This year alone there have been 37 shootings at K-12 schools in the United States.
This begs the question, how safe is Parkway South High School?
A month ago on Sept. 17, a student at Ritenour High School in St. Louis County brought a loaded gun to school.
This threat was a part of the wave of threats schools faced in the St. Louis area to begin the 2024-2025 school year.
This is a familiar thing schools have had to deal with.
High school students and even elementary and middle school students go to the school with the potential threat of a shooting at their school.
Today’s students have to deal with something their parents did not even think of when they were their age. That something is school shootings and threats.
In this new age, as members of the Parkway community, it is important to ask ourselves, how are Parkway and Parkway South keeping its students and staff safe?
Sophomore Mohammad Barakat said he makes sure he has an exit plan for when there is a school shooter.
“Most classes I know where the nearest exit is and I don’t want to say I have a plan but if all else fails I have always thought to just run out and run to my friend Ty Thome’s house,” said Barakat.
Principal Angie Pappas-Muyco said there are clear procedures set up at South High for emergencies, and she knows she plays one of the most important roles in such situations.
“If there is a crisis on campus, I am the point of contact for the first responders,” she said.
Pappas-Muyco also talked about the ways of communicating that there is a school threat.
“We have buttons that we push; there are calls, procedures, and protocols,” she said.
School Resource Officer Travon Green shared what his role is during a school shooting as the only police officer in the building.
“My role when there is an intruder that should enter the building or is on the campus my main focus is to stop the threat. There are obviously a lot of other responsibilities I will have included with that but the primary focus is to stop the threat, so that way we minimize any type of casualties and injuries,” Green said.
Since the threats of school shootings have increased over the years the technology the school uses has also changed too, according to Green.
“There are other modes of technology that have been used that I have been exposed to. The one that I believe I can talk about is social media, that’s huge. There are multiple platforms that are utilized, tip lines, and word of mouth, that’s probably the best form. We rely on the community to come forward whenever they hear stuff. When someone hears or sees something it is better for them to speak out because a lot of times you can help prevent a lot of these incidents from happening,” Green said.
One South High teacher, English teacher Melissa Gebhard, said she’s personally been affected by a school shooting.
Gebhards’s husband’s cousin’s kids go to The Covenant School, a private Christian school in Nashville, Tennessee.
On March 27, 2023, 28-year-old Aiden Hale, a former student at the school, killed three 9-year-olds and 3 adults at the school.
“Our family was totally shaken up. His children were okay, thank goodness but he said the shooting really shifted their lives completely,” Gebhard said.
Barakat had his soccer game at Ritenour High School canceled due to a bomb threat earlier this year.
“I even had a soccer game canceled due to a bomb threat at Ritenour. It’s a little scary to think about how close their threats are,” Barakat said.
To prevent school shootings, schools have to take every threat seriously, according to Pappas-Muyco.
“We take every piece of information that is brought to us in regards to school safety seriously and it is immediately investigated. We do not take anything lightly, we don’t say ‘oh that must be a joke.’ We treat everything as if it were real or true,” Pappas-Muyco said.
Additionally, Parkway makes sure teachers get school shooting training. Part of this training is learning about escaping, evading, and engaging.
“We did a training where they simulated an active shooter where we were in rooms and we practiced escaping, evading and engaging. I crawled out the window in the downstairs history wing during the simulation. We practiced and did the whole thing. You run through different scenarios. They have a fake gun that they shoot. We also have review training videos we watch at the beginning of every year,” Gebhard said.
Green believes that what South High is doing right now is keeping us safe.
“Overall for the school being safe, there are a lot of methods being utilized to keep the school safe. I feel good working here because of the methods that are being used and the people who are behind it and knowing that it’s not just a person but its a group of people working together to constantly look out for the safety of the staff and the students,” Green said.
