Hawkins eighth-graders seek to stop school shootings

Kirk Boxleitner | May 26, 20220

Courtesy photo count

Hawkins Middle School eighth-graders presented their "Project Citizen" to the North Mason School Board on May 19.

Hawkins Middle School eighth-graders Bradley Williams, Dylan Prideaux, Sophia Mairs, Owen Oblizalo and Yariel Barajas presented their "Project Citizen" to the North Mason School Board on May 19.

Williams described Project Citizen as teaching students to work with government to create public policies to help solve community problems.

"Our class voted from a long list of problems," Williams said. "The majority picked school shootings, so we came up with policies to prepare for and prevent these shootings," which he noted "can not only (physically) harm and kill people, but the threat of them can also harm people mentally, by giving them anxiety, depression and PTSD."

Williams cited "two major threats" Hawkins Middle School has experienced this school year, one in December, "but that was dealt with

accordingly, before the school had to be closed," while the second closed the school's upper campus for a day.

Prideaux cited statistics showing 288 school shootings have occurred in the United States since 2009. The years from 2000-2017 saw an average of two to three per year, in which 67 people died and 86 were wounded.

"Gun violence affects around 3 million U.S. students," Prideaux said. "According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, schools are the second-most active shooting locations, after places of commerce."

Mairs continued, "When we had school shooting threats in December, there were a total of nine kids in our class, because students and staff felt unsafe in the school environment. There should have been 30."

Mairs shared testimonies from eighth-grade classmates who felt scared and unsafe on school grounds, before telling the board, "I have been exposed to gun violence at school before, and if we'd had our proposed policies implemented, I believe the problem would have been dealt with much better."

Oblizalo proposed the school conduct training three times per year and random locker searches twice per month, and install metal detectors at main entrances.

"City officials in Brooklyn on Dec. 3, 2021, placed metal detectors at the school because they found a loaded gun on the campus," Oblizalo said. "Within the first day, they turned up 21 weapons. This is a scary statistic, because we can only imagine how many weapons make it into schools without metal detectors."

Oblizalo said the training would prepare students "for what to do, and where to go," in case of a school shooting, and the twice-monthly random locker searches would deter students "from bringing weapons and other contraband" into the school.

The plan outlined by Barajas

included sending eight volunteers to a weekly administration meeting to share the proposed policies. Barajas counted Superintendent Dana Rosenbach and District 2 Director Leanna Krotzer as supporters of metal detectors and locker checks, with District 5 Director Arla Shephard Bull supporting additional training.

"Rosenbach also talked to us about the next government grant, which would be very useful to buy the metal detectors, since they'll cost between $24,600 and $25,200," Barajas said.

District 3 Director Laura Boad thanked the students for delving so deeply into the topic and deemed their suggestions "valid" as methods of "keeping things from happening that shouldn't" and "helping you feel safer while you're trying to learn."

Shephard Bull commended the students for taking the time to address a topic "that's very hard and heartbreaking," while District 4 Director John Campbell, who'd seen a previous version of the students' presentation, remarked upon its improvements in its most recently delivered form.

"Thank you for your concern, as citizens, for an issue that ought to be on everyone's lips, and for your research, passion and compassion for your fellow students," Campbell said. "And for your faith in democratic government."

"This takes a lot," District 1 Director Erik Youngberg said. "It's a big deal to talk in front of everybody and go through all this. Great job, every single one of you, just a wonderful job. This is super important, not only to you guys, but to all of us, and we will definitely look at what we're doing here."

Rosenbach assured the students the district building leaders and school safety committee "are taking your recommendations very seriously," as they review and update safety planning documents, "and talk about how we can make these things happen."