A School Shooting In North Suburbs

This is unit one of the Humanities course in Journalism. In this unit we learned about the news and how it can be portrayed differently. What is on social media is not always true and it can be perceived differently by different people. For our FE we went to the Congress Plaza Hotel to see a demonstration about an issue about a paying issue. For this AP, we had to make a story about a issue we thought was news worthy and interview someone on it to see their point of view. I interviewed my two friends and they gave me some good perspective and insight. Overall, this was an ok project and I hope you enjoy it!

In Glenview IL, Glenbrook South High School will be increasing security after a threat of a shooting. On Thursday, September 20, 2018 two students reported seeing a threat written on the back of a classroom desk around 2:30 pm that said: “There will be a school shooting Sept 25, 2018.” The principal of GBS sent an email to all parents and students Friday afternoon discussing the safety and security moving forward. Glenview parents and students were left with no answers on what to do. A current senior, Catherine Devine said, “You hear about other schools across the country dealing with this issue. I never thought South would be the one making the news headlines. It just shows that this could happen to any school, doesn’t matter how good the district is”.

Glenbrook South homecoming celebration was on Saturday September 22, 2018 . Katherine Feerick, another current senior at GBS said, “It was really scary. I expected there to be much more security than there was, but it was so last minute; there was no way to make it perfect”. The students were expected to arrive early at the dance so their belongings could be checked. The school continues to look for who may have wrote the message on the desk, but as of now they have nothing. Catherine says, “I do think they can narrow down to the person. There’s only a certain amount of kids that sit in that desk everyday”.

Since 2009 there have been over 288 school shootings in the United States. It is difficult to know the exact reasons why school shootings have become more prevalent within the last couple years, but many researchers say it is due to the increase in mental illness and easier access to guns. There have been many more school shooting threats as well. A Newsweek article, “50 School Violence Threats Are Being Made Everyday Since Parkland Massacre” says, “Schools in the U.S. are receiving an average of 50 threats of violence every day compared to 10 per day in 2017”.

Many teens who go to Glenbrook South or know who does thought a lot about their friends who attend the school. This threat seems to be a real shock to everyone in town. District 34 in Glenview is known to have a very good school system. A threat of this kind does not match the character of Glenview at all. This is a safe town with very little worry, so something as serious as this is leaving people with many questions on if it’s actually true.

Everyone in Glenview is hoping the threat will go away. Making it so public could potentially have scared away whoever planned it. It is nerve racking not knowing what is going to happen Tuesday, Sep 25th. Hopefully, the school’s security will keep people in school safe.