On February 14, 2018 a school mass shooting occurred in Florida. On the afternoon at 2:15pm, Nikolas Cruz entered the school of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, carrying an AR-15, in which he used to kill 17 people. His goal was to recreate the first mass shooting to have ever occurred in America.

Within a video, viewed on youtube, Cruz had commented stating he was planning to recreate the first mass school shooting. He posted this comment nine months ago. Recently, just six months ago, Cruz commented again stating that he planned to kill everyone within the high school, that he had a plan. The creator of the video reported the comments to the FBI back in September, in which the FBI took no action. Now the shooter is claiming he did this action due his mental illness he has gained due to both his parents passing away  within the year of 2017. Although this seems unlikely because Cruz’s mother passed away from the flu, after his threat comment was already posted.

Within Guilford County since the mass shooting in Florida, many gun and bomb threats have taken place. Many students feel unsafe every day at school, due to the feeling that they never know if they will come home alive or not. These threats are causing a lot of stress within the school system due to schools being forced to be shut down so that students can be safe.

There is a debate over whether teachers should be allowed to have guns within their classrooms. Some students recall that this would make them feel unsafe due to the easy accessibility of firearms to possible unstable students within the school. I feel that the debate within this circumstance is sad, due to the fact that the school system has had to come to this conclusion. I personally believe it would cause multiple forms of conflict due to the fact that not every teacher is trained to appropriately use the gun. If teachers were to contain guns within the school, it may encourage mentally ill students to take action. Some believe that teachers should have guns, due to it making some students feel more safe that they have protection incase a situation were to occur just like the situation within Florida.

Many students around the world are beginning to feel unsafe whenever they walk into their school. Is this fair to students? Should people be blaming the shooter or the gun? Should we really give Cruz the excuse of a mental illness? Either way, it isn’t fair to students around the world to feel unsafe in their own learning environment due to the violence around the world. There needs to be a change.