What School Districts Can Do Now To Protect Our Children
In light of the recent Sandy Hook shootings, the general populous is being stirred into a frenzy by gun abolition groups to ban military-style black sporting rifles, clips that hold over 10 rounds, and a number of handguns that don’t pass their muster. While the gun abolitionists may be stating that they are operating from a place of compassion and empathy for the innocents that are the brunt of mentally-deprived individuals’ violent, yet cowardly, acts, they are blaming the tool, not the person or the target of opportunity. This causes these Citizens to be misguided in their solutions, ergo, the above-stated ban proposals.
If the issues are looked at for what they are, targets of opportunity by mentally-deprived individuals, we can come to very logical and immediate countermeasures that will protect all children while they are attending to their studies. Here are some of the basic, logical steps that school districts can take TODAY to move towards schools that are all but impervious to attacks like Sandy Hook.
Change the Scenario
The would-be assassin isn’t stupid. They attack innocents where they are most vulnerable — schools — where federal law has set aside “Gun Free Zones” in an attempt to eradicate the consideration that “if guns aren’t at schools, they can’t be used to hurt people”. What they are forgetting is that a) criminals don’t care about laws like this, except to exploit them, and b) that if guns aren’t at schools, they can’t be used to PROTECT people either.
Section A states “It shall be unlawful for any individual knowingly to possess a firearm that has moved in or that otherwise affects interstate or foreign commerce at a place that the individual knows, or has reasonable cause to believe, is a school zone.” But, the law gives room for the school district to waive that restriction in four different ways:
- if the individual possessing the firearm is licensed to do so by the State
- by an individual for use in a program approved by a school
- by an individual in accordance with a contract
- by a law enforcement officer
This gives the school district plenty of room to have licensed, trained personnel associated with the school on the premises during all school hours. While having formal law enforcement may be the first choice, this may not be fiscally or logistically possible. Teachers, administrators, maintenance personnel, and at higher learning centers, even students, can be licensed to carry and trained to deal with a violent situation. Veterans, or even parents, by their nature, could be tapped to help provide a volunteer protection service; all we would have to do is ask and, as a Veteran myself, I would go out on a limb and state that they would be more than willing to help. These course of action, by itself, changes the vulnerability of the scenario positively in the hands of those that, previously, would be an easy target and left without the CHOICE of protection.
Limit Access
Schools are notoriously easy to get in to. Just open the front door, or any other access door for that matter, and you can walk through the halls at will. Yes, the policy states that you have to check in with the front office but there are no safeguards in place that make entry screening a requirement for access. This one is fairly simple: Lock the doors so that outside access is prohibited unless a person has a key, access code or some other positive control action from school officials. This could be as simple as a buzzer/camera system to a dedicated security person in the school to biometric scanner access, much like is on a good many laptops these days. Retrofitting to the more sophisticated process would require funding. Sen. Feinstein’s gun abolition bill is expected to cost in the neighborhood of $500 million so, apparently, there’s money out there to be spent. In the short term, the trained volunteer protection outlined in the previous section could be authorized to screen would-be access until more convenient means is funded and implemented.
Be Prepared
The age-old Boy Scout motto, Be Prepared, has a very important role when applied to school security. Everyone that has attended school in the last couple decades has been through the proverbial fire drill. This process needs to be modified to include a new kind of drill that prepares all school attendees and administration to specific actions associated with this kind of emergency. This would entail a different alarm sound, announcements over the intercoms, as well as a communication system that would include radios assigned to all personnel that are a point-of-contact, such as teachers, principals or protection personnel. This wouldn’t have to be a large financial outlay as the communication end could be simple GRMS walkie-talkies, such as the type that are available at many retail outlets. Going to the higher-end of the spectrum, the principal’s office could be made into a “panic room” command center, equipped with camera monitors, communications controls and even power switches for different access areas. Any confusion or out-of-the-ordinary actions that can be thrown at the attacker will take their attention off causing harm and dealing with the situation at hand. This distraction will cause them to lose the upper hand of surprise and intimidation with the trained protection personnel and, thus, their attack will be thwarted sooner than if these tactics were not implemented.
Create a Cooperative Team Effort
None of this will come to fruition without the leadership of the school district getting the ball rolling but it will take parents, local law enforcement, the community, parents and even students to work together to make this happen. By doing this, we are teaching our children to be proactive by leading by example, as well as giving them a stake in their own protection.
If we follow these basic tactics and begin attacking the problem where it lies — a soft target for mentally-deprived violence — this plan will provide countermeasures that protect our children in the short-term, with financially-phased improvements that will harden these targets even more. These positive improvements will empower would-be victims with solid, easy-to-complete steps that focus on the final goal of eradicating these heinous events and can be applied to any other soft targets that are identified in the future.
Positive actions leading to positive results. THAT is the American Way!
