EDITORIAL — How safe are our schools?

Yesterday we woke up to the fact that our schools aren’t us safe as we thought they were.

We aren’t just talking about the school shooting in Tacloban that killed three students and hurt 20 others the other day. That was just one of a string of recent events involving violence in schools.

Last Tuesday, June 16, seven Grade 5 students were injured in a knife attack perpetrated by a Grade 8 student in a school in General Trias, Cavite.

Last Friday, June 19, a Grade 11 student was stabbed by a schoolmate in a school also in Cavite.

And this just yesterday, a 17-year-old was stabbed by another student in the Julio Ledesma National High School in San Carlos City.

We can throw in as a bonus the attack on a 14-year-old, who was knocked unconscious after a 17-year-old schoolmate struck him with brass knuckles in Santa Barbara, Iloilo, also last Friday, although, strictly speaking, this attack happened just outside the school.

What is happening here? It’s like we’re suddenly experiencing an epidemic of school violence.

What has changed to make our schools unsafe? What has changed to make our students act more impulsively, or without judgment, or without remorse?

These incidents show we have to take security in our schools seriously. Those students were able to carry dangerous weapons into schools. How were they able to do this? What do we need to do to make sure they can’t do this anymore?

But then again, securing our schools is just one aspect of the entire picture, really.

Those school shooters in Tacloban got easy access to guns because those responsible for those weapons became complacent. They were also believed to have been influenced by violent online games.

The Cavite attack was allegedly prompted by a personal conflict, while mental depression was blamed for the General Trias attack. In the Iloilo attack, the assailant reportedly said he was just paid by another student to hurt the victim.

Aside from just school security, these recent violent incidents raise others issues like lax gun control, lack of parental supervision, negative social media influence, lack of mental healthcare, and violence in gaming, among others.

These issues have to be addressed if we want our children to be safe in schools again.