School Safety Revisited

It seems as though the year 1999 marked a turning point of sorts for schools all across the country. While the massacre at Colorado’s Columbine High School will likely always remain as the most remembered event of that horrible year, shootings also took place inside schools in Georgia, New Mexico and Oklahoma.

In the 7 years that have passed since those terrible events, schools all over the country have gone through extraordinary measures to prevent similar tragedies from occurring. From locked entrances to security cameras, lockdown drills to safety seminars hosted by law enforcement professionals, school administrators have taken extraordinary steps to help ensure the safety of the students in their daily charge.

An Alarming Trend

Unfortunately, however, these steps don’t appear to have been adequate. According to one source, there have been 25 nonfatal shootings - seven of them fatal - in the two months since the current school year began on August 1. There have been three fatal shootings in the last week alone. Given this alarming trend, new questions about the safety of our schools are beginning to surface. In addition, President Bush has recently proposed the convocation of a school violence conference in the hope that law enforcement and education experts can find some answers.

A Necessary Process

One of the best ways to prevent a tragedy of the magnitude of Columbine is according to school security expert Ken Trump is to make it “a process, not an event”. A perfect example of this is seen in the aftermath of the fatal shooting that recently took place at Colorado’s Platte Canyon High School. Although the students, faculty and staff routinely practiced evacuation drills, including scenarios that included a gunman, they were nonetheless unprepared for the announcement that there was a “code white” emergency – the signal for an armed intruder.

Stories such as these underscore the need for continued vigilance on the part of each and every school administrator and faculty member. No longer is it simply enough to have a plan in place, in order for the plan to be effective, everyone – faculty, staff, and students – must know how to perfectly execute it as well.

Turning to the Professionals

Trump’s company, National School Safety and Security Services, is one company that has been helping schools assess and when necessary improve their security practices. Another valuable resources is the National School Safety Center, an organization established in 1984 by a Presidential directive whose mission is to serve “as an advocate for safe, secure and peaceful schools worldwide and as a catalyst for the prevention of school crime and violence.”

A Community Effort

Obviously, implanting a full scale security program is a process that takes a great deal of time and planning. This doesn’t mean, however, that there aren’t steps that can be taken in the interim. One of the easiest – and most effective – ways to keep intruders out of schools is to keep each an every entrance locked at all times. While this may seem highly impractical, when viewed in light of the human cost of failing to do so, the inconvenience amounts to little more than a nuisance. The easiest way to manage this is to install a security camera and buzzer so that visitors who are recognized by the staff can be admitted to the building. Barring this, schools can consider having a staff member or parent volunteer stationed at the entrance to screen visitors.

Schools can also consider implementing a policy that prevents any visitor from entering classrooms while school is in session unless specifically permitted by the principal or other member of the administration. Again, this will likely require the use of additional resources to ensure everyone who enters the building remains outside the restricted areas.

It is also very important to create a sense of awareness among each and every student. While care must be taken to ensure a proper balance between educating and scaring them, students should be encouraged to report anything they observe to be out of the ordinary. This could be the presence of a stranger in or around the school yard or someone they don’t recognize roaming the halls. For their part, teachers and staff members need to take these reports seriously so that the students feel empowered and comfortable enough to continue making them.

A New Era

Unfortunately, it doesn’t appear as though our schools will ever return to the carefree, sheltered places they once were. By working together, however, we can do much to make them as safe for our children as we possibly can.

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