Desegregation is new to the school of Blossomwood Elementary in Huntsville, Alabama, and some parents are not satisfied with the integration. Some have gone as far as pulling their children out of school and transferring them to private schools.
This situation sounds too much like something that would happen in the 1960’s. More information can be found at this Alabama News link.
Gracie Beck wrote in “I am happy that all races can attend, but it is also sad that it took them this long to accept everyone,”
School desegregation started in 1970 with a federal order to integrate schools. School lines were redrawn which had the school lines included dominantly African-American neighborhoods.
Blossomwood has been subject to an accidental shooting when a 2nd grader was showing off his father’s gun and accidentally shot his own hand. This situation is more difficult to handle in the way that the child had no intention to harm any students or himself. Additional information on the incident can be found in this WHNT news report.
Because of the incident, parents began pulling their students from Blossomwood. Ally Hayes reacted by writing “Personally, I think unenrolling your child in a school is not the correct way to respond to an incident. [...] No one typically assumes a second grader to bring a gun to school, but this just proves that it can happen. Instead of removing their child from an educational facility, parents should work with the PTA to come up with new ways to ensure the safety of children.”
This does, however, raise the question of who is truly responsible. Most think it is the father’s fault for not locking up his firearms and this is a fair point. The child had no real idea of the major consequences that can come from bringing a firearm to a school setting.
Many people still have questions of how we should handle problems such as this in the future. People are also wondering what preventative measures can be put into action, such as stricter gun control, so this situation doesn’t happen again.
One way parents and administration think we could potentially solve this problem is with clear backpacks. They would allow teacher to see into students’ backpacks and determine if they have weapons that could pose a threat to safety in the school. This idea does have some pushback. Some argue the idea is only as good as the eyes scanning each bag. They think this idea would not be very efficient. More information about the subject is found in this WHNT news report.
Lily Hughes gave examples of what students might want to keep private: “A lot of students have after school activities that require a change of clothes that would be on display for all of the school to see. Female hygiene products would no longer be kept private from classmates, as well as property such as a laptop or cellphone that you might not want to flash to untrustworthy peers,”
She continued and asked: “Would handbags be allowed anymore? Would teachers have to carry all [of] their supplies in clear bags as well? Has it even been proven that clear backpacks limit the threat of firearms or drugs?”
Many questions are flying around surrounding the question of school safety from guns and school safety.
What is a true sustainable and efficient solution?
Are clear backpacks a real option?
What should we do about gun control?
These questions have no concrete solutions but one thing has been made very clear: something needs be done about gun safety. You can submit your opinion on this subject in Google Form.
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