The entire nation woke up to deadly shootings which occurred at the Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado. Some people may think violence happens in poor, inner city schools but were surprised to see something that violent happen in an affluent, suburban high school. This article will discuss a few of the crimes that have occurred in the past decade and what changes schools are doing to prevent further killings and shooting to occur in our schools. Some changes are the addition of metal detectors, removing of a kid’s locker and have just hooks for coats and bags and some decorative shelving where personal belongings can be seen, and some other rules made for dress codes.

One of the similar themes that seem to repeat from the students who cause these violent shootings in school is that they were tired of being bullied by other students or that they were outsiders. Up until 1995, school shootings were thought to be very rare but unfortunately since then, there have been many that have happened with the most recent one and deadliest one occurring at Virginia Tech where one student claimed 32 lives including himself. Most of the shootings have been caused by young students that go to the school and are quite familiar with the routine of the school in addition to the layout of the structure. There have also been more shootings that happened in in Washington, Pennsylvania, Colorado, Tennessee and Minnesota to name a few.

After the attacks, a lot of students told authorities that they had heard the student say what they were going to do but most of the times, the kids never reported it to staff thinking that the student didn’t really mean it. Now students are taught that if anyone ever threatens to perform a violent act, to tell school officials or the police immediately. Looking back on a lot of the crimes, there were definite signs that many of these students planned to do this violent shooting ahead of time and there was evidence that they did not keep it secret. Teachers, counselors are now trained to notice the students that feel isolated or that are being teased or bullied with many schools creating a zero tolerance policy for that kind of behavior towards another student.

To prevent kids from bringing in weapons or explosives to the school, many high schools have some drastic changes to the building. One way is to have metal detectors placed at the main entrance where all of the students may only enter the building that way. Installing the detectors have helped to prevent students from bringing weapons into the schools.

Some schools are eliminating lockers|getting rid of student lockers} from buildings. Many new schools built in Colorado were made without lockers to prevent students from hiding anything dangerous. Also, long, trench coat style clothing has been banned from some schools as a thing a student may conceal weapons under also.