School shootings can happen in wealthy neighborhoods and poor ones. However, the resources and decision-making of schools in how they plan to school shooting prevention isn’t always based on financial decisions. While some schools are taking action through fundraising drives, this isn’t a uniform decision across school districts. If you’ve tried to speak with school officials and were met with “budget concerns,” you may want to take matters into your own hands and hold fundraisers to obtain the necessary funds. In this article, we’ll take a look at how you can fundraise for security devices to save the lives of students and faculty.
Crowdfunding
Crowdfunding platforms, like GoFundMe , have been used to start grassroots movements and raise awareness for a myriad of social causes. School shootings are no different. By creating a crowdfunding effort, local citizens can contribute funds as well as those located around the country (and the world). This can boost the amounts received and reduce the amount of legwork and overheads required by traditional fundraisers.
There have been numerous crowdfunding efforts for victims, but this can be too-little too-late. In the wake of these tragedies, some parents who lost their children have used crowdfunding platforms to establish scholarships, like The Alex Schachter Scholarship Fund, which seeks to create public initiatives to boost security measures in schools nationwide.
Contact the Teacher’s Union
Teachers are as at-risk and vulnerable to an active shooter event as students are, so it makes sense that they should understand the importance of boosting school security measures. Unions can be a powerful force for negotiation. Teachers can leverage their status to strike or work with school boards if these school security measures aren’t met. Consider contacting teachers individually to raise the support, obtaining signatures for petitions can be a way to seed the minds of school faculty and emphasize the need to hold a fundraiser to protect students and teachers.
Organize through the PTA
Addressing concerns of school shootings in PTA meetings can lead to fundraising solutions. With parents and teachers clearly communicating, traditional fundraising efforts can be redirected towards school shooting safety measures. This also can help raise awareness in person, which can be a powerful force to motivate those who only think that school shootings only happen on the news.
Pooling Resources
Motivated groups of parents and guardians can fundraise their school security efforts by directly contributing their funds. While it isn’t an optimal solution, where schools should be obligated to take the initiative and utilize taxes towards paying for what should be mandatory safety standards, pooling the resources of parents may be the only step that concerned parents can take to force the hand of school administrators. After all, if budget concerns are raised, having the money available can circumvent the red tape and help take action immediately.
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Note that by taking these important matters into your own hands, you may experience backlash for those who say “it can’t happen here.” With the rate of school shootings escalating each year, what once was thought of as fear-mongering is now a necessity
Of course, it can be a taboo topic to directly fundraise on behalf of stopping violence, so traditional fundraisers (i.e. bake sales, candy bars, etc.) may want to say that the fundraiser is on behalf of school improvements. However, this may not be necessary considering the importance to boosting your children’s school safety measures.
Anatomy of an Active Shooter Event: Before