On Dec. 14, 28 people were killed in a Connecticut shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School, including 20 children, six teachers, the principal, and the mother of the shooter. The shooter, Adam Lanza, killed himself when the authorities arrived.
This incident shocked America. A FOX News commentator said, “I think this is going to be for schools what 9/11 was for airports.”
The gun scares around the country have now started to take a local turn. Fossil Ridge High School investigated a shooting rumor within the student body this semester.
“Anytime you hear anything that concerns safety, whether it’s at school or in the community, we take it very seriously,” said Fossil Ridge principal Dr. Deirdre Cook. “The police talk to every student. The administration talks to every student. We try to find the links and see if anything in that is credible at all.”
While the administration was looking into the Fossil Ridge rumor, the shooting in Connecticut took place. As a result of this, the administration unleashed it’s “single-door” policy. The significance of this new policy is that (when school starts) the student body can no longer enter the building through side doors, like those in the west wing or in the athletic hall. Instead they must go through the front doors in the main entrance. “It’s the only way that we can truly make sure that we’ve seen everybody who’s entering our campus,” Cook said. “That’s always been procedure after 7:30 in the morning.”
Fossil Ridge is one of the first schools to do this, according to Cook, who also believes that more schools should adopt this policy.
Now, after the Connecticut shooting, the thought of a school shooting isn’t just a joke, it’s more than that. What happened in Connecticut proved that these types of things are serious.
“I understand how people consider the shooting rumor at Fossil Ridge much more serious since the shooting in Connecticut,” sophomore Annelise Zaring said. “I think it woke us all up to the fact that these kinds of things actually happen. I think especially now everyone needs to look at issues like this with respect and not as if it’s just a joke.”
Sophomore Austin Wiley takes it more seriously now as well, but he believes the school is doing a good job of keeping him safe. “I definitely see it as more of a possibility than I did before, but I don’t believe that there is a very good chance of anything like that happening because of the security measures that the school has taken.”
“Well, it’s never really something I thought of as a joke to begin with,” sophomore Hanna Deputy said. It’s just not a topic that is something I’ve ever taken lightly. But the Connecticut shooting definitely made me focus even more on how serious it could be.”
