Fort Hood Shooting Reminiscent of School Shootings
Brings Up Startling Revelations About Public Safety
Andy Kotch
Issue date: 11/11/09 Section: News
A shooting at Fort Hood, Texas, an army base used for cycling soldiers before their overseas deployment, was wracked by a shooting last Thursday that was terrifyingly similar to the highly publicized school shootings that have occurred over the last few years. While the shooting brings back all too fresh memories of the Winnenden, Germany shooting in March and the Virginia Tech shooting in 2007, attention returns to the safety of schools and public areas against this kind of attack.
The attack began in the middle of a massive military base, complete with security personnel such an area would call for. If an area as highly controlled as a military base can be so susceptible to a lone gunman like this, how safe are schools?
Ever since the shootings at Virginia Tech, schools have been ramping up their security measures. Frostburg State was quick to implement their text-based alert system, which they say is "the surest way for [students] to receive public safety and/or university closing notifications," and they "strongly encourage students, faculty and staff to register". FSU is not the only school to take such measures, either. Several schools in the area, including almost all state universities and other, smaller campuses, implemented similar systems.
Most students remain unworried about the implications of the Fort Hood shooting. When asked if she had any worries about her safety on campus, junior Kelly Winger said, "not really… there's really a lot of families, it's not really the biggest worry here".
One of the other worries to come out of the Fort Hood tragedy was more startling than security holes. As was widely reported, the shooter, Nidal Malik Hasan, is a muslim in the armed forces. While this is obviously not an issue in and of itself, MSNBC reports that several people who knew the shooter before the attack said there were clear signs the man was disturbed. The reason they never reported anything varied from person to person. His mosque leader "assumed the military's chain of command knew". Former classmates of Hasan said that they were also suspicious, but didn't report anything due to, "a fear of appearing discriminatory against a Muslim student."
The attack began in the middle of a massive military base, complete with security personnel such an area would call for. If an area as highly controlled as a military base can be so susceptible to a lone gunman like this, how safe are schools?
Ever since the shootings at Virginia Tech, schools have been ramping up their security measures. Frostburg State was quick to implement their text-based alert system, which they say is "the surest way for [students] to receive public safety and/or university closing notifications," and they "strongly encourage students, faculty and staff to register". FSU is not the only school to take such measures, either. Several schools in the area, including almost all state universities and other, smaller campuses, implemented similar systems.
Most students remain unworried about the implications of the Fort Hood shooting. When asked if she had any worries about her safety on campus, junior Kelly Winger said, "not really… there's really a lot of families, it's not really the biggest worry here".
One of the other worries to come out of the Fort Hood tragedy was more startling than security holes. As was widely reported, the shooter, Nidal Malik Hasan, is a muslim in the armed forces. While this is obviously not an issue in and of itself, MSNBC reports that several people who knew the shooter before the attack said there were clear signs the man was disturbed. The reason they never reported anything varied from person to person. His mosque leader "assumed the military's chain of command knew". Former classmates of Hasan said that they were also suspicious, but didn't report anything due to, "a fear of appearing discriminatory against a Muslim student."
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Beccah
posted 11/13/09 @ 10:25 AM EST
This is an insightful, well-written article, and I enjoyed reading it.
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