BY ASHLEY PETERS
Incidents of active shooters on campuses across America are happening more frequently than ever. College campuses are not the only targets of distressed and irate shooters. Businesses, high schools and elementary schools have all been targets of the unsolicited violence of an active shooter. Many people do not know that there are actually directions in place to save the lives of students and faculty members which to me is unfathomable. Seeing all of the reckless endangerment that people face every day without knowing how to prepare for the worst is scary, especially when institutions has the information, but no one knows about it, or would even know where to look for it.
There should be mandatory seminars that each student has to attend especially on smaller campuses like York College. Students should be equipped with safety protocols given to them in handout form by the teachers and campus security. I did not know that York College had a separate number and extension just for emergencies. That emergency phone line should be posted generously throughout the school, in classrooms in bathrooms, in the hallways, everywhere. Fliers should be posted on different pin boards around the school detailing what to do in case of an emergency because unlike in high school and lower levels of schooling; colleges don’t hold important assemblies. Instead they choose to email students on their school emails knowing that students hardly ever check that email.
I deeply feel that there should be directories on each floor of the school that shows where the closest exit is on each wing of the building. Students need to know these things, especially freshmen who aren’t quite familiar with the campus. There is so much that these schools can do to protect us and prepare us for rare but unfortunate occasions. Officials seems to think that our campus is safe, but any institution is a target. It irritates me that the shock of these incidents is what undeniably takes the lives of people and critically injures others. The preparedness for these situations is almost nonexistent.
So, how do we rally the attention of the safety department? How do we alleviate the unknown? Well, we talk about it, we practice safety, and we talk about it some more. It doesn’t matter that the York College’s campus isn’t in the suburban rural areas where most of these campus shootings are taking place. We’re in New York City, one the biggest cities facing terroristic threats daily and we have to take these things seriously. Waiting on a trend of school shootings to start appearing in urban areas is like waiting in line for your number to be called. It’s counterproductive and a waste of precious time.
