School safety, security, and violence prevention resource

I thought that I had seen – or heard, rather – everything when it comes to school violence. What happened in Montrose High School recently just shocked the socks out of me, though. This is what has been reported in the GJSentinel:

Samantha Squirrell had just walked through the front doors of Montrose High School with her older brother, Sheldon.

Her friends, sisters Mallory and Mae Haulman, were a few feet in front of them in the school’s crowded lobby. Students were shuffling in about 20 minutes before the first class bell rang Tuesday morning.

Squirrell looked down at the ground and when the 15-year-old sophomore looked back up, “I just saw Mallory’s throat bleeding everywhere. Mae was screaming, ‘Call 911!’ ”

Squirrell said several staff members surrounded Haulman, then ushered students into classrooms when the school was locked down.

Police and school administrators said a 14-year-old student at an area alternative school walked in through those same front doors about 8 a.m., grabbed Mallory Haulman from behind and slit her throat with a straight-edged weapon before running out of the building. Officers arrested the boy minutes later about three blocks from the school.

Mallory Haulman, 17, was taken to Montrose Memorial Hospital, where she underwent several hours of surgery. She was listed in serious condition Tuesday afternoon. Later in the evening, during a community meeting that drew more than 300 people to the school’s gymnasium, Montrose High Principal Jill Myers told parents, students and faculty members that she had spoken with Haulman’s mother, Alicia.

Before anything else, it is a good thing that Mallory is in a stable condition. You can just imagine how bad the situation would be if the injuries she sustained were fatal. Still, that does not really make the situation any better. The fact is that school violence has taken on a new face. In the past year, it was basically shootings that we were worried about. Now we have to worry about our kids being slashed in the throat while in school?

I cannot even begin to describe how distraught I am about what has happened. Some of you may think that I am overreacting – I do not even know the people involved. However, I am looking at the whole picture here. If kids can walk into a school and do something like this, what kind of security measures do they have? And what kind of society do we have now that kids are doing this?

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