A mass shooting earlier this week at a Florida school has local superintendents on alert, with one official rhetorically asking how things got to this point.
“More specifically, what happened to these young people to push them to the point where they think these violent acts are a solution to any problem?” Otto-Eldred School District Superintendent Matthew Splain said to The Era on Thursday.
His comments follow Wednesday’s shooting where Nikolas Cruz allegedly opened fire and killed 17 students and faculty members with a semi-automatic AR-15 assault rifle at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida.
The incident is just one of several to have occured this year across the country, including on Jan. 23 when a 15-year-old male student killed two and injured 18 others at Marshall County High School in Benton, Ky.
“We can talk about safety measures, barricading buildings, gun control, but that won’t prevent someone else hatching a plan to do something else that is horrific,” Splain said. “This is not an easy question to ask. This is not an easy question to answer.”
More discussion is needed about the healthy development of young people, something that will take cooperation of schools, mental health agencies, public service groups as well as parents and medical professionals, he said.
For Bradford Area School District, safety drills are regularly conducted and safety measures are continuing to be updated, Bradford Area School District Superintendent Katy Pude said.
“We encourage students to be proactive in reporting incidences of bullying and other threats to school safety,” she said.
At the St. Marys Area School District, before a student is expelled, typically school officials have used several disciplinary actions, meetings with parents, referrals to student assistance programs, referrals to mental health counselors, referral or placement in an partial hospitalization program and other avenues to get the student assistance.
“Unfortunately, there is no one vaccine that will completely make any school immune from such a tragedy,” said St. Marys Area School District Superintendent Dr. G. Brian Toth.
Meanwhile, the rise in school violence across the United States has not prompted a drop in attendance at the Bradford school district, though Pude said she believes it’s human nature to feel insecure after a tragedy.
“We have to acknowledge there is a problem and work together to find solutions,” Splain said.
State Rep. Martin Causer, R-Turtlepoint, also gave insight. He said the government should remain focused on making sure laws are being enforced to keep firearms out of the hands of individuals who shouldn’t have them, and working to improve and adequately pay for mental health systems to assist those who are suffering.
“But I don’t believe government intervention can stop these tragedies,” he said. “There is far too much disrespect for human life in our society, and only people can change that.”
