A Safe Havens analyst found this story of a successful school lockdown in 1900 while conducting research for a school security assessment for a Connecticut school district.

A couple of weeks ago, I was running school crisis scenarios as part of a large school security assessment project for faith-based schools. A teacher who was participating in the scenarios told us that he had been taken hostage in his school in the early 1990’s. After we finished with the scenario evaluation, our team had an extended conversation with the teacher. We found this to be extremely helpful, learning important details of the case. For example, the teacher had responded to the classroom because he was part of the school’s crisis team. Not being aware that a student was holding a room full of students hostage, he walked into the room. Once he realized that the student was holding a handgun, he moved towards the student in an attempt to disarm him. He told us that the student quickly produced a second handgun and pointed both firearms at him. Realizing that he had made a serious mistake, the teacher began talking to the student and was able to get him to release all of the students in the classroom. With the assistance of an administrator, the teacher was able to persuade the student to put down both guns and surrender. A Safe Havens analyst found this story of a successful school lockdown in 1900 while conducting research for a school security assessment for a Connecticut school district.

The 24 hour news cycle and school safety

Prior to the active shooter event at Pearl High School in Mississippi, school active shooter incidents rarely garnered extensive national media coverage. Media coverage relating to school shootings is now extensive. However, we regularly learn of major school safety incidents that have previously gone unnoticed outside the communities where they occur. As but one example, last year David Woodward from the Indiana School Safety Specialist’s Academy forwarded a copy of a newspaper article about a 1960 shooting rampage in his state. In this case, an elementary school principal opened fire in his school with a shotgun. Even though two teachers were killed, we have never before seen this incident listed in any report on school shootings. Had a School Safety Specialist from Indiana not tripped up on the event and passed it on to Director Woodward, few people outside the community would be aware of this tragedy.

Myths can kill

There are now many myths about school safety that result in ineffective strategies, dangerous experimental approaches and other negative outcomes. These often reduce the actual level of safety in schools. The dangerous claim that school lockdowns are ineffective combined with the significant number of injuries and pending litigation relating to one popular options-based active shooter training program demonstrate this concern. Since myths can and do result in injuries and deaths, educators and public safety officials should work diligently to address the range of school violence issues, not just those that garner the most media coverage.

While school security experts typically recommend that fencing for schools permit open viewing to reduce crime, there are exceptions. Because this Florida school serves a number of autistic children and has a swamp located next to this side of the school, the installation of screening materials to conceal the water is both logical and prudent as many autistic children are attracted to bodies of water.

School security measures can be situational

Many people desire absolute answers when it comes to school safety. There have been several attempts to create a national school security codes similar to that of the national fire code. Each of these efforts have failed for a variety of reasons. The lack of some types of data for violence prevention in contrast to the fire science field is one reason for this. In addition, the many types and methodologies for violence are perhaps more complex than fire is.   For example, when you install entry point metal detection at a school, an aggressor may simply shoot students on a school bus or as they wait in line to be screened. This means that the implementation of this approach can require additional solutions to prevent simply moving the attack site. When we install fire sprinklers in a school, the fire will not move to the parking lot to avoid the suppression system. Reviewing some of the standardized school security requirements that have been implemented at the state level reveals that these problems are a challenge even at that scale.

Setting standards can sometimes increase danger

Another reason it can be so difficult to establish set requirements for school security is that a textbook answer for most schools could increase danger in a school with a unique situation. As one example, while the research demonstrates that natural surveillance (improving the ability for people to see and be seen) reduces the opportunity for crime and the fear of crime, there are cases where improving natural surveillance can increase risk.   Some of our independent schools educate children of famous people who could be at risk for abduction or even murder. We have clients who have individual students assigned with armed bodyguards all day, every day by their parents. The abduction for ransom of the daughter of a prominent pasta company owner from a Florida independent school many years ago is an excellent example of this very real risk. A kidnapper posing as the father’s bodyguard signed the girl out from an independent school using a fake letter from the child’s father. She was buried in a box in a swamp and held for ransom. For this reason, we advise some of our independent school clients with this type of risk to use visual barriers on fencing for playgrounds contrary to the normal practice of maintaining open sightlines.

Sometimes it simply all depends on the details

As one professor in my graduate business school program told us many years ago, the correct answer is sometimes IAD – it all depends. When a student asked for a clear cut answer to a specific management issue, the professor explained that the correct answer would depend on specific variables. He was not dodging the question but instead cautioning us to take care not to create absolute answers when it would be less effective to do so. School and public safety officials should heed this advice.

This unlocked boiler room is the type of location where students sometimes engage in sexual activities. Space management is an important concept for school officials to use to prevent both consensual sexual encounters and sexual assaults.

Sex in K12 Schools

Kevin Wren is a school safety professional in South Carolina who has attended several of my presentations. He recently sent me a link to a news story involving two New York City school teachers who were allegedly caught having sex in a classroom. Both teachers have been reinstated and will continue to teach in the same school because no students were present in the classroom when the alleged incident took place.

Kevin recalled me asking audiences the important rhetorical question “when is it acceptable for people to have sex in K12 schools?”  This case is an excellent example of why I sometimes have this discussion with audiences when I keynote conferences.

Of Course not!

Obviously the correct answer is that it is never acceptable for people to engage in sex in K12 schools. My follow up question to the audience is “but do people have sex in K12 schools?” The answer to that question is that this occurs far more often than the average person realizes. Whether the sexual acts involve a sexual assault or molestation, consensual acts between students, consensual acts between a student and an employee or as in this recent case, and allegation of consensual sex between adults, sex on K12 campuses are a serious problem.

A Significant and Recurring Problem in Schools

Over the years, there have been too many examples of these types of problems to count. I am currently working as an expert witness on two such cases and have just been asked to review a third case involving an allegation of this type for a law firm that is attempting to determine if they should litigate school officials or not. I have seen many troubling cases of this type covered in the national news including one incident where someone videotaped a school principal having sex with a teacher, posted it on the web, and sent it to school board members. I declined a case where a district was being litigated in federal court which involved seven students having sex with a special needs child for more than one hour. I had been asked to conduct a security assessment for the district in their attempt to address the event. In this particular case, I was approached by both defense and plaintiff’s counsel but I advised them both that I felt there would be a conflict of interest.

Preventing Sexual Assault and Sexual Misconduct in Schools

This recent school sex scandal demonstrates the need for thoughtfully developed and clearly communicated policies for students and staff that are designed to minimize the opportunities for incidents involving sexual assault and sexual misconduct to occur. The policies can include structured student supervision, requiring employees to keep unattended spaces locked, prohibiting school staff from covering classroom and office windows (with exceptions for emergency situations such as lockdown), and guidance on staff and students being alone in private areas.

While no measures are foolproof, implementing, communicating and enforcing appropriate practices can help to prevent these types of incidents as well as to make it easier to respond to them more effectively should an incident occur.