On November 28th, an Ohio State University student drove his car into a group of pedestrians and proceeded to slash more bystanders with a butcher knife. Fortunately, no one was killed except for the assailant, who was shot moments into his violent attack by a university police officer.

This attack is just one of many occurring on school grounds across the United States recently. Since the Columbine High School Shooting in 1999, there have been 50 mass murders or mass murder attempts at schools, and 270 shootings of any kind taking place at schools. In 2015 alone, there was one shooting per week at schools or college campuses.

While these attacks vary in their motives, one thing is very clear: schools have become a target for violence. ¨It’s a highly populated place, so you can take a lot of people out at one time.¨ Says junior, Hannah Johnson. ¨There’s not any high stake security officers or anything like that. It’s just easy.¨ The fact that schools are an easy target is concerning for everyone, but especially for the students and faculty that go to school almost everyday. We should not have to worry about violence in our school, but ignoring that possibility is worse. Everyone thinks it will never happen to them, but in these times it has been proven over and over that it can. In reality, we need to be prepared. When asked if she’s prepared, should there be an active shooter situation, Johnson said, ¨No. I wouldn’t know what to do.¨

With the large amount of school attacks, it has become unsurprising to see stories about school homicides on the news. The shock factor is gone, and is now replaced with, ¨Oh, another one?¨ This is the unseen tragedy. We are becoming numb to such an awful occurrence. Allowing this to be the new norm and being impartial to it is accepting that schools are hunting grounds. We can’t watch this happen over and over again to innocent children and just try to move forward from it. There’s no easy answer. However, this issue is too concerning to continue to ignore. We need to find common ground, and make this country safe for children and the people who devote their time to educate them.