This past week struck fear into my heart. I’m not referring to the terrifying poetry in-class essay I was forced to write in English class. Nor the possibility of Justin Bieber getting deported.

No, I’m talking about the five school shootings and lockdowns that U.S. campuses endured this past week.

Yes, five. In one week.

How is this much violence even possible? School was once a place to learn but next year when I go off to college learning won’t be the only thing on my mind.

Five.

In late November, Yale University received a shooter threat. After seeing a tweet about the threats I immediately called my older sister, Emmy, who is a sophomore at Yale. No answer. Called my mom. No answer. Facebook messaged her. Finally an answer. “Sarah, I am in Miami playing basketball. Don’t worry.” I had forgotten about her game. She was not on campus.

This incident ended up just being a threat that my sister brushed off, but to me it wasn’t “just a threat”. In my moment of panic, I didn’t know if my sister was okay. To me, how could that ever be considered “just a threat”?

Jan 20, this past Monday, a student was shot and injured at Widener University, a small college near Philadelphia.

Jan 21, this past Tuesday, a 21-year-old teaching assistant was killed by a fellow student on the campus of Purdue University in Indiana.

Jan 22, this past Wednesday, University of Oklahoma a reported shooting prompted a campus lockdown.

Jan 23, this past Thursday, Columbine High School, where in 1999 twelve students were shot and killed, was placed on lockdown for several hours because of threats.

Jan 24, this past Friday, South Carolina State University underwent a lockdown after a fatal shooting outside a dormitory which left one student dead.

Two out of these five incidents resulted in the deaths of young hopeful students.

Five out of these five incidents struck fear in every parent, student, and teacher.

Again I ask how could this much violence and potential violence be happening on school campuses. Is school still that safe environment it was once pictured as? Five incidents of violence in the span of a week proves not.

We have now become accustomed to hearing about these incidents of mass shootings and threats. With every incident, every school, every shooting, our society becomes more and more accustomed and less scared of school shootings. Many didn’t even know about the incidents of this week. We are becoming too desensitized.

Five in one week. If that doesn’t prove that there is an epidemic of gun violence in schools then I don’t know what ever will.

This is a problem. A massive problem. The first step to solving the problem is to admit that violence on U.S. campuses is a problem. But it isn’t just about this past week, it’s about future weeks.

The second is realizing that threats aren’t simply “just threats”. Threats of violence and shootings on school campuses are threats to the lives of students. To your peers. To my sister. A threat is never simply “just a threat”. Never undermine the seriousness of a threat. By doing so, society is further accepting the fact that threats can just be apart of normal school life.

The third is to consider the root of the problem. Both guns and our culture enable a person to wreak havoc on our U.S. campuses and in our schools. In order for this problem to be cured, I believe both our culture and law need to be changed. Obviously right now both aren’t helping solve the problem if five incidents of violence in schools in just one week is happening in front of our own eyes.