Page 6 - ARUBA TODAY

A6 U.S. NEWS
Wednesday 17 april 2019
AP-NORC Poll: Most believe schools have become less safe

By EMILY SWANSON, CAR- jorities of Americans be-
OLYN THOMPSON and lieve lockdown drills, armed
HANNAH FINGERHUT security guards, metal de-
Associated Press tectors and anti-bullying
WASHINGTON (AP) — Twen- campaigns work.
ty years after the Colum- However, the post-Colum-
bine High School shooting bine generation, for whom
made practicing for armed many of those things were
intruders as routine as fire routine, are much less likely
drills, many parents have than older adults to think
only tepid confidence in that those steps would
the ability of schools to stop make schools safer.
a gunman, according to a “What the survey data tell
new poll by The Associat- us is that we need to take
ed Press-NORC Center for the next step in our safety
Public Affairs Research. efforts to purposefully and
And while most Americans strategically communicate
consider schools less safe how successful our ef-
than they were 20 years forts have been in making
ago, the poll finds a ma- schools safe, secure plac-
jority say schools aren’t at es where students can be
fault for shootings. Bullying, their authentic selves and
the availability of guns, the learn at their best,” said
internet and video games In this Sept. 6, 2016, file photo, students at William Hackett Middle School have their bags checked Bob Farrace of the Nation-
share more of the blame. and pass through metal detectors on the first day of school in Albany, N.Y. al Association of Second-
Lee Wisdom, a mother Associated Press ary School Principals.
of two in Downingtown, Half of Americans blame Teachers and students laws made stricter. Nor are younger adults
Pennsylvania, believes stu- students being bullied a practice fleeing and hid- Still, Washington has had lit- as convinced that either
dents and staff have been great deal for school shoot- ing during realistic shooter tle appetite for federal gun stricter gun laws or arming
trained as much as pos- ings. Roughly a third say the scenarios inside school reforms despite surges in teachers — another sub-
sible to prepare for an at- same of the internet and buildings fortified by bolt- activism following Colum- ject of political debate — is
tack, but worries schools television, music and video ed doors, bulletproof glass bine and the 2012 shooting the answer, even though
are still vulnerable to things games. and security cameras. deaths of 20 children and they are about as likely as
beyond their control, like a By and large, schools them- But shootings haven’t six adults inside Sandy Hook those older to support strict-
parent holding the door for selves are less likely to be stopped, and a little over Elementary School in New- er gun laws in the United
a stranger or a child sneak- blamed: 59% put not much a year after police say an town, Connecticut. Last States. While 44% of adults
ing his father’s gun in a or no blame on schools for armed ex-student killed 17 year’s shooting in Parkland, under 30 say tightening
backpack. the shootings. While rough- people at Florida’s Marjory Florida, brought a shift in gun laws would improve
“As far as inside the school, ly 4 in 10 say schools have Stoneman Douglas High the political landscape, school safety, 60% of adults
we’re doing all we can to at least some responsibil- School, the survey finds a with the shooting’s young over 30 say the same. Half
keep students safe,” she ity, just 9% attribute a great large majority, 67%, say survivors leading a national of adults under 30 say arm-
said. “It is the outside of deal of blame. schools have become less movement aimed not only ing trained teachers would
the school and the people In the years since two Colo- safe. Only 13% say schools at gun reform but a new actually make schools less
who are coming in and out rado teenagers gunned have become safer dur- generation of voters. safe, compared with about
that I think are the weak down 12 classmates and ing the last 20 years. The Before the Democratic- a third of those over 30.
link,” said Wisdom, who a teacher in the Denver rest say they are about the controlled House in Febru- “A well-trained teacher
sees school violence as a suburb of Littleton, schools same. ary approved a measure with a sidearm could great-
product of violent video across the country have Along the same lines, de- requiring federal back- ly affect what happens in
games, TV shows and the fixated on planning for spite all of the planning, ground checks for all fire- a classroom situation like
internet’s opportunities to threats that before had drills and expense, only arms sales, it had been that,” said the Republican-
bully and isolate. been unimaginable. about a third of parents are nearly 25 years since Con- leaning Kiefer, who retired
extremely or very confident gress had considered ma- from the trucking business.
that their children are safe jor gun control legislation. “There are enough quali-
in school, or that the school The bill faces dim prospects fied teachers that can
could respond to an active in the Republican-con- be armed that can help
shooter. About 4 in 10 par- trolled Senate and Presi- solve problems.” A federal
ents are moderately confi- dent Donald Trump has school safety commission
dent in their child’s safety threatened to veto it, say- assembled by Trump in
and the school’s potential ing it would impose unrea- response to the Parkland
response, while about 2 sonable requirements on shooting said it should be
in 10 have little or no con- gun owners. left to states and schools
fidence. And parents of “By the time they’re 16 or to decide whether schools
school-age children are 17, they’re pretty much in- should arm staff members,
especially likely to blame doctrinated,” the Three Riv- but the president’s Educa-
shootings on schools them- ers, Michigan, resident said. tion Secretary Betsy Devos,
selves, compared with oth- “If somebody’s going to who led the commission,
er adults, 49% to 36%. do something like that, no said schools should “seri-
Nearly half of Americans matter if the guns are avail- ously consider” the option.
strongly blame shootings able or not, they’re going The commission’s Decem-
on the availability of guns, to find a way to do it,” he ber report steers schools to
and a majority, 67%, want added. federal funding that can be
to see the nation’s gun To make schools safer, ma- used for firearm training.q