On Valentine’s day of 2018 a shooter entered a Florida high school and killed 17 people. It was one of the deadliest shootings in U.S. history, and has gotten responses from almost everywhere, reigniting old debates such as gun control but also starting newer ones specifically about school shootings.

Highland has never had a shooting, but this tragedy has prompted response from both students and faculty, even causing the addition of lock blocks to many classroom doors.

This incident has now brought the number of shootings this year up to seven, more than one a week. Most first world countries haven’t had that many in the past decade. With the frequency that these shootings are occurring one can see why people are having such a strong response. Many students across the country have planned protests and walkouts. However, there are also many students that aren’t too worried about it.

“I can see how people could be scared, but for me there’s thousands of schools in America and so the chance it happens to mine is very unlikely,” said Joshua Craig, a Highland student, “It just doesn’t seem like it’s worth getting too scared over.”

Craig says that it comes down to how likely it is to happen, and it’s probably not going to happen at Highland. This unlikelihood can disconnect students from the event.

“I think that when an event doesn’t directly affect people they won’t care about it too much,” said Alex Farnum, a student at Highland, “It can become a kind of joke and people will stop taking it seriously.”

Only a very small fraction of schools have shootings so it is unlikely to happen at Highland, but at the same time the students of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School probably thought the same thing. There is a balance between not being prepared and having fear of a shooting consume everything else. The goal is to find that balance