After the Newtown school shooting where Adam Lanza shot 20 children before shooting himself, Americans joined together as a country to mourn and vow to place stricter legislation on gun control to prevent future tragedies.
Since the beginning of January 2014 there have been 11 school shootings which took place in or near a highschool or college, most of which have been planned and carried out by a student, according to TheWire.com.
This "epidemic" of school shootings highlights an underlying changing of security issues in schools across the country. The focus has shifted to keeping students safe from fires and moved towards keeping students safe from guns while in class, the New York Times reported.
Instead of practicing where to go and what to do in case of a fire, which seemed to be the biggest worry a student growing up before the Columbine school shootings happened, students are now learn how to hide behind bookshelves or desks and keep out of site in case of a shooter, according to the Times.
Teachers give tips like making sure your cellphone backlight can't be seen because it could bring attention and make the student a target, the Times reported. Schools have also made a habit of texting parents about any lockdown or security issue at the school as number of school shootings rise.
In 2013,12 months after Newtown, there were 28 school shootings throughout the year, according to The Wire. As school shootings rise, school police officers and practice lock-down scenarios have become commonplace.
By those numbers, a school shooting has taken place every other day, taking into consideration schools were off for New Years and for Martin Luther King Day, according to The Wire.
As children as young as seventh graders are bringing guns to school, school officials are teaming up with local police departments to implement new procedures to keep the students safe in case of a shooting, the Times reported.
Earlier this month, a seventh grader from New Mexico brought a sawed-off shotgun to Berrendo Middle School in Roswell, walked into his school gym and began shooting at his fellow school mates, wounding two before being detained by police, according to the Times. The school had been prepared for such an incident and immediately placed the rest of the school on lockdown.
"They kept saying, 'Lock your doors and keep everyone away from the windows,'" 10th grader Rebecca Grossman from Watertown High School near Boston that has been placed into full lockdown three times since the new year began, the Times reported.
The lockdown is a new security measure implemented in schools beginning about a decade ago and occurs alongside automatically locking doors and local police officers who have stations inside school buildings, according to the Times.
States like Michigan, Kentucky and North Dakota require lockdown drills and other states have already passed laws which requires schools to come up with safety plans for different scenarios, the Times reported.
