In wake of the shooting at UNC Chapel Hill, the impact of school shootings in the school environment has once again come into focus. The tragic event that occurred on Aug. 28 reminds the world of the impact this act of violence has on the students, faculty and the entire community.
There have been 29 school shootings this year that resulted in injuries or deaths, according to an Education Week analysis. There have been 173 such shootings since 2018. There were 51 school shootings with injuries or deaths last year, the most in a single year since Education Week began tracking such incidents in 2018.
Recently, school shootings all around the country have been on the increase, the latest one being at UNC Chapel Hill, where a graduate student was charged with murdering an associate professor.
According to a CNN article, “This loss is devastating and the shooting damages the trust and safety that we so often take for granted in our campus community.”
Shootings can also change the feel of campus after the event. Some people feel guilt, while others can even suffer from symptoms of post traumatic stress disorder due to their experiences.
Joseph A. Foran business teacher Mrs. Cacioppo was teaching at Newtown High School during the tragic Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting.
When asked about the day she states, “December 14, 2012 is one of those days that I will never forget. I did not have a class and was talking to another teacher near his classroom. The call for lockdown came on and we looked at each other and knew this was not a drill.”
The Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting took the lives of 26 people, 20 of those being students between the ages of 6 and 7.
“There was a panic in the voice of our assistant principal. Our principal was out of the building at that moment. We went into lockdown mode and positioned ourselves under the desks. We sat there in silence listening to sirens screeching by.”
Cacioppo, who went through this horrific lockdown experience, talks about how it impacted her teaching.
“During the first day of school when I am going over the fire drill and lockdown procedures, I remind students to take every drill seriously. I know I would always think that a school shooting would not happen in a little town, and it did. I always keep my door locked and closed because I do not want to take the extra few seconds,” stated Cacioppo.
