Gun Violence: How Milton Responds
BY AVA SCHEIBLER ‘22
Due to recent cultural events like the powerful student-led protests after the Parkland shooting last winter, people in America have become increasingly aware of the issues of school shootings and gun violence. Across the country, many people—especially students—have used their voices to fight for legislation they believe in, and fight against the legislation they don’t support. Gun violence affects students and children at high rates, so it only makes sense that they are the ones speaking up about this issue; based on data from Everytown and and Vox, one in every four mass shootings in 2018 has been a school shooting. In fact, death from firearms is the second most likely cause of death in children and teens, according to an article by the organization Everytown.
Here are a few facts from The Hill about federal gun law:
In order to buy a handgun from a licensed dealer, you must be 21 or older.
To buy a handgun from an unlicensed private dealer, you must be 18 or older.
You must be 18 or older to buy an AR-15, a type of automatic weapon, from a licensed dealer.
There is no age minimum to purchase an AR-15 from an unlicensed dealer.
According to Science Daily, 60% of mass school shooters are between 11 and 18 years old, and, according to the Washington Post, 85% of shooters took their assault weapons from their homes or their friends. It is crucial for people to keep these facts in mind when considering gun legislation.
Since the start of the twenty-first century, the U.S. has experienced more deaths from school shootings than occured in the entire twentieth century, as stated in an article in Science Daily. According to an ABC news station, there have been more school shootings in 2018 so far than in all of 2017. These increases can be attributed to an increasing number of manufactured automatic weapons that have the capability fire multiple bullets at once, as well as to distinct lack of enforcement of current gun laws.
While most shootings have happened far from our campus, and it may seem like something that horrific could never happen at a school like Milton Academy, the same was likely held true by the more than two hundred thousand students since the year 2000 who have been at school while some sort of gun violence occurred (according to the Washington Post). Campus safety is important at every school, including Milton, and we should all know what we should do if a potential threat entered campus.
I interviewed Jay Hackett, Director of Campus Safety, to learn more about Milton’s policy on gun safety, as well as to find out more about what happened during a lockdown last spring where several buildings were not alerted:
How do you think Milton Academy approaches gun safety?
Milton Academy works closely with local, state, and national organizations focused on campus safety to ensure that we are prepared in the event of an emergency…We continually update our policies and procedures to ensure that we have appropriate safety approaches in place for our buildings and campus, keeping in mind that we are a K-12, residential campus, which may require best practices to vary by area. We work extensively with local police, who are familiar with and have maps of all buildings and open space across our campus. We employ many tools, both electronic and otherwise, to ensure we are as prepared as we can be in all possible circumstances…We also invite the regional SWAT team to train on campus each summer as part of their school-related training, providing them a high level of familiarity with our buildings and campus.
What precautions have been taken recently to protect against a possible school shooting?
School shootings are rare, but we must always be prepared. This fall, we again brought in outside SWAT team experts to train all faculty and staff on what to do in the event of a shooter on campus. The training involved...presentations on best practices as well as live scenarios on campus, including [practice scenarios] in classrooms, assembly spaces, and outdoor open spaces. We’ve conducted this faculty/staff training in the past, and will continue to provide it at regular junctures in the future.
Do you believe that the new ID security system is enough to protect students from a potential shooter?
The use of swipe IDs on campus has been in place for years in some buildings, including student residences. Our increased use of this ID swipe system in other buildings, including major updates this past summer, is to ensure that visitors on campus—those who do not attend school or work here—have access only to certain buildings, as appropriate…We [are continuing] to review buildings on campus where swipe enabling would be beneficial.
Buildings like the Student Center-Wigglesworth-Warren complex are lockdown enabled at ALL doors, not just the doors that require swipes. Lockdown enabled doors lock automatically once a lockdown is initiated and cannot be opened from the outside until an “all clear” is issued, and/or someone with a special ID opens the door.
Could you expand about what happened last spring, where during a lockdown several buildings on campus were not alerted? Why did this occur?
We do routine drills [of our lockdown system]—both drills known to students (“live tests”) and “silent tests” that you can’t hear—to ensure that our equipment is working. Last year, we experienced a major storm that took out power lines on Centre Street, causing one of our relevant computers to shut off during a long power outage. During our follow-up routine drill, the lockdown system worked, but a few system speakers did not go off as expected. The speakers were brought back online in a matter of minutes once the problem was identified.
[In order to ensure that something like this doesn’t happen again,] we added battery backup to ensure future coverage during a long power outage.