On May 27, 2024, in downtown Lansing, a Mass Shooting occurred late that night. The shooting ended up killing one (age 17) and leaving 6 others injured (ages 16-20). There were two victims in critical condition, a 20-year-old and a 16-year-old males. Other people involved were two 16-year-olds and two 18-year-olds. These four all suffered non-threatening life injuries.
With this mass shooting and the victims being teenagers, it hits close to home for Grand Ledge High School.
School Safety is a priority and with the increasing number of mass shootings schools have to take extra precautions ar Grand Ledge. ]There’s now a School Safety Committee which prioritizes students safety and makes changes around the school to help.
One of the Members of the Safety Committee shares the new things the committee has brought too GLHS. Angel Landis talks on some new additions from last year
“Last year, we created videos and made sure that all classrooms had a red bag located in a very visible area in each classroom. The red bag contains trauma supplies that could be used in the event of an emergency in the classroom or surrounding areas. The videos are short clips of how to use each item in the bags.”
Not only have new supplies been brought too school but the committee has also been working on things this year
“This year, we started trainings after school for staff and students with how to use the trauma supplies in the red bags. We are also working toward finding ways to make school not only feel more safe, but be safer.” Landis said
Another aspect of Grand Ledge High School that helps with school safety is a club called SMAC which stands for Students Making A Change. This club was made to help students impact the school. The club started after the local MSU shooting and the goal is to make school feel like a safe and welcoming place. Board Member of SMAC, Andy Pertler, talks on the recent events in lansing.
“ I feel like the target audience, especially with a lot of like shootings, is schools, or teenagers, and I feel like that just goes from a lot of people not talking about public safety as much.” and
“So just like keeping yourself safe, as well as like, if you know of anyone that is in to like, like that hasn’t gone when they’re not supposed to, like just making sure that you’re keeping everyone safe telling trusted adults, anything like that.” said Pertler
After such unfortunate events it’s important too reflect back on the surrounding environment.
