Bullet-proof boards: Cold Spring Police Chief Phil Jones, left, and
Rocori School District Superintendent Scott Staska pose with bulletproof
white boards in Cold Spring, Minnesota
Via Mail Online
Newtown anniversary: US schools keep trying wrong fixes to deter school shootings, experts say
Investigative Reporter, NBC News
It happened after Columbine, after Virginia Tech, and after Newtown, too. After every massacre in a school, Americans grasp at quick cures. Let's install metal detectors and give guns to teachers. Let's crack down on troublemakers, weeding out kids who fit the profile of a gunman. Let's buy bulletproof whiteboards for the students to scurry behind, or train kids to throw erasers or cans of soup at an attacker.
Researchers who study school shootings say the nation has done the wrong things, again and again, to prevent these rare but frightening events. And when more promising measures that address the real causes of school shootings are tried, the money has ridden a rollercoaster, rising a year after a major attack, then falling as memories fade. Only one out of five schools currently gets money for one of the Obama administration's signature programs to reduce school shootings.
"Many of the school safety and security measures deployed in response to school shootings have little research support," concluded a 2010 research article in Educational Researcher, "What Can Be Done About School Shootings?: A Review of the Evidence." The researchers called the widely adopted policies of zero-tolerance discipline and student profiling "unsound practices."
The problem, the researchers say, is that the nation hasn't paid attention to actual research about how school shootings unfold.
School shooters don't "snap" or "go crazy." They have serious grievances, and they plan their attacks. Many felt bullied, persecuted, or injured by others. They engaged in behaviors that caused other students and adults to think they needed help. They showed difficulty coping with significant losses or personal failures. They told others about their plan. And they had access to weapons.
Seeking
ways to offer better security after a school shooting in their
district, a Minnesota school system purchases portable bullet-proof
whiteboards for classrooms. KARE's Julie Nelson reports.
These
patterns point to a different set of preventive measures. Instead of
trying to put metal detectors at every door, which do little more than
ensure that the operator of the metal detector gets shot first, schools
need to do the more difficult work of creating schools where bullying is
not allowed, where grievances are dealt with quickly, where students
feel safe speaking up about a student they're concerned about, where
students feeling suicidal have someone to talk with. And at home, guns
need to be under lock and key.Paying attention to the evidence
A landmark study in 2002 by the U.S. Secret Service and the U.S. Department of Education, examining the facts of 37 school shootings, identified patterns contradicting the public perception of a loner who "just snapped":
- Incidents of targeted violence at school are rarely sudden, impulsive acts.
- Many attackers felt bullied, persecuted, or injured by others prior to the attack.
- Most attackers engaged in some behavior, prior to the incident, that caused concern or indicated a need for help.
- Most attackers were known to have difficulty coping with significant losses or personal failures. Many had considered or attempted suicide.
- Most attackers did not threaten their targets directly prior to advancing the attack.
- There is no accurate or useful "profile" of students who engage in targeted school violence. Some come from good homes, some from bad. Some have good grades, some bad.
- Most attackers had access to and had used weapons prior to the attack.
- Prior to most incidents, other people knew about the attacker’s idea or plan, and often other students were involved.
The researchers urged that schools take the following steps:
Aug. 14: A Boston area company that makes bulletproof backpacks says it has received requests from all over the country. WHDH's
- Assess the school’s emotional climate.
- Emphasize the importance of listening in schools.
- Adopt a strong, but caring stance against the code of silence.
- Prevent, and intervene in, cases of bullying.
- Involve all members of the school community in planning, creating and sustaining a school culture of safety and respect.
- Develop trusting relationships between each student and at least one adult at school.
- Create of mechanisms for developing and sustaining safe school climates.
Read More Here
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Teachers given bullet-proof WHITEBOARDS to use in defense during school shootings
By Daily Mail Reporter|
Impressed: Cold Spring Police Chief Phil Jones says it's the best development in school safety he's seen
The boards are designed by Maryland-based Hardwire LLC and they can hang on a wall and be used in class, just like any traditional marker board.
But when the lives of students are threatened, a teacher can use also use one of the boards as a shield.
Cold Spring Police Chief Phil Jones says it’s the best development in school safety he’s seen.
Not a day goes by when Jones doesn't think of Seth Bartell and Aaron Rollins, who were murdered in the 2003 school shooting, he said.
‘Two bright and brilliant students were killed with this bullet,’ the police chief told Fox9 in Minnesota as he showed the type of bullet that was used.
Each bullet-proof board weighs a few pounds and is a quarter of an inch thick.
.....
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