On the morning of April 20, 1999, two high school seniors entered Columbine high school and murdered 12 students and one teacher. The nation watched their TVs, as young high school students ran out of a school with their hands above their heads. Many people felt their hearts break for the students who no longer felt safe in their own schools and watched as security protocols for schools changed practically overnight.

One of the most shocking things about the shooting were the many warning signs before the day of the attack. Both boys had their run-ins with crime, even to the point of being sent to a Juvenile Rehabilitation Center. Eric Harris even received a criminal conviction after one classmate found that he had a kill list online. But all these signs were largely ignored, no one paid attention to these suicidal and angry students, telling them all they needed to do was work harder and become organized.

Schools have since put in a lot of effort into making sure that all their students feel as though they have someone who they can talk to and someone who cares. Teachers are required by law to report suspicious behavior to their school counselors and parents. Even though these efforts are not always effective, they are certainly better than ignoring the problem at hand.

Another step many school districts and states have taken is to increase security resources. At Coronado High School there are four security guards and security cameras in every hallway to ensure student safety. Coronado’s head security guard, Antoine Lacy, talked about the extensive measures they go through during a drill. “Lockdowns I go around and make sure all the outer doors are locked. If there are people outside, I shoo them inside classrooms. We communicate on radios to make sure all the buildings are clear. One person goes out the back to make sure the back is clear, usually an armed security guard. We clear the parking lot and make sure no one is there and tell them to leave. It takes about ten minutes to clear the buildings. You have a security guard in each building, two in the tech building.” Through this tragedy, security has learned how to make the students safe in a place that is supposed to be a safe haven for young people. Another security guard from a New York public school said that now students must put their backpacks through metal detectors and present their driver’s license. Welcome to schools in the 21 centuries.

That day in Littleton, Colorado many people felt their hearts break as they watched students running out of Columbine with their hands above their heads. For those students, the harsh reality of passing high school was not their grades or extracurriculars, it was whether they would survive. Now, school security and administration have put in endless hours trying to protect students from this harsh reality of not living to graduate.