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Letter: Schools should be safe for students

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From the shocking massacre at Columbine High School in 1990, the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary in 2012, and the countless other horrific school shootings that have taken place in the last couple years, guns and perpetual fear have become the norm in American schools.

Americans are beginning to realize the danger our youth face as violence and shootings in schools increases. According to statistics gathered by Dr. David Hemenway, a professor at Harvard University, American children are 13 times more likely to be murdered by guns as youths in other industrialized countries.

With more than 300 shootings occurring in the U.S. since the early 1990s, both our government and our schools must not only take intensive precautionary measures with school safety but must also try to maintain control of the misuse of guns.

If our government and our schools do not step up to improve the misemployment of guns in America, our youth will not recognize school as a safe place to learn. American youth will come to identify school as a place where one must not only attend in constant fear, but must also fight to survive.

Our nation is just recently realizing the severity of this problem. I realized the seriousness of this dilemma when I heard my cousin, who is currently attending middle school, utter this eye-opening sentence, “Schools are more dangerous than the streets.” America needs this crucial change.

Gayane Iskandaryan
Glendale

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