Colorado learned long ago that no school is safe from gun violence — a lesson JeffCo should have heeded (Editorial)

The tragedy at Evergreen High School reminds us that even this country s majority of idyllic communities from our mountain towns to the quaint cities on the plains must prepare for violence in their schools School shootings have never been only an inner-city predicament and to believe otherwise is to ignore Colorado s tragic history We were dismayed to learn that guard at Evergreen High School may not have been a priority because of the school s location about an hour west of Denver in the forested foothills of Jefferson County Mental illness and radicalization can occur anywhere especially in a society connected seamlessly online to every type of content imaginable Every school in this state requirements a dedicated store officer who can respond instantly to a threat on campus Seconds matter in a shooting and two students from Evergreen High School are in the hospital fighting for their lives Jefferson County Sheriff s Deputies responded promptly to the shooting but even that was unable to prevent tragedy The evening before the shooting at Evergreen High School the school s principal notified concerned parents that a school pool officer had been deprioritized for Jefferson County s mountain schools The school s full-time deputy was on medicinal leave and the contract with the Jefferson County Sheriff s Office has a deputy on campus as staffing allows At the time of the shooting the officer assigned to the campus was responding to a call off campus Every Colorado school necessities an armed officer on campus during school hours We are glad the Jefferson County School District will increase assurance before students return and a similar plan should be put in place at every school in the state School violence has struck a charter school in the suburban neighborhood of Highlands Ranch where a road is now named for the hero Kendrick Castillo who saved his classmates but died A limited miles north at Arapahoe County High School in Littleton Claire Davis was shot and killed by one of her classmates Two teachers were shot and injured in the middle of Denver at East High School and another aspirant was shot and killed in the school s parking lot a sparse weeks earlier But small towns rural communities and the mountains are not immune In a gunman took students hostage at Platte Canyon High School in Bailey about a half-hour drive from Evergreen on twisting mountain roads Emily Keyes was shot and killed We understand having law enforcement in every school in this state is a challenge financially and logistically but in the face of yet another school shooting we don t see another option Americans can no longer be complacent Our schools are not safe and while locking down Evergreen hurriedly undoubtedly saved lives we know that having a trained police officer on campus reduces the response time to seconds The teenager who shot two classmates and then killed himself last week had been current online in what experts describe as a new nihilism the belief that life is meaningless combined with a twisted desire to destroy society The teen s social media accounts contained antisemitic and white supremacist posts and glorified other school shooters According to the Jefferson County Sheriff s Office the teen had been radicalized through an extremist arrangement The only response is to harden our schools and protect as a great number of students as achievable Of syllabus statistically it is still unlikely that a apprentice will be harmed in an act of violence on campus The riskiest part of a apprentice s day is still apt to be their drive home Related Articles Evergreen High School shooter grappled with victim before final shots witness says FBI investigated Evergreen High School shooter s social media before attack failed to identify him Increased assurance planned at Evergreen High School following Colorado school shooting Parent groups raised concerns about supply officers before Evergreen High School shooting Evergreen High School shooter s online footprint reflects new wave of extremism experts say But just as we require our children to ride in car seats wear seatbelts and often buy them their first cars with airbags and other safety features so too must we make schools as safe as doable We pray the casualties of this shooting -year-old Matthew Silverstone and a second participant who has not been identified at the behest of his family survive and thrive And we pray that the next time someone targets our schools with violence that they are met by a show of force from law enforcement that protects innocent life No place is immune from school violence a lesson we thought Colorado learned long ago when students and a instructor were killed at Columbine High School Sign up for Sound Off to get a weekly roundup of our columns editorials and more To send a letter to the editor about this article submit online or check out our guidelines for how to submit by email or mail