Securing Our Schools Without Creating Prisons
Chris Barrier Director of Law Enforcement Montgomery County School District Police Department This vs That
Objectives
Identify the impact of safety measures in place to lessen the occurrence of school violence- deterrance What can you as policy/decision makers do to help secure your schools Where are we today…
Since 1999 (post-columbine) there have been 400 school violence related deaths in the united states (122 by shootings)
Top 10 most deadly since Columbine 2007 Virginia Tech University, Blacksburg, Va. — 33 deaths 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School, Newtown, Conn. — 27 deaths 2018 Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, Parkland, Fla. — 17 deaths 2015 Umpqua Community College, Roseburg, Ore. — 10 deaths 2005 Red Lake Senior High School, Red Lake, Minn. — 7 deaths 2012 Oikos University, Oakland, Calif. — 7 deaths 2006 West Nickel Mines School, Bart Township, Penn. — 6 deaths 2008 Northern Illinois University, Dekalb, Ill. — 6 deaths 2014 Marysville Pilchuck High School, Marysville, Wa. — 5 deaths 2002 University of Arizona, Tucson, Ariz. — 4 deaths Where it all Started – Bath School Disaster
May 18, 1927 Bath Township Michigan Andrew Kehoe (farmer) Killed 45 and injured 58 Used 500 lbs of dynamite explosives
San Diego School Shooting
January 29, 1979 Brenda Spencer 16yr old female Killed a principal and custodian Injured a police officer Used .22 cal rifle she received for Christmas just a month prior “I Hate Mondays.” East Carter High School
January 18, 1993 Carter County Kentucky Gary Scott Pennington Shot and killed his English teacher and custodian before surrendering to authorities Reason: stated that he read in a book that juveniles could not be charged with adult crimes Result: Gary Scott Pennington is still in prison today for the murders he committed on that day. Handouts Significance? As the amount of Shooting incidents at schools increased, so did the amount of resources that became dedicated to understanding and preventing such incidents.
One common factor columbine, East Carter, and several other school shootings had in common was the warning signs. In the two mentioned here, both submitted work to the teachers indicating their desire to kill and nothing was done.
Check their notebooks, see what they are writing in them…every school age shooter had in their possession either drawings or letters in their books or notebooks that indicated their intentions to commit violent offenses
5:00 Get-up 6:00 meet at KS 7:00 go to Reb’s [Harris' nickname, short for 'Rebel']house 7:15 he leaves to fill propane I leave to fill gas 8:30 Meet back at his house 9:00 made d. bag set up car 9:30 practice gearups Chill 10:30 set up 4 things 11: go to school 11:10 set up duffel bags 11:12 wait near cars, gear up 11:16 HAHAHA Luke Woodham Pearl, Mississippi School Shooter Kip Kinkel Springfield , Oregon School Shooter Columbine
April 20, 1999 Jefferson Co, Colorado Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold Killed 12 students and a teacher, injured 21 others
These pictures were taken from videos the two made practicing for the columbine massacre
Note that in each photo the two are laughing and casual acting Where to go from here
knowing the difference between liability and necessity Post-Columbine
Introduction of the Lockdown Drill Introduction of the “Rapid Deployment- Active Shooter” Concept Millions spent on intervention programs/protocols Enter the Age of the Lockdown Prior to Columbine, there were no official, nationally adopted school safety measures to combat the threat of school shooters. There were, however, fire, gas, and severe weather drills already in place in most school districts nationwide. Adaptation: RUN-HIDE-FIGHT RHF is the newest model of training for teachers,staff, and students in response to school violence. Areas of Focus
Identify your deficiencies (School Safety Commission) Act on your findings (doing nothing, putting your head in the sand is never the best practice. And status quo is never a reason not to act) Just because it isn’t happening now doesn’t mean it wont again or that it wont happen to you. School Safety Commission
Form a committee: use stakeholders from all walks (students, staff, police, fire, community members, whoever Survey students – survey staff – survey community We focused on three key areas: Policy/Procedures Infrastructure Personnel (SRO’s, Added security, etc) Policy/Procedures: Our Findings Recommendations based on survey findings
The following are recommendations of the Commission for changes/additions to policies and procedures, Training for all personnel ( Certified and Classified) prior to the start of each school year in procedures for these type of events. The implementation of a Crisis Intervention Team and policy for use thereof. Increased and monitored presence of personnel in hallways/bathrooms and bus ramps. Four lockdown drills at each facility per year. Non-educational facilities will have procedures drafted and implemented for events within their facilities. Procedures for bus incidents and training for drivers in the event they are faced with such. A training block for substitute teachers which will be attended prior to teaching in the facility. A procedure for Administrators and Receptionists with a visible checklist for all emergency events. Revisions to the Visitor policy for increased awareness of who is in the buildings at all times which would require Administration Staff approval. Visible ID tags for all staff and visitors that uniform in type for each category. A confidential reporting procedure for students to utilize. Yearly review and critique of related policies. Reinforcement to all staff on the importance of these drills and the need to demonstrate this importance so that students take them seriously. Investigation of an Amnesty Program that allows students counseling rather than expulsion if they self-report in these events. Training for all employees hired during the school year on school safety procedures prior to assuming duties. In the event of any renovations to or the construction of new facilities, safety and security will be one of the parameters included in design and reviewed prior to construction by school personnel trained in such. Infrastructure: Our Findings
Bollards: Infrastructure: Our Findings
Keyless Entry Alarms on non priority entrances Cameras Window tinting Added door buzzer systems Hardened entry locations Personnel: Our Findings
Can you add SRO’s (post newtown we added 3 additional SRO’s) Kentucky currently has 271 SROs in 118 schools districts About 2/3 of KY counties are covered (we are working hard to improve this statistic) 271 SRO’s are tasked to cover 1220 public schools / 656,588 students Can you add Security Monitors (we have recently added a civilian parking lot monitor with a guard shack to see guests arrive) What is the fiscal impact What do these things look like for your district, community What We Know
The conversations must be had, not only in tough times The work must never cease in terms of improving school safety (put together a 5- 10 year plan Do something, don’t do nothing