Though the specific remedies recommended may vary, a number of people have suggested that school lockdowns are a failed concept that should be replaced.  The solutions offered typically center around options focused heavily on teaching people to attack an active shooter as a last resort.  There has been considerable controversy about these options with no real consensus among school safety experts, law enforcement officials, or educators regarding these approaches. 

We feel that while it is important to discuss, consider, and most importantly, to properly test these approaches, it is even more important that we carefully evaluate the idea that lockdown is a failed concept.  Much of the discussion surrounding this assertion has relied heavily on emotional language with statements that are questionable at best.  For example, we have seen repeated references to fatality rates for occupants of individual rooms which do not accurately reflect overall survival rates for the facilities where shootings have occurred.

We have also seen repeated references to lockdown failure that do not match the facts of shootings that are cited as examples of “proof” that lockdown does not work.  For example, we have seen repeated examples citing deaths in classrooms that did not have locks on the door, where staff had not been issued keys, where no lockdown training has been provided, or where no lockdown drills had been conducted.  Using such questionable rationale as “proof” that lockdown is a failed concept should raise red flags.  If you have a solid basis for an assertion, you should not have to stretch to make a convincing argument.

I have repeatedly seen references to the Red Lake Reservation school shooting as “proof” that lockdown is a failed concept.  Having worked that case as an expert witness, I can firmly state that this is not a factually accurate assessment.  Neither I nor the other school security expert who evaluated that case reached that conclusion.  In addition, there was never an allegation of this in any of the many civil actions filed in this case.  Another case that has been used as an example involves the hostage situation in Bailey, Colorado.  One popular active shooter program includes statements that indicate the hostages remained passive and compliant and indicates that the students should have attacked the hostage-taker.  In this case, one student was shot and killed when a police tactical team made a dynamic entry in an effort to neutralize the aggressor because it was apparent that he was going to shoot hostages.  Suggesting that the teacher and students should have attacked the hostage-taker in this example is in contrast to the approach recommended by leading experts in hostage situations.

Some who make these arguments also incorrectly and repeatedly put forth the notion that all traditional lockdown approaches teach people to passively await execution should an active shooter breach a locked classroom door.  Many school districts have been teaching staff to deviate from their emergency plans for more than two decades.  We have long referred to this concept as “Permission to Live.”  Contrary to common assertions, there are ways to prepare staff to adapt to extremely rare and unusual situations like an active shooter breaching a locked classroom door without focusing the majority of instructional time on specific techniques used to subdue an aggressor.  It is important to note that thus far, not one of the students or school employees who have successfully subdued an active shooter has been a graduate of any of the training programs which teach people to attack an active shooter.   We also feel it is critical to remind people that while some active shooters have been stopped by students and staff who attacked an active shooter, a number of school employees have been shot and killed unsuccessfully attempting to disarm people with guns in schools.

While we agree that new and improved concepts can and should be developed, we feel it is critical that theoretical high-stakes changes this controversial, should be carefully tested and validated before thousands of people are trained in their use.  If the concepts are valid, they will withstand independent evaluation.   If assertions used to sell such concepts are accurate, verifiable statements should be used to convince people who are reluctant to embrace and implement them.

Police Chief Rus Drew from the Columbus State University Police Department in Columbus, Georgia confirmed that a suspect had been shot and killed by Columbus State Police.  Chief Drew told reporters that the man was shot and killed after a foot chase.  According to reports, Columbus State Police responded to a report of a man with a gun and the man fled when officers arrived.  Initial reports indicate the man may have pointed a gun at officers before he was shot.  The Georgia Bureau of Investigation is conducting an independent investigation of the incident as is a common practice for officer involved shootings in Georgia.

Steve Satterly has been working on a study contrasting the relative risk of death for fatal school-related traffic incidents and other types of safety incidents in relation to deaths from active shooter incidents in K12 schools.  The results of the data analysis are clear, far more people are killed in school-related traffic incidents than in K12 active shooter situations. In fact, even when counting acts of violence in all categories, the fatality rate for school-related transportation incidents is still higher. 

While school and public safety officials in every community should take the risk of active shooter incidents seriously, they should not do so to the exclusion of more common causes of death in American schools.

Though media coverage may intently center on mass casualty acts of violence, it is important to expend time, energy, and resources to address all forms of risk rather than only those that receive intensive media coverage.   One opportunity to reduce the risk of serious injury and death for students involves a careful evaluation of pedestrian safety as students arrive and depart from school each day.  Take the time to consider this very real type of school safety hazard.

During a recent meeting with clients, Bill Miller who is one of our adjunct analysts, explained to district personnel how one large urban school district had reduced incidents, out of school suspensions, and expulsions by as much as 50% using GIS mapping surveys of students to identify hotspots combined with improved student supervision at those locations.  In this instance, the school district worked with local law enforcement to utilize a GIS mapping software the police department had to conduct GIS mapping studies of high schools.  Bill related that this process had provided an invaluable tool for building and district administrators.  This approach can dramatically improve school safety, security, climate and culture.

I had the great pleasure to work with an extremely talented group of school safety experts recently.  I had an opportunity to work with a nationally recognized Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED) expert Tod Schneider along with a group of architects and engineers from Parkhill, Smith and Cooper (PSC).   PSC staff included Allan Wolf, Ken Johnson and Miles Hardaway who is both an engineer and an architect.  PSC has more than 350 staff with about 60 of them assigned on school construction projects full-time.  Ken Johnson has worked on approximately 150 Department of Defense projects around the globe and has an extraordinary base of experience in school safety architecture. 

Our team was evaluating the school safety architecture design approaches being used by large school district as part of a larger school safety assessment project.  I also had the opportunity to work with engineer Jonathan Zeigner for a week to evaluate traffic flow in relation to school safety a few weeks before for the same project. 

I have been blessed to have had the opportunity to work with a number of really sharp architects and engineers on these types of projects and always learn new things.  I have found these professionals are very good at taking the time to explain building design concepts to me in terms I can understand.  I have also had the privilege to work with Tod on a number of occasions and have learned new things from him on each occasion.  A quiet, bright, and thoughtful man, Tod is always a true joy to work with on school safety architecture projects.

Visiting an array of prototype schools, reviewing blueprints, and talking with a number of exceptional building administrators, security personnel, school resource officers, and district facilities personnel, our team was able to identify a number of opportunities for improvement for a school district that is already well above average in the area of school safety architecture.  These types of projects are truly fascinating and it has always impressed me how a good architect or engineer can break down fairly complex design concepts so building administrators, school resource officers, and folks like me who lack their technical background so we can understand them.

I am really looking forward to my next opportunity to work with another team of architects and engineers in a different school system next month to evaluate school safety architecture once again.