Editor’s note: At School News Network, we believe that to truly tell the stories that need to be told, we should first and foremost elevate students’ ideas, opinions and experiences. This spring, we spoke with a panel of 10 high-schoolers from nine of the districts we cover — urban, suburban and rural — to get their thoughts on what high school, and everyday life, is like for them.
This is the third installment of six parts of our conversation; this interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Part 1: What is high school like for you?
Part 2: How much do mental-health stressors complicate the high-school experience?
All districts — According to analysis from Education Week, there have been six shootings on K-12 school property that resulted in injuries or deaths in 2025, as of today, May 5.
Last year saw a total of 39 K-12 school shootings with injuries or deaths, and the nation has seen 227 such shootings since 2018. This does not include incidents at colleges or universities, such as last month’s shooting at Florida State University in which two people were killed.
With these stop-you-in-your-tracks figures, we wanted to know: Do today’s high-schoolers feel safe in school? Is that even possible in this era of regular headline-making acts of violence in school settings? Our panel of students opened up about how often they think about safety at school, the methods their districts are using to protect people, and the complicated role mental health plays in some situations.
School News Network: Do you feel safe in school? Why or why not?
Andrew, senior: “I feel really safe in (my high school), actually, which is kind of weird because of how unsafe schools feel nowadays. But I think it’s because we have a system called BluePoint, very similar to a fire alarm. When you pull it, it alerts state police, local police, EMS. It would be for, like, if a school shooting was going on. And I think that’s just a really good system to have in all schools. It had a malfunction one time, which wasn’t good, and we got (falsely) alerted that another building was having an active school shooting, but that was also during a power outage, so they don’t know what happened with that. They also were having an issue with keeping kids in (the building), so my theory is they secretly used it to get all the kids to stay inside the school because they were dismissing early. … But, yeah, other than that one time with that one malfunction, that system has worked great. And we pull down the blinds if anyone (unsafe) comes into the school. Also, my school has a lot of personal development for school safety, so that really helps.”
Jackson, senior: “We don’t have any of that, like the BluePoint thing. We do have the blinds and stuff that we close. But other than that, I feel safe in school. Earlier this year, we had a school threat; someone said they’re gonna come to shoot up our school. It was a Friday, the threat came out, and within the two days, (school administrators) already had a plan. They shut down school on Monday, and they found the kid, and they talked to him to make sure it was a joke. So our school definitely went through the process quick, and that makes me feel safe in school.”
Anari, senior: “We have a lot of safety officers and we have two police stations … Last year, we had a ton of school shooting threats that just never came through (as legitimate), because on social media it just spreads so fast. I was so irritated by that. But if there was, like, a school threat, the next day the principal will send out an email to everyone, and there’ll be metal detectors and everything. They’re very prepared for every single threat, even if it was just an empty threat. So yeah, I feel pretty safe.”
Ellison, senior: “My school also does a good job. We have resource officers and we just got a new drill system. (When the fire alarm sounds), instead of everyone going out in hallways and then going outside, now everyone needs to report back to their classroom. Then (security officers) assess the fire threat because it might be a school shooter that pulled the fire alarm as a diversion. So we have measures in place, but there’s always that, like, invisible threat that’s always looming over you. To some extent, it gets really hard to go to school every day if you’re constantly thinking about it. So I think all of us have to just trust in our schools, and I do trust in my school that they’ll take care of things that they need to. But you just never really know.”
Cody, junior: “I think what helps us feel more safe is (our) connection to the teachers. Like, knowing that if there is a threat, that teacher probably could throw themselves at (the threat) first.”
SNN: Is that something that’s on your mind a lot?
Andrew, senior: “It’s like a monthly thought.”
Ellison, senior: “Yeah, you put it on the back burner, but then when (a threat) comes forward you’re like, ‘Oh, that’s real; I forgot that that’s a possibility.’”
Ella, senior: “I feel like it’s when you hear a threat that’s close to home, that’s when it gets into your mind.”
SNN: Do you feel like (school threats) are something that you have just grown up with, and you’re kind of numb to it?
[The collective group nods]
Andrew, senior: “I used to live in the Kalamazoo area, and I had two threats that happened that year. … Ever since then, it’s just, like, made me kind of numb to it, because it’s like, I’ve already been in that scenario before, so it just doesn’t really frighten me, I guess.”
Cody, junior: “I think it’s just such a horrible thing that it’s hard to imagine for us.”
Chay’ce, junior: “I definitely empathize with the situation. But sometimes it’s, well… [shrugs] I don’t know. It’s not that it’s not important. It’s just, like, normal. Especially after Oxford (a Michigan school shooting in 2021). … We feel sad that people got hurt, but we also feel grateful that it wasn’t our school.”
Andrew, senior: “Oxford felt like the last big one, and then after that (school shootings) just became, like, a regular event that not even the news really covers anymore, it feels like, because there’s nothing new about it.”
Anari, senior: “(School shootings) just keep happening, and it’s just getting more normalized after each event. But like, at what point is it gonna be, like, we really need to stop this because it’s wrong?”
Jackson, junior: “When I see what happened (at another school), yeah, I’m sad, but I’m also like, ‘What school is next?’ It sounds bad to say that, but you’re wondering what school is the next one on the news.”
Ella, senior: “It’s almost inevitable. If someone wants to (cause harm), they’re gonna do it. So it’s more, ‘How can you prepare yourself if you are in that situation?’”
Ellison, senior: “I feel like so much of the work that schools do to try to community-build and bring people together, that work always has that underlying note of, ‘this is what we’re trying to prevent.’ Because if you can create a community that’s safe, where people feel connected, that’s how you’re gonna avoid situations like that. I think that’s the underlying thought behind a lot of what schools do.”
Chay’ce, junior: “A lot of the time school shooters end up being kids who go to the school. That could be an outcome of having a lack of social workers or counselors who are able to connect with kids who seem sad or depressed, which leads to not being part of groups or having people that they communicate with.”
Jadon, junior: “But depression has become more of a stigma. Like, if you are depressed, it’s such a big deal. It’s gone from, ‘You can open up and share what’s on your mind,’ to now if you do open up, (it might sound like) the things that (school shooters) have done in the past. So there are steps they have to take to prevent all that. Now it’s become you don’t want to open up because you don’t want cops, superintendents, principals, teachers, social workers involved. … I think it’s necessary (for schools) to react that way, because that’s what you need to prevent that. But that’s the byproduct: people don’t share what’s bothering them.”
Zoe, junior: “I think some people are embarrassed to share or to get help. Like, one of my friends was struggling through stuff, but she was just too embarrassed to ask for help, and her parents just wouldn’t let her get help. They were like, ‘You’re fine.’ So she thought she just had to tough it out. And I feel like a lot of people are going through that. ‘You have anxiety, I have anxiety, OK, then it must be fine.’ If we’re all going through it, then it’s just normal.”
Next installment: Is today’s climate of political divisiveness affecting the high school experience at all?
Read more from our districts:
• Partnership expands CTE programs to local districts
• Students tackle youth mental health crisis with peers
