When the Army Public School tragedy unfolded on the December 16 last year, us students were in the middle of our midterm examinations.

As news and pictures of the incident began circulating on the internet and television, schools were shutdown across the country.

Panic blanketed our student body; phones ringing in schools went unanswered and rumor mills churned out all sorts fearful prospects.

At that time, the uncertainty and the abrupt shutdown of educational institutions made one fact glaringly obvious: we were not prepared to handle emergencies of this magnitude.

As students, we were sickened by the tragedy, but more than that, we were furious.

Everyone had the same questions on their minds: “Why weren’t we prepared,” and, “Had it been us, what could we have done?”

Also read: Schools’ security

It was in the midst of this frenzied anger that my batch mate, Ayza Ishaq came forward with an idea: the Student Security Initiative (SSI). In the coming weeks, this idea would grow and become more popular, because it was based on one simple, very obvious principle that can no longer be ignored:

In order to win a war, we must first learn how to fight

 

We weren’t going to arm ourselves with Kalashnikovs, but with preparation.

The idea was simple: we had to make ourselves less vulnerable.

For that, we set ourselves daunting goals: efficient emergency response from student deputies, transfer of authentic information to the student body and more efficient emergency drill preparation.

Within days, the initiative received a phenomenal response. Volunteer positions for security deputies filled up rapidly and we progressed full steam ahead.