Almost a month ago there was a shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. Later in the day on February 14, suspect, Nikolas Cruz, 19 year old, had arrived at the high school around 2pm in the afternoon and started open firing into the classrooms. He started shooting the students that he saw in the hallways and even on the school grounds. After he shot 5 classrooms from the freshman building on the first and second floors he threw the rifle, vest and ammunition down the stairwell and blended in with the students and that is how he was able to get away easier. Cruz was expelled from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School for disciplinary reasons and has not been specified for the details on why he was expelled.
On the campus officer, Scot Peterson, was on campus and was armed when this all happened but said that he believed the shooter was outside the campus and decided to just wait and see what happens. He had taken cover outside rather than charging into the building when the shooting of 17 people had began. Sheriff Israel had described himself as being sick to his stomach and very upset with everything that had happened. The question that I have heard that is going around is, should we have officers on campus everywhere around the United States or even the world to protect us? Some people are saying yes we should while others are saying that no we shouldn't because if someone really wanted to shoot up a school, they can just walk onto an open campus at anytime, check and make sure there isn't a cop around and then start shooting. I understand that if most campus were an enclosed campus that it would be a different situation but see with either Los Altos, Mountain View, and other schools around the bay area we are more of an open campus and anyone can just walk on campus from any of the entrances and start open firing. What is your opinion? Do you think that we should or shouldn't have officers standing around schools so that we are "protected"?
I do not think that there is any harm in having officers standing around schools so that we can be "protected". But it would be a big adjustment for a majority of schools, and require a lot more officers. Unless you assign one per school. I think that there are other ways to prevent school shootings, including most importantly reporting anyone who demonstrates a verbal threat to a school either online or in person.
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