Guns in Schools Pose Challenges to Educators, Students and Parents

April 7, 2012 by

The school safety topics that have dominated the media over the past ten to fifteen years have included:

  • School shootings
  • Schools and terrorism
  • Bullying
  • Suicides relating to bullying at school

There has been considerable distortion of each of these four topics in the media and the public and often educators frequently have a number of common misconceptions including:

  • The misconception that school shootings are a new phenomenon
  • The false notion that the school homicide rate has increased in the United States
  • The notion that school shootings are a uniquely American phenomenon
  • The mistaken impression that most school weapons assaults involve guns and active shooter situations
  • The false assumption that most school shootings are caused by bullying
  • The inaccurate perception that school bullying is the primary driving force in many student suicides
  • The idea that student suicides where bullying is a factor are a new phenomenon
  • The false notion that school violence is a public school issue that does not affect non-public schools

While there are many other common myths that are also frequently driven by the way the media covers events.  These misconceptions are also heavily influenced by people who are quoted by the media as experts and who present at conferences and seminars on school safety whose information is not grounded in careful research.  For example, there are numerous peer review articles, books and conference presentations that have included as factual assertions information about bullying, the “trench-coat mafia” and other inaccurate depictions relating to the Columbine High School shooting and bombing attack.  Careful research by author Dave Cullen and personal conversations I have had with dozens of students, parents, staff and public safety officials who were directly involved provide a very solid argument that a variety of urban legends from this terrible event have become accepted as fact by many people.

We urge educators, parents, students and community partners who want to make schools safer to remain grounded and to be pragmatic when they read or hear media accounts, books, articles and conference presentations.  There is much good information in all of these venues but unfortunately there is also a great deal of dangerous disinformation in the air on these important but emotionally charged topics. 

 

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Loaded Gun Found in Student Locker Causes Concern and Raises Questions About Metal Detectors in Schools

April 7, 2012 by

Three students were arrested in Ellensburg High School in Ellensburg, Washington after school officials acted promptly and notified police when they received information about the weapon from a student. As is common in this type of situation, some parents raised issues about how the weapon was brought undetected onto campus and wondered if metal detectors were needed.

I recently had discussions on this topic with a school superintendent from a small rural school district in a community with a violent crime rate far below the national average. I told him that I did not think that metal detection would be appropriate for his district unless they began recovering weapons from students on a regular basis or surveys of students indicated they were having an increase in weapons being carried to school. A recent independent safety, security, climate, culture and emergency preparedness assessment indicates an unusually low threat level from violent crime. The district rarely has a fight, bomb threat or even a parent cursing out a school employee. While other areas of improvement were identified, the types of weapons violence that metal detectors are most effective in addressing such as those that do not involve a targeted act of violence (commonly also referred to as an active shooter) do not appear to be a high risk.

While I have extensive first-hand experience implementing and evaluating a number of school district metal detection programs and have seen how effective they can be, most school districts are not prepared to properly fund entry point metal detection programs which often cost between $250,000 and $500,000 per school site per year to maintain an effective program that is unlikely to be defeated by a motivated student of average intelligence. I have never conducted an evaluation of an entry point metal detection program in a K-12 school district where I could not get a gun into a school (outside my own district).  Though we help our clients identify and correct these gaps, they do pose some significant challenges.

Random, surprise metal detection – first developed and implemented in the early 1990’s in the Bibb County Public School System in Macon, Georgia – is a more practical option for many non-public schools and public school districts that do have higher risk levels. This was one of the primary approaches that helped Bibb County Public Schools reduce student weapons violations by 90% over the course of ten years.

Problems with weapons in schools are of concern to schools in the U.S., Canada, Europe, Africa, Australia and even countries like China which typically execute anyone caught with a firearm or even ammunition. At the same time, the problem of weapons in schools is a fairly complex issue with no “silver bullet”. Strategies should be locally tailored and related to the risks, realities and resources in each community. Though many people who have never actually screened students with metal detectors and security X-ray equipment think that entry point metal detection is simply a matter of buying and installing equipment, a trip through airport security can help put things into context.

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Easter Egg Hunt Safety Concerns Have Significant Implications for School Safety

April 7, 2012 by

I am getting ready to fly home after working with two small public school districts in Maine this week.  We have been conducting school safety, security, climate, culture and emergency preparedness assessments for both districts and they are both very high quality school systems with excellent climate and culture.  The biggest advantage from a school safety standpoint is that the schools are in low-crime communities in Maine and have inherently lower risks for violence than many school districts.  The biggest challenge they both face is that they are both in low-crime communities in Maine so it is harder to get parents, students and staff to understand that there is some risk of violence in any school no matter how peaceful the community is.  This can make it difficult to obtain buy in from the community and from staff for appropriate security measures.

We have had much discussion about how to achieve this balance in both districts and my parting thoughts with one of the superintendents yesterday afternoon was that these challenges are much easier to address than a dysfunctional community where behaviors that should shock and alarm us can sometimes become commonplace.  For example, there are too many communities where a shootout between rival gang members is not an earth-shattering event.

When I turned on my laptop this morning, I noticed that one of the top stories in the national news was the cancellation of an Easter egg hunt in Central City Park in Macon, Georgia.  According to the Macon Telegraph, “event organizers in Macon, Ga., forced to cancel this week amid fears greedy moms and dads would become violent and trample on kids to grab eggs.”

The article went on to say that Joe Allen, who is a former Macon/Bibb County Fire Fighter, elected official and the founder of the Kids Yule Love which organizes the Central City Park egg hunt, said previous bad behavior meant this year’s event had become a liability because “parents caused a situation in which some children got hurt.”

I served as the Chief of School Police in Macon for ten years.  I know Joe Allen from my interaction with him as a county commissioner and from the many times that my school district police officers volunteered to help Joe and his staff package donated toys for children who lived in poverty.  I also know that tomorrow will be a very sad day for Joe.  Simply put, this must be breaking Joe’s heart.

Joe pointed out the need to cancel the event because as stated in the Macon Telegraph, “a woman was hurt and several kids were trampled on at previous hunts as aggressive parents tried to get more eggs for themselves or their children”.

The challenges my school district faced and still faces today are considerable in contrast to many school districts around the nation due to the unusually high levels of interpersonal violence in the community.  Societal norms there are a dramatically different from the two communities i worked with here in Maine this week.  As I get ready to fly home, I am enjoying a drive on the coast for a few hours and it will be nice to not have to worry too much about being car jacked.  While anything is possible, it is pretty unlikely that I will find myself staring down the barrel of a handgun in my travels today, and it I probably won’t get cursed out by a store clerk with a short temper.  And that is the way it is supposed to be in Maine and the way it should still be in Macon.

I’ll take on the challenge of educating and informing people who underestimate their actual level of risk over fixing a broken community any day.

“When people get hurt, they want some kind of compensation,” Allen added.

It is not the first Easter egg hunt canceled because of pushy parents in the past month.

Another free annual event held in Colorado Springs, Colo., was canceled in March because “aggressive” parents previously snatched too many eggs for their children.

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