Welcome to the April School Safety Spotlight! For the month of April, I decided to detour a little bit. The LWSD drills of the month deal with evacuations (aka: leaving the building), which will be practiced via a fire drill, as well as a radio test for administrators. However, the month of April contains year marks for both the Columbine and Virgina Tech school shootings. The term “anniversary” is avoided for variety of reasons, including the celebratory connotation of the word. In addition to the more neutral tone, using “year marks” helps to highlight that school violence is an ongoing and persistent problem that we are still battling. Thus, for the month of April, I want to provide a little information and several resources that deal with gun violence prevention overall.
Appropriately storing your firearms – which means guns are fully unloaded and locked up, with ammunition stored separately – is critical for preventing homicides, suicides, and accidental deaths and serious injuries among children and teenagers. King County’s Lock It Up program is a terrific resource that you all should review. I encourage you to take a look at their training slides and to read more about how safe storage is a harm reduction strategy (note: this also includes some great messaging to talk to kids about guns). There is a flyer to share (also available at the bottom of this website in other languages).
In addition, there are discounts for some safe storage options (i.e., gun safes, lock boxes) at several retailers, as well as a code to use when you shop online (see Seattle Children’s for more info). Also, all gun safes and lock boxes are tax exempt in the state of Washington per RCW 82.08.832. Finally, I want to share a lesser-known resource – a Washington State interactive map – that was created to help people in crisis identify safe storage options that are temporary and voluntary. Please share all information and resources with loved ones. Remember, safe storage saves lives.