0317 – Safety and Security Trends in our Schools

School shootings are a complex and challenging problem to solve. The reactionary position that LE, school administrators and students find themselves in seems to be a difficult scenario in which to succeed, however, the stakes are high. We value our children tremendously as we should and a the same time we often leave them in precariously exposed positions without the tools to deal with serious problems that can occur. Some news this month would seem to indicate that we are correcting course to a degree and working to regain ground in the battle to keep our children safe. Today we will talk about some of the issues that surround school violence.

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Safety and Security in our Schools

Education in the US is clearly devided into two eras when it comes to safety and security:
Pre Columbine
Post Columbine

• Post Columbine we saw changes in how both Emergency Services and school officials responded to potential mass murders
  • LE
  • Schools

Neither has really addressed the issue:

• LE is reactive in that they respond AFTER the killling has begun
• Educational stakeholders refuse to believe that they have any ability to effect change on the situation once it has begun

My Background

• Spent a dozen or so years as a public school educator.
• Columbine took place in April, 1999 in my second year as a teacher.
• I left public teaching in part because I was frustrated with the lack of action to protect our students
• I am invested in safety and security in our schools for three very important reasons

Recent News

November 11, 2012  http://www.12newsnow.com/story/20065318/school-shooting-protocol-shifts-from-lockdown-only

November 26, 2012  http://www.buckeyefirearms.org/node/8639

Post Columbine Protocol was basically to lock the school down and make each room to appear vacant. This policy results in a situation where a murderer has the ability to move through the school without resistance other than locked doors and dark rooms until LE arrived to address the situation.

Greg Crane – A.L.I.C.E. – Alert, Lockdown, Inform, Counter, Evacuate adds several components to the current standard procedure. Most interesting to me is “Counter.”

Counter – Speak or act in opposition to.

Finally a step in the right direction.

This is not the first time we have seen resitance suggested in School Lockdown Plans

Why This is a good idea:

1. LE can only react once bad things start to happen
2. Historically the cowards end it when they encounter determined resistance
3. In the end, we are responsible for our own safety

Where the True Problem Lies

1. Not in the violence itself School Shooting List
2. Not in a flaw in ALICE
3. No I’m not going to talk about the 2A
4. The problem is how we teach our children to deal with violence.

I left Public Schools because I couldn’t stand it

• Blanket phrases like:
  • We don’t hit people
  • We can’s solve our problems with our fists
  • The pen is mightier than the sword
• All teach our children that violence is wrong

I was at the grocery store and had an interaction with an employee related to violence that was very eye opening.

Just like anything else we have to make sure that we deal with the problem not just the symptom.

I am all for ALICE.

Our childeren and our adults need to know and understand that violence is the solution to some problems

The fact that ALICE has to exist tells us what the problem is.

Since when do we need permission from local LE, school officials, or some acronym to defend our liberty or our lives. The C has always been there, we have simply forgotten the option was there…

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