In the wake of the Perry High School Shooting of last January, schools across Iowa, and the country are now forced to confront a harsh new reality—no campus is truly safe. For all schools, ensuring student safety is a top priority. For small schools like Mount Vernon, this is a pivotal task and not one that can be taken lightly. The horror of the Perry High School shooting showed us that even the smallest schools, in the smallest towns are still affected by school gun violence. But what is being done, and can be done, to protect us, and students like us across Iowa?
Before the Perry High School shooting, school gun violence concerns were primarily centered around larger schools in larger communities. However, Perry gave us an up close and personal view of the change that needs to be made, at all schools, no matter the size.
The policies and protocols employed by schools are a foundational piece of preventing and stopping school intruders. A survey at Mount Vernon High School reported that 39.7% of students, with about 15% of the student body reporting, were not confident in our current intruder response plan to protect us in the instance of an intruder. Many students and staff feel that more can be done to improve safety at our school.
A staff member surveyed said “I believe our district needs to lead with the idea that it could happen here.”
In the survey, both students and teachers expressed that they believe more can and should be done to improve safety. Many teachers identified that non-primary entrances being open before, and possibly opened during school hours leads to a real vulnerability.
This idea is representative of nearly all school shootings, where perpetrators will prop open locked doors or use unlocked doors as their point of entry. Many other respondents recognized flaws within our intruder response protocols.
Students largely felt that our drills and talks regarding an intruder are not enough and that more needs to be done to prepare students for an intruder with only 45.2% of students feeling prepared for a school intruder. Some respondents mentioned that the use of a school resource officer (SRO) would be beneficial to not only our safety but our community.
SROs are a resource that many other schools, including ones in the area, have employed. However, they are expensive, especially for a small school like ours. The limited resources that we have as a school greatly restrict our ability to implement new security measures. But programs such as Safe and Sound Iowa allow students to combat threats immediately, at no cost to the district.
Matthew Anderson, the Bureau Chief of the Governor’s School Safety Bureau which developed the Safe and Sound program said, “Ensuring students have a means to report potential threats was the primary reason Safe and Sound was built and made available to all school districts.” Anderson emphasized the importance of reporting a threat as soon as it occurs, and that “80% of the time someone else knew about the event before it occurred. 92% of that group was students.”
After the Perry High School shooting multiple bills were proposed and passed at the state level to help ensure student safety, including House File 2586, which allowed school staff to be armed, and provided them with immunity in the event of an intruder. This legislation was controversial, and many respondents expressed their discontent with this bill. While many others expressed how they believe this bill could positively affect our school. “I think that [this] law is great and will make many schools more prepared,” said senior Luke Paulus. “I would feel safer if there was a trained individual who I could trust to save my life there at school.”
Bills similar to House File 2586, and other forms of legislation with the same purpose have been passed in multiple other states. A majority of these laws place a focus on directly adding additional security to schools or implementing gun control measures to restrict access to firearms that could be used in a school shooting. In their responses, multiple teachers expressed their belief that instead of further measures such as these, the state government should focus on giving more funding to schools to improve safety rather than trying to do it directly.
One of the largest targets of proposed legislation is the mental health concerns associated with school shootings. Very few states have passed legislation that addresses these concerns, not including Iowa. “We need a multidisciplinary team approach to student health,” Anderson said. “The schools, health services, law enforcement, judicial, clinical providers, professional specialists, all aspects working towards a common goal of prevention.” He also said that it is his vision for the future of school safety in Iowa, and of his bureau, to place a shifting focus on student mental health.
Only 32.9% of students reported that they believe students are provided with the resources to ensure their mental well-being. Many respondents felt that mental health should be the primary focus of legislation, policies, and procedures. One teacher responded to the survey writing, “Safety begins with student mental health as a proactive approach—we need to know our students and learn who they are as people.”
Mental health is only one piece of the puzzle. This is an incredibly delicate and complex issue, not one that can be handled lightly. It requires the utmost certainty that what you are doing is right. For the safety of us here at Mount Vernon, and the safety of every student in Iowa, we have to address these issues head-on. But there simply isn’t a one size fits all solution, and different approaches must be taken for different schools.
As Anderson put it, “How do you defeat a multi-headed dragon? Answer: Very carefully.”
