While thousands worked their way into downtown Paris on the night of Nov. 13 to enjoy the City of Lights and Islamic State group (ISIS) militants prepared to kill as many of them as they could, junior Hunter Taylor served people ice cream at Dairy Queen and casually monitored his phone.

Witnesses described what happened next in Paris using words like “horrific,” “battlefield” and “carnage,” and Taylor, halfway across the world, monitored his CNN app and followed the bloody scene.

“I was really confused why ISIS had decided to scale such a violent attack on Paris,” Taylor said.

Like Taylor, many Americans are confused by ISIS and their motives and it raises the questions: Are SHS students afraid that attacks like those in Paris could happen in the U.S.?  Should they be?

Taylor says that he goes around his day to day life unafraid of an attack happening at SHS.

“I honestly feel perfectly safe going to school,” Taylor said.

However, not everyone is so sure. Sophomore Maya Peterson-Womack says that she is afraid of an attack here in the U.S.

“(The people of Paris) were having a normal night when all of the sudden they became victims to an attack,” Peterson-Womack said. “The same thing could happen here in Indianapolis.”

In a recent video posted by ISIS, militants were threatening to hit one of the most influential capitals in the world, Washington D.C.

“As we struck France and its stronghold Paris,” ISIS militants said, “we will strike America and its stronghold, Washington.”

SHS teacher Daniel Jones is unsure if ISIS can hit the U.S.

“I hope not, and I pray not, but I don’t have access to the same intelligence our leaders have.” Jones said. “I listen to a growing number of military analysts suggesting that unless America develops a strategy, we are exposing ourselves to a greater risk of attack.  I hope they’re wrong.  My focus as a voter, and as a citizen and as a father is to keep my family safe.”