By James Keeton
Contributing writer
Several months have passed since the tragic events at Sandy Hook Elementary School that left 20 children and six adults dead. Since then, parents, students and faculty alike have asked the question of what can be done to prevent such violence at schools and universities.
One of the key topics discussed is gun control. Stricter background checks, requiring national registration for every gun sold, bans on certain semiautomatic weapons and limiting magazine capacity are among a few of the measures proposed, but would these measures prevent or even reduce violence?
“You’re not going to keep the bad guys from getting weapons,” said Stacy Ballew, chief of the SE Campus Police.
“They’re still going to have access to them. The only thing we could do is with the background checks and that is to include all mental health records.”
So if law enforcement is skeptical of gun control as a solution, what can be done to prevent violence in our schools?
“Educate the campus community is probably the main thing we can do to reduce crime,” said Ballew. “However, you’re not going to be able to stop certain acts of violence when they occur because these things are so random.”
Random acts of violence can occur anywhere. Senseless crime may not be completely preventable but Southeastern is prepared to deal with violence on campus.
Gun control might be the most debated reaction to the problem but are there measures that we can take that might be less controversial? Southeastern conducts monthly safety checks and active shooter training.
“Most schools across the community do have security and most universities have their own police departments. Many larger schools, if not all of them have police officers,” said Ballew “I think the cost would be too great to have police officers at every school.”
“The state of Oklahoma mandates us to go to the same police academy, called CLEET, as every other police department in the state and we are required to do 24 hours a year of continued education,” said Ballew.
“We could always use more equipment and we can never have enough, but I feel confident that the officers I have here can handle anything that comes up.”