The shooting at a Texas elementary school where an 18-year-old boy went on a rampage killing 19 children and two teachers has left the teaching fraternity, students, parents and the world shell-shocked and in grief, and has thrown up questions on security checks at schools and the over-dependence on CCTV surveillance. This incident comes 10 days after an avowed white supremacist shot 13 people at a supermarket in Buffalo.
The horrific shooting at Robb Elementary School in the close-knit town of Uvalde-Carranza once again highlights the easy accessibility to arms in Texas and the easy access inside schools. It shows the world how hollow the US systems have been in checking such insane acts that snatch away innocent lives without any reason or rhyme. While enforcement and authorities begin to pick up the pieces, one should wonder how shattering it would be for parents who came to school to pick up their children with a shaken hope of seeing them alive.
In the US where buying a gun has become as easy as buying chocolate, the mass shooting at the school has sparked off a debate on ways to secure premises, use of technology to equip surveillance cameras with gun detection and alert systems, tightening vigilance on entry and exit protocols and the need for stricter gun laws and regulations. An appalled US President Joe Biden said, “When in God’s name will we do what needs to be done to, if not completely stop, fundamentally change the amount of carnage that goes on in the US.” The country has reported 213 deaths in mass shootings so far.
Cut into India, and mass shootings and carnages in schools may be unheard of, but a couple of murders in the recent past have raised questions on lack of security. In October 2021, a 17-year-old student was stabbed by his junior at a Delhi school. In 2017, a 7-year-old student was found murdered allegedly by a Class XI student at a Gurgaon school. In Goa, a seven-year-old girl was raped in the toilet of a school on January 14, 2013, and despite a CBI probe that put 391 suspects under the scanner, the investigation agency failed to zero down on the accused. There have been also a couple of foiled kidnap incidents outside school campuses. These incidents bring to light the lax security systems at schools and the need to tighten vigilance around campuses.
The Texas shooting may be an extreme case and may not relate directly to the Goan ecosystem, but it amplifies the fact that educational institutes must take security very seriously. While the Goa government woke up from its slumber in 2017 following the Vasco incident by directing the installation of CCTV cameras, it has not considered tightening the entry protocol for visitors. Entry to many of the schools in Goa remains unhindered and unchecked. While there is talk about bringing in reforms in the educational sector and going ahead with the National Education Policy in a phased manner, we hope there is an equal focus on the security and safety of students and the environment in which they choose to pursue their careers.
