Fears regarding gun violence in schools have always existed, but recent events have reignited conversation around the topic. Students and staff are reflecting on what safety truly is at CHS. Many wonder how prepared the school is for emergencies, and how their own actions could make a difference. The conversation has provoked both worry and discussion about what steps have been/can be taken to keep us even safer.
“Whenever I hear about an event like this happening again, I get very nervous. I don’t want that to happen to us. I don’t want to lose my friends or literally anyone. It would be really sad if it happened,” Elise Hugg (‘28) said.
School administrators said safety measures have been implemented to address these concerns, and they are annually reviewing how well students and staff respond in emergencies. They emphasized the importance of training and being prepared, while acknowledging that students naturally feel nervous about such a serious topic.
“The whole school is trained in ALICE. You’ve probably been trained in ALICE for a good portion of your time coming up through the Chelsea School District and how to respond to [gun violence],” Doug Whitsel, Director of Safety and Security said. “One of the newer measures that we have now is gun detecting software inside our cameras. So if someone were to walk up towards the building with the firearm, the system would detect it and we would be able to lock down the building. We have the fortunate ability of having to be in such a small town, the police are always within just a minute away or so.”
Parents have also been active in reaching out to the school, especially following tragedies. They offer ideas, express concerns, and ask questions about how students are protected. Collaboration on topics this serious is an important part of keeping the school safe. Events regarding gun violence affect everyone, even those that don’t experience it firsthand. Parents being aware of the safety precautions is important because safety concerns are the harsh reality parents have to think about when sending their kids to school.
“I often get messages or emails from parents that are concerned, especially after a tragedy has happened, it kind of sparks their new thoughts or questions. A lot of times they just offer ways to try to remedy it, and we collaborate those ideas with our own sometimes. But being a parent myself, it’s obviously something that you take into consideration every time you send your kid to school,” Whitzel said.
While parents and staff’s communication about gun violence is good, students express that while drills and practice help, they want more opportunities to be directly involved in safety procedures. While they’ve been taught several times what to do if an event like that were to take place, they want the procedures less sugarcoated. Students want to be more involved in the steps taken in their safety. Students want to be more prepared and less anxious when the topic is brought up.
“I know we’ve done the ALICE drills, we did it last year and since elementary school, and I remember the steps, but I feel like if we could practice it more that would be good. And I think something that would make everyone a little less nervous about just the topic in general if students could be more involved in what to do when a situation like that happens,” Emily Xaio (‘28) said.
With about 300 school shootings happening in 2024, these fears students express towards gun violence is nothing less than reasonable. Students, especially high schoolers, don’t just hear the stories of these events but they have access to statistics and facts of the events in a single click. It can feel like there’s another breaking news story every month regarding the topic, and for students being surrounded by media that is almost always negative regarding firearms, it can be and is fear jerking for students not just at CHS but globally.
“I’ve seen on my Instagram feed or other social medias, of updates about shootings or even photos of the aftermath of a school shooting, and it definitely scares me. And it evokes, definitely strong feelings of sadness, fear and anxiety surrounding the topic,” Xaio said.
Even for students who feel safe at school, the thought of a violent event occurring lingers in the back of their minds. While the school has lots of safety measures in place to keep everyone safe, there seems like there’s always room for collaboration and learning to ensure we all can stay as safe as possible while learning in school. And while Whisel shared many safety measures CHS has in place, these fears aren’t something we should ignore and It’s a reminder that safety is never something to take for granted.
“Although I’m scared of it potentially happening at Chelsea High School, I think we all kinda know what to do because they’ve taught us for many years using ALICE and other things to keep us safe. So I think we should all feel pretty prepared in case of something like that happening,” Keira Day (‘27) said.
