Fear and anxiety is common following the devastating school shootings that have been occurring since January. On February 14, 17 students were killed in Parkland, Florida while at school. On March 20 a similar incident happened at Great Mills High School in Maryland, and left two students in critical conditions.

This marks the 17th school shooting related incident since the beginning of the year. According to National Fire Protection Association, there have been 10 fire related deaths since 1908. There has been a recorded amount of 17 school related shootings since January 2018.

CCSD should implement school shooting drills due to rise in school shootings in the past few months. Knowing what do to do in a dangerous shooting situation can help save many lives. Although this may be a traumatizing experience for students, this is more practical than teachers being armed with weapons, which is what President Donald Trump proposes. This also ensures more safety in CCSD, since the budget for school campuses has been cut, thus leading to less secure protection from school campus police.

With all of this being said, is Clark County School District prepared for a potential school shooting? Approximately every month a fire drill is performed to ensure students and teachers knowledge on what to do if a real fire occurs. There hasn’t been a single report of a fire in CCSD which left a student in critical condition.

But there have been multiple accounts of school shootings that left many students, teachers, and other people in critical condition or even dead.

The occasional fire drills, soft/hard lockdowns, and earthquake drills are performed to help students and faculty members know what to do in such situations. But in a potential shooting, students and faculty member are not prepared to know what to do.

The district needs to begin training its staff and students to know how to react in this emergency.