When high school kids get angry these days, they no longer vent to their friends or even arrange an afterschool fight at the flagpole. They bring a gun to school and shoot other kids.

Last year, my main concern every time I stepped into my public high school was whether I would make it to first period on time. I didn't worry about my personal safety, didn't consider what an upset student might do.

Students are losing this peace of mind about their security with each person who brings a gun to school. Their learning is threatened by disgruntled students. They not only have to worry about their safety, but are also required to act as detectives.

Many schools' main protection against school shootings is their expectation that students will report their friends if they make threats or seem unbalanced. The students safety is their own responsibility. They have to make decisions knowing that if they don't rat on someone and are wrong, people could die. If they do rat out someone and turn out to be wrong, the student's life at school could be ruined as a result of the accusation.

Schools need to take a proactive stance against school violence. Students shouldn't be the only line of defense against school violence. Schools plans should not count on their students, and students should not be held responsible by administrators or the news media when shootings occur.

These shootings continue to be especially disturbing because they do not occur in a violence-ridden area. They happen in the suburbs, schools that were expected to be safe. They happen in the type of schools that the majority of Notre Dame students attended. They aren't isolated to public schools; one of this year's shootings was at a small Catholic high school. The kids are coming from stable family structures in which they weren't abused or neglected. Something just went horribly wrong and they decided to shoot their classmates.

As school shootings continue to get closer to home, all people should become involved in trying to end school violence. This issue needs to come to the national arena, and studies need to be done. Changes need to be made so that never again will students' days be shattered by the sounds of guns and never again will a school official have to call a parent to inform them that their child has been seriously injured or killed while sitting in class, backpack at their feet, daydreaming like all high schoolers do.

After each school shooting, pictures of distraught parents and teens are run by the media. School officials vow a full investigation, and psychologists try to determine why the student would do that. Other schools become extremely security-concious for a few months, taking seriously all threats or intended threats. Eventually the memory of tragedies fades away and schools return to normality. Then another school shooting happens and the cycle begins again.

Where will this cycle end? It won't unless people take action, permanent action that outlasts the memory of a tragedy.

• Violence Hurts