NMSU Professor weighs in on school safety after Uvalde shooting
LAS CRUCES, New Mexico – An NMSU professor is weighing in on what needs to be done to stop school shootings.
Professor of Public Health, Jagdish Khubchandani, co-authored a paper on school safety in 2019.
In that paper, he researched firearm prevention in schools and what can be done to address the problem.
Khubchandani said preventing school shootings requires focus 365 days a year instead of just one week.
He said a multi-layer approach must be taken to solve the ongoing problem.
“We just react and react and then rinse and repeat and that’s why we are not being able to control these school shootings,” he said.
He said to approach the problem the entire community needs to get involved, not just one school at a time.
Khubchandani said the main issues include: easy access to weapons, mental health issues, bullying and parenting problems.
He said presently only one problem is addressed in the nation and not the rest. He said this is causing the recurring problem.
He relates the problem to disease prevention.
“We are stocking up on medication to prepare for heart disease instead of eating healthy and exercising or we are telling people that if you know how to wear an oxygen mask the plane won’t crash. Not preparing with an oxygen mask does not prevent plane crashes. That's a different technique.”
He said right now a bandaid is being used to address a substantial problem. But he said if we don't talk about the easy access to weapons we will not find a solution.
