With the 2024-25 school year underway, many people have refocused their attention on the safety of schools.
And for good reason.
Another tragic school shooting occurred on Sept. 4 at Apalachee High School in Winder, Georgia, where a 14-year-old boy killed two students and two teachers before being taken into custody. Nine other people were injured with seven of them shot.
Many Bay Area students, parents and teachers all wonder: What steps are being made to prevent violence like that from happening here, too?
It is a valid question.
Since the 1999 shooting at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado, more than 383,000 U.S. students have experienced gun violence at school, according to a Washington Post article published on Sept. 6. The same article indicates 34 students and adults died in 2022, while more than 43,000 children were exposed to gunfire at school.
Firearms have become the leading cause of death for children and teens in the United States, according to figures provided during a Mt. Diablo Unified School District (MDUSD) campus safety meeting on Aug. 27. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that one out of 10 gun deaths are of people age 19 or younger.
The good news is that according to statistics the school district shared, California has a death rate 43% lower than anywhere else in the country due to the state’s strict gun laws.
Unfortunately, Bay Area schools have not been completely free of violence. In the spring of 2023, a stabbing occurred at Northgate High School in Walnut Creek, where the victim, a freshman girl, was severely injured, and the attacker, a freshman boy, was arrested.
More than three dozen Northgate students of all grade levels were recently asked how this incident made them feel. Even though many were freshman and sophomores who did not attend Northgate the year of the stabbing, all students except one knew about the incident.
Of the students that were familiar with the incident, 22 of the 36 students surveyed (61%) said it made them feel at least somewhat concerned for their safety.
“It was shocking being so close to something you’d think would only be on the news,” 11th grader Taelyn Jriyasetapong said. “It was even more scary that [the attacker and victim] were both in the same grade as me. It was all just super confusing. I was a little uncomfortable coming to school the next few days, too.”
The other 14 surveyed students said they had not thought about the incident for a long time. The majority of these students are in the 9th and 10th grades and were in middle school the year of the stabbing.
In response to the stabbing, Northgate administrators shifted to a program called SAVE Promise Club, a youth-led club through Sandy Hook Promise. SAVE stands for Students Against Violence Everywhere. The program seeks to improve campus safety in many ways, including educating students about Sandy Hook Promise programs, giving youth a way to voice their opinions and concerns, engaging the community in events and assemblies, and encouraging prioritizing mental health and self-care.
Unfortunately, Northgate has not been the only school in the area to experience violence. In March 2023, Montgomery High in Santa Rosa also experienced a stabbing, this one fatal. In response to the increasing demand for more safety measures, Santa Rosa City School District board trustees voted to have a school resource officer (SRO) on the high school campus.
The addition of SROs on school campuses is notably controversial.
Northgate Vice Principal Tucker Farrar believes putting a police officer on campus can be beneficial.
“Somebody who’s considering doing something that would cause harm might think twice because there’s a police officer on campus,” Farrar said.
Before working at Northgate, Farrar was an assistant principal at California High School in San Ramon, which has had an SRO on campus for years. Caleb Yi, an 11th grader at Cal High, agrees with Farrar about having a police officer on campus.
“Just their presence on campus deters people from making bad decisions,” Yi said.
But Farrar also acknowledges the possibility that in some cases, an SRO might make students uncomfortable or intimidated.
MDUSD board member Cherise Khaund said she is not aware of any discussion about putting an SRO on Northgate’s campus in response to the stabbing. She said she believes that counseling and support are just as crucial for student safety, if not more.
“I think that we have good relationships with law enforcement in our community,” Khaund said, “but I think more importantly we have staff and all the adults on campus really looking out for students and trying to make sure to be responsive and create a warm and welcoming community.”
This attitude also is promoted by the national nonprofit Everytown for Gun Safety, which published a 2023 article about school counseling titled “How Can We Prevent Gun Violence in American Schools?” The article states, “As part of any effective strategy, schools need to ensure that students have adequate access to mental health services, and legislatures need to fund adequate mental health professionals in schools.”
For Northgate, this takes the form of a wellness center, which opened in October 2023 to provide a safe space on campus where students can go at any time to take a break or speak with a counselor. Many Northgate students said they have not needed to visit the wellness center yet, but those who had said it helped them.
Northgate also implemented in fall 2023 the Sandy Hook anonymous reporting system as a way for students to quickly report if they notice anything suspicious or threatening on campus, without the fear of being labeled a “snitch” or getting in trouble.
Despite the understandable concern of school safety, there are still feelings of security when on campus.
Nearly all of the 37 Northgate students interviewed confirmed that they did feel safe coming to school. Only two said that they did not feel safe.
“I do feel comfortable coming to school now,” Jriyasetapong said. “I trust the staff at Northgate and I feel like Northgate is a safe place.”
Understandably, many teachers have mixed feelings.
“I personally second-guessed this career choice specifically because of the pro-gun nature of this country,” said one teacher who is new and therefore wished to be anonymous. “At Northgate, I feel like there is generally a good sense of community, support, and cybersecurity in place that downplays the likelihood of a substantial threat in our school. I feel safe with the student body, and given where our school is located in the neighborhood.”
Northgate teacher Brian Corbett added, “School violence could happen anywhere, so while I am generally comfortable at my school, I also feel a degree of vulnerability simply because violence in schools is clearly an increasing phenomenon in our society. Our school is not immune to this.”
Khaund, the MDUSD school board member, looks at the issue of school safety from multiple perspectives as she also is a mother of two. One of Khaund’s children has already graduated from a MDUSD school, while the other currently attends school in the district.
“You can’t prevent everything,” Khaund said, “but I think that in general, as a parent I do feel that my kids are safe.”
Caroline Donahoe is an 11th grader at Northgate High School in Walnut Creek.
