are just one more in a long list of similar incidents that will result in not much, if anything, being done to curb this currently rising trend.
Lots of folks will opine that things ARE, in fact, being done. That is, in fact, true. Some things ARE being done. Guidance, laws (active shooter drills sound familiar?), school safety initiatives, gun violence prevention initiatives/movements, etc. All are actively involved in specific areas to promote school safety. But, if that's true, then why do school shootings, both large and small, continue to occur and appear to be on the increase? Sorry. Rhetorical.....
Some folks call for metal detectors and armed guards at the entrances to every single school everywhere. That's one that kind of gets my knickers in a knot. While this so-called solution might solve some problems, it simply is NOT a panacea. It's passive in nature, and allows those who push for it to be passive in their activism in school safety. But it IS something people can see. So, they take comfort in someone somewhere having done something to enhance school safety. Breathe a sigh of relief, right? Sorry. Once again, rhetorical.....
Some call for the elimination of gun free zones. How many times have we heard that one before? Gun free zones aren't the boogeymen some would make them out to be. Again, eliminating them is very much passive activism that allows people to continue down that road of complacency and of doing nothing, really, to realistically address this problem. But they do get to sit back and take a measure of satisfaction that something was done somewhere by someone to make our schools safer. Do I need to point out, once again, that this is rhetorical?
Some want more laws restricting guns, in general. Perhaps that would be part of the answer, but, once again, it is nothing more than passive activism. It doesn't require anyone to get, and/or remain, actively involved in school safety. Let those armed teachers and citizens at large roam those halls of schools just waiting for an active shooter to storm their school!! Please note the sarcasm here.
Some want the government to do something, anything, to help curb the epidemic of gun violence in this country. Others want the government to just stay out of the issue altogether. Some of those who push for metal detectors and armed guards at every school entrance want the government to act immediately to make this happen, and, in the next breath, condemn the government in the arena of viable, common sense legislation intended to help curb the gun violence epidemic....an epidemic that I believe has a direct, and negative, bearing on the issue of school shootings, both large and small.
Passive activism is cheap. It requires little, if anything, from those doing the advocating. What those folks are advocating, however, like hardening schools, is often times very expensive to the tune of over $3,000,000,000 nationwide every single year. Those are statements of fact.
Truth is, we can sit at our computers all day long every single day bitching and complaining about how something needs to be done. But the truth hurts if we do nothing ourselves to help get it done! And that's how my essay here started out: You can lead a horse to water. And I'll finish it here: But you can't make them drink.
So many contradictions. So many conundrums. So many simplistic, unrealistic methodologies that, by themselves, represent a band-aid approach to the issue of school safety. So much passive activism.
What's the 'solution'?
As the Dalai Lama states in so many words: Stop looking at others as being the problem, or even to others for solutions. Look within. Realize and accept that in order to get something done, everyone must participate in the process. By doing so, we will ultimately learn that peace and joy this man of peace and wisdom is promoting is attainable in the school safety arena.
I'm using this meme, this passage, as an example that applies to the school safety arena to illustrate a point: Talk is cheap, especially when that talk consists of the same old tired talking points we see trotted out on both sides of the issue following virtually every single school shooting, both large and small.
There are a TON of school safety resources available to those looking to get involved in the school safety arena. Most of them are free of charge. My blog has a fairly comprehensive, but by no means complete, list of School Safety Resources to help get people started. REMS TA Center, FEMA, DHS, U.S. Department of Education, and many other government agencies at Federal and state levels have school safety resources available. I've always said, "Where there's a will, there's a way". Thus far, what I've been seeing is a 'way' lacking the 'will'. And that's been going on since well before the Columbine massacre, a benchmark I allege that many still use as their own starting point for their passive activism.
School safety resources are only as good as the folks who choose to use them to help make our schools the safest educational learning environment they can possibly be. But each of us must take on personal responsibility to help school safety efforts spring from each and every one of us.....a grass roots movement made up of parents, age-appropriate students, schools, and communities. We must all stop looking to others to do for us what we should be doing ourselves in the school safety arena.
The responsibility for safe schools doesn't rest solely with the government. It doesn't rest solely with the schools. It rests squarely on our shoulders. We can, and we must, get involved. We can, and we must, STAY involved. That's the only way ALL the myriad of issues leading up to the kinds of school shootings, both large and small, we keep seeing over and over and over again will ultimately be addressed.
Please consider becoming familiar with how you.....yes, YOU.....can make a difference in the school safety arena because:
Enough for now. This missive/rant could go on forever.
My Two Cents....
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