was surfing the net and found this tidbit......... so what do you guuys think of these suggestions........?
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Schools are just as new at figuring out ways to prevent school shootings as anyone else. School shootings are relatively new phenomena, and the space between the first few led some to believe that perhaps they wouldn't stay with us as an everyday consideration. This has, through time, proven not to be the case. The time for hoping that school shootings are a passing phase is over, and school districts have found themselves in the position of formulating contingency and prevention plans.
Even when a plan has been finished, schools are realizing that, with each new incident, revisions have to be made to stay a step ahead of the direction this crime genre is taking.
Parental participation is helpful to a comprehensive, updated school safety plan. The more eyes that look at a school and the more minds that think about it will result in more ideas that end up being kept in the most recent safety plan.
Regardless of whether or not your district is on its first or its fifteenth draft of the safety plan, some precautions remain basic to a workable policy.
One basic technique for dealing with school shootings is having drills. You wouldn't think of skipping fire drills for your district because by now they are proven to help keep calm and to get students out in a safe, efficient manner. Drills for school shootings, if done regularly enough, will result in the same effect-a calmer, safer student body.
The problem with school shooting drills is that when one student has them memorized, they all do. That means that a school shooter will know the drill, too. That's why school shooting drills should be done in a more unpredictable manner. If a school shooter knows that all or part of the school will evacuate to the playground, for instance, then he or she will know where to set up a vantage point at. Instead, develop a plan in which only the teachers will know, ultimately, where they will lead students in the event that an actual evacuation is called. Make sure that your teachers are trained to know when it is safe to evacuate, and when it is safer to lock down the classroom.
The unpredictability of a school shooter's behavior means that there are no easy, standardized drills for every school. That's why it is important for staff and parents to get together at each school and decide if, and what kinds of drills are most appropriate for their particular school.
While all major airports, many courthouses and the majority of police stations agree that metal detectors are an important part of their security system, only a tiny percentage of schools have them. When deciding on using their tight budgets for books or a metal detector, especially when school shootings are still statistically rare, it's not difficult to see why most schools opt for the books. If enough parents and staff are interested, however, it doesn't need to be an either/or proposition. A special fundraiser just for a metal detector can be started-and the concern a school shows by starting one can reflect positively on their image by showing the school is giving thought to the issue of student safety. There's also the fact that metal detectors work-both on the spot and as a deterrent.
Even something as simple as the exit signs in a school can make a difference. Of course, by law, they all have them. But are the exit signs for the doors that lead outside any different than those that lead to enclosed courtyards? Are the signs illuminated so that they can be seen if there is smoke in a hallway? Different states have different regulations regarding exit signs. Make sure the students at your school can differentiate between the different types of exits, through different types of signs, and through education to make sure they've got that information. Exit signs halfway down the wall may be helpful, too, in cases where visibility might be an issue (such as a drop ceiling in a hallway or a bank of lockers blocking one above the door, or in the case of visibly-impaired students). Make sure the sign portion is also shatterproof, and that the power source or bulbs can't be tampered with.
With regards to windows, most people understand why schools with more than one story have windows that are basically exit-proof. However, with regards to safety during school shootings, another consideration has been added to the mix. In the event of a school shooting, a window is possibly the best possible escape route.
Given the fact that the safety features of permanently closed (or mostly closed) windows are at odds with the need for them to be exits, many schools will opt to keep the ones they have. Instead, it might be possible, however, to reach a compromise-a window that can open only with a key that must be on each teacher's, or staff member's, key ring at all times. That way, the windows can remain in the closed position unless there is a reason, such as escape from a shooter, to open them all the way. In the case of upper stories, retractable ladders can be stored in cabinets under the windows, ready to be unrolled or unfolded, should the need arise.
Either way, there are options that will allow schools to have the best of both worlds with regards to their windows.
If a school shooting is underway and a teacher decides, based on the proximity of the shooter, that the classroom should be locked down, the quality of the classroom door or doors can be the weakest or strongest link in the safety equation. Most school doors are heavy metal fire doors, but are they bulletproof? Can the locks be shot off? Can they be strengthened in order to improve their ability to stop a bullet? Are there windows in the door? If so, are they so large that they can be broken and the door subsequently unlocked? Or are they so small that students in that room could get out of eyesight of a shooter peering through them?
Schools could take an effective cue from business by installing roll-down steel doors just inside the doorframe of each existing door. Then, if a shooting were to occur, each teacher, with a key, could roll down and lock each door, thus barring both entry and visibility into the classroom. The key is an added safety feature to ensure that students themselves couldn't roll the doors up or down to create barriers or hostage situations.
These doors would reinforce a policy that many schools already have of locking out the shooter. They could also be used to close off other parts of the school to an approaching shooter, thus giving students a few more precious seconds to run for safety.
One impediment to safety at many schools is the type of door hardware that exists on doors. The doors fitted with long bars that are pushed on to operate the door can be chained shut with a simple bike chain, preventing evacuation. Another model, with a flat bar, is much harder to tamper with.
Other schools are installing cameras to monitor the students and facilities. Cameras enable those watching to have early warning to call the police. They also deter those who don't want to be filmed from committing an infraction on school grounds. Cameras can also enable the police to see inside the school, should an attack be underway.
Locker searches are controversial in some schools, but are a matter of policy at many others. Locker doors retrofitted with a Plexiglas-backed steel mesh can provide both security for students and way to see into lockers on a more regular basis.
The way a school landscapes can also be helpful when considering things like cover and concealment in the event of a school shooting. Decorative mounds, large rocks, trees with large trunks, low block walls and partitions can all provide a place to hide for a student trying to escape a building under siege.
Schools can also increase safety by enlisting the help of the students. What about the school would they improve? What things do they see that the adults haven't? By starting up an anonymous tip program that is truly anonymous (not a drop box in a busy area that everyone will be watching), such as email or a phone line, a school will open up the lines of communication with students wanting to report a variety of behaviors, from drug activity to theft to school violence. No matter how hard a faculty tries, nobody can ever know the inside workings of the student body as a member of the student body. Use this to your advantage by giving students ways to participate in the safety of their school. They'll also find it empowering.
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Schools are just as new at figuring out ways to prevent school shootings as anyone else. School shootings are relatively new phenomena, and the space between the first few led some to believe that perhaps they wouldn't stay with us as an everyday consideration. This has, through time, proven not to be the case. The time for hoping that school shootings are a passing phase is over, and school districts have found themselves in the position of formulating contingency and prevention plans.
Even when a plan has been finished, schools are realizing that, with each new incident, revisions have to be made to stay a step ahead of the direction this crime genre is taking.
Parental participation is helpful to a comprehensive, updated school safety plan. The more eyes that look at a school and the more minds that think about it will result in more ideas that end up being kept in the most recent safety plan.
Regardless of whether or not your district is on its first or its fifteenth draft of the safety plan, some precautions remain basic to a workable policy.
One basic technique for dealing with school shootings is having drills. You wouldn't think of skipping fire drills for your district because by now they are proven to help keep calm and to get students out in a safe, efficient manner. Drills for school shootings, if done regularly enough, will result in the same effect-a calmer, safer student body.
The problem with school shooting drills is that when one student has them memorized, they all do. That means that a school shooter will know the drill, too. That's why school shooting drills should be done in a more unpredictable manner. If a school shooter knows that all or part of the school will evacuate to the playground, for instance, then he or she will know where to set up a vantage point at. Instead, develop a plan in which only the teachers will know, ultimately, where they will lead students in the event that an actual evacuation is called. Make sure that your teachers are trained to know when it is safe to evacuate, and when it is safer to lock down the classroom.
The unpredictability of a school shooter's behavior means that there are no easy, standardized drills for every school. That's why it is important for staff and parents to get together at each school and decide if, and what kinds of drills are most appropriate for their particular school.
While all major airports, many courthouses and the majority of police stations agree that metal detectors are an important part of their security system, only a tiny percentage of schools have them. When deciding on using their tight budgets for books or a metal detector, especially when school shootings are still statistically rare, it's not difficult to see why most schools opt for the books. If enough parents and staff are interested, however, it doesn't need to be an either/or proposition. A special fundraiser just for a metal detector can be started-and the concern a school shows by starting one can reflect positively on their image by showing the school is giving thought to the issue of student safety. There's also the fact that metal detectors work-both on the spot and as a deterrent.
Even something as simple as the exit signs in a school can make a difference. Of course, by law, they all have them. But are the exit signs for the doors that lead outside any different than those that lead to enclosed courtyards? Are the signs illuminated so that they can be seen if there is smoke in a hallway? Different states have different regulations regarding exit signs. Make sure the students at your school can differentiate between the different types of exits, through different types of signs, and through education to make sure they've got that information. Exit signs halfway down the wall may be helpful, too, in cases where visibility might be an issue (such as a drop ceiling in a hallway or a bank of lockers blocking one above the door, or in the case of visibly-impaired students). Make sure the sign portion is also shatterproof, and that the power source or bulbs can't be tampered with.
With regards to windows, most people understand why schools with more than one story have windows that are basically exit-proof. However, with regards to safety during school shootings, another consideration has been added to the mix. In the event of a school shooting, a window is possibly the best possible escape route.
Given the fact that the safety features of permanently closed (or mostly closed) windows are at odds with the need for them to be exits, many schools will opt to keep the ones they have. Instead, it might be possible, however, to reach a compromise-a window that can open only with a key that must be on each teacher's, or staff member's, key ring at all times. That way, the windows can remain in the closed position unless there is a reason, such as escape from a shooter, to open them all the way. In the case of upper stories, retractable ladders can be stored in cabinets under the windows, ready to be unrolled or unfolded, should the need arise.
Either way, there are options that will allow schools to have the best of both worlds with regards to their windows.
If a school shooting is underway and a teacher decides, based on the proximity of the shooter, that the classroom should be locked down, the quality of the classroom door or doors can be the weakest or strongest link in the safety equation. Most school doors are heavy metal fire doors, but are they bulletproof? Can the locks be shot off? Can they be strengthened in order to improve their ability to stop a bullet? Are there windows in the door? If so, are they so large that they can be broken and the door subsequently unlocked? Or are they so small that students in that room could get out of eyesight of a shooter peering through them?
Schools could take an effective cue from business by installing roll-down steel doors just inside the doorframe of each existing door. Then, if a shooting were to occur, each teacher, with a key, could roll down and lock each door, thus barring both entry and visibility into the classroom. The key is an added safety feature to ensure that students themselves couldn't roll the doors up or down to create barriers or hostage situations.
These doors would reinforce a policy that many schools already have of locking out the shooter. They could also be used to close off other parts of the school to an approaching shooter, thus giving students a few more precious seconds to run for safety.
One impediment to safety at many schools is the type of door hardware that exists on doors. The doors fitted with long bars that are pushed on to operate the door can be chained shut with a simple bike chain, preventing evacuation. Another model, with a flat bar, is much harder to tamper with.
Other schools are installing cameras to monitor the students and facilities. Cameras enable those watching to have early warning to call the police. They also deter those who don't want to be filmed from committing an infraction on school grounds. Cameras can also enable the police to see inside the school, should an attack be underway.
Locker searches are controversial in some schools, but are a matter of policy at many others. Locker doors retrofitted with a Plexiglas-backed steel mesh can provide both security for students and way to see into lockers on a more regular basis.
The way a school landscapes can also be helpful when considering things like cover and concealment in the event of a school shooting. Decorative mounds, large rocks, trees with large trunks, low block walls and partitions can all provide a place to hide for a student trying to escape a building under siege.
Schools can also increase safety by enlisting the help of the students. What about the school would they improve? What things do they see that the adults haven't? By starting up an anonymous tip program that is truly anonymous (not a drop box in a busy area that everyone will be watching), such as email or a phone line, a school will open up the lines of communication with students wanting to report a variety of behaviors, from drug activity to theft to school violence. No matter how hard a faculty tries, nobody can ever know the inside workings of the student body as a member of the student body. Use this to your advantage by giving students ways to participate in the safety of their school. They'll also find it empowering.
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Oh Crap! If we did it this way, we'd have to hold people personally responsible for their actions?!? Oh No! What's this world coming to? 
