The whole country woke up to a violent crime which was happening at the Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado. Some people may expect bad things to happen in poor, inner city schools but were shocked to see something that devastating happen in an affluent, suburban high school. This article will discuss a few of the crimes that have happened in recent years and what changes schools are doing to prevent further killings and shooting to occur in our schools. Some changes are the addition of metal detectors, removing of a kid’s locker and have only hooks for coats and bags and some decorative shelving where personal belongings can be seen, and some other rules made for dress codes.

One of the similar themes that seem to resonate from the kids who cause these violent shootings in school is that they were tired of being bullied by other classmates or that they were outsiders. Up until 1995, school shootings were thought to be very rare but unfortunately since then, there have been many that have happened with the most recent one and deadliest one occurring at Virginia Tech where one student killed 32 people including his own. Most of the shootings have been caused by young students that attend the school and are very familiar with the routine of the school in addition to the layout of the building. There have also been more fatalities prior to that in Washington, Pennsylvania, Colorado, Tennessee and Minnesota to name a few.

Following these shootings, many students told authorities that they had witnessed the student make threats about what they were going to do but most of the times, the kids never reported it to staff thinking that the student didn’t really mean it. Now students are taught that if anyone ever threatens to perform a violent act, to report it to school officials or the police right away. Looking back on a lot of the crimes, there were definite signs that a lot of these students planned to do this violent shooting ahead of time and there was evidence that they did not keep it silent. Teachers, counselors are now trained to notice the students that feel isolated or that are being teased or bullied with many schools creating a zero tolerance policy for that kind of behavior towards another classmate.

To prevent kids from bringing in weapons or explosives to the building, many high schools have some drastic changes to the building. One way is to have metal detectors put at the main entrance where all of the students may only enter the building that way. Installing the detectors have helped to prevent students from bringing weapons inside the school building.

Some schools are eliminating lockers|getting rid of student lockers} from buildings. A lot of new schools built in Colorado were made without lockers to prevent students from hiding anything dangerous. Also, long, trench coat style clothing has been not being allowed from some schools as something a person can hide weapons under as well.