A model to reduce school shootings

Key points:

For three consecutive years, the United States has had a record number of school shootings, resulting in a repetitive cycle of grievance, anger and frustration. The United States had 344 school shootings in 2023, surpassing the record number of 308 school shootings in 2022, the K-12 School Shooting Database reported.

On January 5, 2024, last month, a mass shooting occurred at Perry High School in Iowa, leaving an 11-year-old student and the school's principal dead and six other people injured. The shooter, a student, died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound at the scene.

As media reports came in, it took 7 minutes for law enforcement to respond to the shooting at Perry High School. When an active shooter is on campus, “seconds count.” That is why all schools must have a permanent School Resource Officer assigned to them.

It has to stop. Our students and teachers deserve better and need to have a safe and secure school environment. Parents should not have to worry about their children at school.

There are many questions arising from the Iowa shooting and other past shootings, including whether or not it could have been prevented.

Have lessons been learned from past school shootings? Yes, 10 of the deadliest mass killings in the United States were carried out by attackers who exhibited some type of troubling behavior in the months or years before their attacks, according to an analysis by washington Mail.

Perpetrators of mass shootings had made prior threats, been violent, alarmed family members or signaled their intentions online, and in two attacks, there had been prior criminal charges or allegations of abuse, the Post reported.

“Very rarely do we see someone commit a mass shooting without warning signs,” Lisa Geller, senior adviser at the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Violence Solutions, told the Post.

Is there technology that can help collect and connect red flags or warning signs before a known at-risk person escalates into a shooting? Yes, the First Preventers platform helps schools collect, channel, share, assess and connect the dots before disruptive incidents by leveraging people, systems and automation to eliminate dangerous gaps and information silos so they and their resources (Threat Assessment Teams and Threat Assessment and Management Teams) can more effectively help people at risk and prevent disruptive incidents, generating world-changing results: saving lives, reputations and bottom lines.

In 2023, record levels of shootings, suicides, overdoses, hate crimes and other incidents are warning signs that new technology is needed to equip schools, universities, workplaces and communities to help people known to be at risk and prevent let them fall into oblivion. .

With increasing numbers of people at risk, we know that until we seriously embrace a collaborative, proactive pre-incident intervention and prevention-first approach, we will continue to see large numbers of deaths and injuries associated with school shootings and mass shootings. .

What we do know is that previous shooters have investigated past shootings that have made national news, especially the Columbine school massacre.

We also know from research and reports from the National Threat Assessment Center that most shooters shared messages or images on social media or told someone of their intentions.

The key to safer schools is to collect scattered warning signs exhibited by people at risk so that threat assessment teams can see the bigger picture and act accordingly to help people at risk before they end up taking their own lives. to innocent children and adults in schools and communities.

Through careful planning, it is possible for schools to develop a high-quality security crisis plan that meets campus needs while staying within budget. Work with a school safety expert, school administrators and their staff, and local emergency responders to complete a comprehensive risk assessment that includes an all-hazards approach for all of your schools and campuses.

Schools are easy targets and their campuses are unique and have their own individual challenges, i.e. size, age, location, design or type of construction and other factors.

A risk assessment pinpoints critical areas of vulnerability and will identify the school's security strengths as well as any security weaknesses. The entire process is designed to reduce incidents and try to anticipate emergencies that may occur on campus. Prevention assessment identifies gaps, silos, disconnections and blind spots that prevent school threat assessment teams from seeing the bigger picture and allow at-risk individuals to be overlooked as they move down a path to violence. .

No doubt any plan will include security technology, but no security implementation will protect a school; True protection comes from layers of safety protocols and ongoing intervention processes that focus on at-risk individuals before they escalate and they show up ready to execute their plan.

Implementing a closed campus policy is strongly recommended; This will exclude unwanted people. All entrance, exit and classroom doors must be locked throughout the day.

If it is necessary for students to arrive early before school begins, a staff member must identify and monitor a designated door.

School administrators must ensure they have a comprehensive safety and prevention plan. The plan should be a living document that is continually updated to address the challenges of a particular school and campus and to eliminate common blind spots that allow at-risk individuals to fall through the cracks.