The recent wave of mass shootings across the country has reignited concerns about gun violence and the impact it has on Tennessee students. Some teens say they’re starting to feel less safe at school.
Quentin Ding of Cookeville High School says he used to have faith in his school guards to protect his classmates. That’s changed since a mass shooter killed 19 kids and two adults at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas.
“Up until now, I did trust my school resource officers to do their job and confront any school shooter,” Ding says. “But after the response in Uvalde, that brings into question on whether or not our officers are qualified or willing to confront a potential shooter.”
Texas officials are investigating why it took police nearly an hour to confront the gunman. All the while, some federal lawmakers say putting more armed guards in schools will help prevent mass shootings.
In Murfreesboro, a week before the deadly shooting at the Texas elementary school, an 18-year-old was shot to death by another teen at a high school graduation on the campus of Middle Tennessee State University.
Christina Sandoval, who’s a a rising senior at Hume-Fogg High School in downtown Nashville, says schools need to do a better job of protecting students from people with guns. She says active shooter drills don’t feel useful.
“At least at my school, it was more of a lockdown rather than an active shooter,” Sandoval says. “It was just the principal, or principals of the administration, trying to open the door.”
In the long term, Sandoval says, students need to rally together against gun violence to force lawmakers to make change.