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Learning English use a limited vocabulary and are read at a slower pace than VOA's other English broadcasts. Previously known as Special English.(2020/02/19 09:30)
Two years ago this month, a 19-year-old American shot and killed 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. Fourteen of the victims were students; the other three were teachers. The gunman was a former student at the high school.
On this anniversary, as with other anniversaries of school shootings, Americans continue debating how to make sure students are safe in schools.
On February 11, a group called Everytown for Gun Safety released a report on one method for reducing gun violence at schools in the United States. Everytown is a not-for-profit organization. It joined with two labor unions in writing the report on school safety drills for active shootings. The two are the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) and the National Education Association (NEA).
What is an active shooter?
The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation defines an active shooter as an individual actively engaged in killing or attempting to kill people in a populated area. To increase preparedness for such an event, many schools now hold active shooter drills for students and their teachers.
The new report notes the possible harmful effects of such exercises. It urges school administrators to look for better ways to make schools safe and to prepare children for an active shooter.
U.S. Department of Education numbers show how rare gun violence at schools is: Only 0.2 percent of about 36,000 gun deaths a year happen on school grounds. But almost all schools hold drills designed to prepare their employees and students for an active shooter. In fact, 40 states require such exercises.
Real or not real?
The report says one problem with the way schools carry out active shooter drills is how much they frighten students. When a school fails to inform parents and students about plans for a drill, parents cannot prepare their children, and the children may think that the attack is real.
In some communities, the report says, schools deploy individuals who are told to act like “masked gunmen.” Students as young as three or four years old may be told to stay quiet in a small space for a long period of time. Experts on mental health say these experiences can have both short- and long-term effects on how well the children behave in school, as well as on their physical and mental health.
For example, after one drill in New Jersey, an eighth-grade student reportedly said, “I was genuinely not sure if I would finish the day alive.”
Melissa Reeves is a former president of the National Association of School Psychologists. She said the drills may “trigger either past trauma or trigger such a… reaction that it actually ends up scaring the individuals instead of better preparing them to respond in these kinds of situations.”
There has been little research on how well the exercises prepare students for an active shooter. In 2007, one study found it better to prepare students for an “intruder,” rather than a shooter. Another study noted the value of announcing drills in advance and following them with discussion. Students in that situation felt better prepared to handle possible violence.
Surprise drills, on the other hand, can result in trauma to children. One woman in Arizona described the effect drills at her son’s school had on him. He started biting his fingernails and “refused to go anywhere alone, even to his room or a bathroom at home,” she said.
Laurel Williams is chief of psychiatry at Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston. She warned about the worry active shooter drills can create in children: “It’s not clear to them that the drill is not real. The younger the child, the less likely they are to understand that an act of violence is not occurring during a drill.”
Other steps are needed
Everytown, AFT, and NEA point out that active shooter drills alone will not prevent gun violence. Last year the three organizations announced their own plan to end school shootings. The plan calls for better laws on keeping guns out of the hands of possibly dangerous people. The groups also support raising the age to buy semiautomatic weapons and requiring background checks on gun sales.
The Everytown plan also includes safer storage of firearms, as children sometimes bring guns from home to school.
Everytown, AFT, and NEA oppose any shooter drills for students. Aside from the trauma they may cause, another reason is to keep any detailed planning among adults secret from students. That is because of this troubling fact: almost all mass school shooters are either former or current students who show signs of trouble before the attack. The groups instead urge schools to watch for students who may become the next shooter and provide them the social support and mental health care they need.
I’m Jill Robbins.
Jill Robbins wrote this story for Learning English based on the Everytown/NEA/AFT and U.S. Department of Education reports. George Grow was the editor.
How do schools in your country prepare students for an emergency (perhaps a natural disaster if not an attack) on school grounds? We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments Section.
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Words in This Story
drill – n. an exercise done to practice military skills or procedures
psychology – n. the science or study of the mind and behavior
trigger – n. something that causes something else to happen
trauma – n. a very difficult or unpleasant experience that causes someone to have mental or emotional problems usually for a long time
scare – v. frighten, to cause (someone) to become afraid
intruder – n. a person who is not welcome or wanted in a place
in advance – n. before something happens (2020/02/19 08:03)
As elections near, Iranian leaders appear to be worried about several crises that have left people with little hope for the future.
Tensions with the United States, economic weakness and the shooting down of a Ukrainian passenger airplane have tired Iranian voters.
Elections are to be held on February 21.
This is not good news for leaders who hope that a lot of people will vote. If many people vote, it sends a message to the U.S. that Iran has not been hurt by sanctions.
Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on state television this week that voting is a “religious duty.” Many see this election as a test of his popularity.
Both he and his allies have made sure most of the candidates are hardliners -- people considered to have severe or extreme ideas. Most of those elected will likely make the parliament even more hostile to the U.S.
But a low number of voters would help critics inside and outside the country. Many critics say the Islamic Republic needs to change its policies because the country is suffering economically.
“I’m a person who has voted before. My hope was that things would get a little better when I voted in the past. Now, all the red lines have been crossed,” said a doctor in Tehran. Her office cannot get the medicine or equipment she needs.
“This time, I have no hope and I will definitely not vote,” she said by phone. She asked not to be identified.
Four years ago, things were very different. Iran’s president, Hassan Rouhani, and his allies had won many seats in parliamentary elections. They were seen as moderates. Many had hoped that a nuclear deal with world powers in 2015 would lead to the end of sanctions.
Those hopes died after President Donald Trump withdrew the United States from an international nuclear agreement in 2018. He placed more sanctions on Iran in an effort to limit its nuclear program. The sanctions also seek to limit Iran’s ballistic missile program and end its involvement in several proxy wars in the Middle East.
“The main root of everything is the economy,” said Ali, who sells mobile phones in Isfahan. He talked to the Reuters news agency by telephone and asked that he not be identified.
“If (a person) doesn’t have the money to take home bread to his wife and family, then he’ll stop praying and even lose his beliefs,” said Ali. He said he does not plan to vote.
“I voted for several years and it didn’t make any difference,” he said.
Government officials have been under pressure since last year, when protests turned deadly. Demonstrators were angry over increases in the price of fuel. Security officials answered with force. Hundreds of protesters are believed to have been killed. The effort to suppress the protests was among the most violent events in Iran since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
Then, a U.S. drone strike killed Qassem Soleimani, a commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard’s Quds Force, in January in Iraq. Iranians supported their government’s anger. But support quickly disappeared when it became clear the Iranian government had lied about the shooting down of a Ukrainian airliner. All 176 people on the plane were killed.
The Revolutionary Guards apologized for shooting down the passenger jet. But thousands of people still protested in several cities.
Even before the latest troubles, sanctions cut Iran’s oil exports by more than 80 percent. People are continuing to suffer from economic hardship.
The International Monetary Fund notes that Iran is expected to have 31 percent inflation this year.
I’m Susan Shand.
The Reuters News Agency reported this story. Susan Shand adapted it for VOA Learning English. Mario Ritter, Jr. was the editor.
Write to us in the Comments Section or on our Facebook page.
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Words in This Story
sanctions - n. an action that is taken or an order that is given to force a country to obey international laws by limiting or stopping trade with that country, by not allowing economic aid for that country
ballistic missile - n. a weapon that is shot through the sky over a great distance and then falls to the ground and explodes
proxy - adj. power or authority that is given to allow a person to act for someone else
drone - n. a type of small aircraft that flies without a pilot(2020/02/19 07:59)
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