Brian Baran
reporter
School shootings have occurred all across America, but for many TCC students, the most recent one hit close to home and made them question their safety.
Four people were injured during a shooting Oct. 6 at Mansfield Timberview High School. Student Timothy Simpkins was charged with three counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.
Many TCC students, especially from South and SE campuses, are former Mansfield ISD students, so they felt the impact of the shooting on a personal level.
“Naturally, it’s just really sad to find out that somebody wished to shoot up a school,” SE student Grace Lindsay said. “The story was that you know, the kid was bullied, and being someone who got bullied herself, it’s like, what did someone do, what mentality did you go through just to get so dark, so deep in that to want to shoot up a building, let alone your own school? It’s honestly really sad and really negative.”
This sentiment was shared among other students, such as fellow SE student Mary Moncibaiz-Trujillo, who went to Timberview.
“When I first found out, I was in disbelief and shocked, then I was instantly worried for the staff and the students,” Moncibaiz-Trujillo said.
Students said they questioned whether TCC would be prepared for an incident similar to what happened at Timberview.
“No, and that’s just because when you look at it, you don’t know who’s getting bullied and you don’t really know who’s being forced into silence, and that’s the problem,” Lindsay said. “You don’t know what goes on behind closed doors. You don’t know what goes on in someone’s mentality.”
SE student Nora Ellershaw agreed, saying she believes this is the same for most schools, not just TCC.
“This question is hard, as any place is not well equipped for a school shooting or something similar,” Ellershaw said. “I would say TCC is not, as a gun or anything similar could be passed off as something else.”
Lindsay agreed, saying no school from daycare up to Harvard can be completely secure.
“Because they’re not prepared for a school shooting, they’re not prepared for a bomb threat in this instance because someone is so depressed and so messed up in the head enough to go this deep down in their mind and go ‘Yeah, this is OK.’ So, no, I personally feel that no matter what, nobody is prepared.”
When asked what would make them more secure, each student said higher-level security would most likely be necessary.
“TCC could add metal detectors to the entrances and implement for the police staff to patrol the halls more often than they do,” Moncibaiz-Trujillo said.
Ellershaw suggested making it less evident to students they are being scanned for security.
“I would say that TCC might need some kind of detector that can sense things but not be so obvious to the students they are being scanned,” Ellershaw said.
Lindsay, on the other hand, suggested that security staff be properly trained in noticing signs of mental health issues.
“They need to be taught by a legitimate professional who has a degree in therapy or profiling, so they can look at someone’s body language and go, ‘I know what’s up,’” Lindsay said.
