Listen up, you morons: Keeping Schools Safe Edition
Okay, since you morons utterly refuse to do the ONE, CHEAP, SIMPLE (no, not easy, but yes, simple) thing that is UTTERLY GUARANTEED to keep schools safe from being mass slaughter grounds, let's move on to viable alternatives.
No, not "School Resource Officers." (Really?? Oh, just watch the 6/5 "Last Week Tonight". John Oliver covers it well. :sigh: )
No, not "hardened doors" or, dear heaven... "man traps" or "ballistic blankets"... Seriously, morons??
Consult some real experts.
The United States Marines have an entire operational group that trains and installs security for big public buildings that transact lots of business daily, with lots of people coming and going, in an environment that has to project both a positive image that reflects stated American values, and safety for those who work (and live) there. They have been providing Embassy security for the U.S. State Department for more than 70 years in all kinds of places and conditions.
Some years back I listened to a retired Marine whose career was spent in the Embassy Security Group, and this is what I remember from that presentation:
First, it is more effective to prevent incidents than to respond to incidents.
Second, of the three elements of security, two - environmental awareness and situational awareness, are preventive. Only incident response doctrine/training is based on response, and even that depends on the other two.
This was some time back and I am probably not remembering it too precisely. But I'll give the best synopsis of the three elements I can:
"Environmental Awareness" is the eyes-on, constant attention to what is actually occurring, everywhere that matters. Who is approaching a perimeter. Entrances and exits. Who is present, where in the building, and where they are moving. This is provided by both in-place assets (guards in place at strategic points, managing entrances, etc.) and oversight assets (cameras under constant monitoring in secure areas with access to communications.)
"Situational Awareness" is the analysis of threat levels, the things that contribute to risk escalation, operational security, and events that may dictate temporary changes in operational doctrine, the escalation or de-escalation of standard risk management procedures and or/changes in incident response doctrine/training.
"Incident Response Doctrine/Training" is the set of protocols for responding to various types of incidents and includes how an incident is identified/determined, how communications proceed, and what actions are taken, with various decision trees for contingencies as they materialize. This is not just for the security staff, but for the regular building occupants/staff, who must know what various codes mean and what they must do in those situations. And it includes the "secondary" response actors - local police and responder teams, adjacent US military forces, etc.
What do these things mean in terms of schools today?
First, every school should have a complete security assessment by professionals experienced and trained in designing and implementing this kind of security. This isn't "door hardening" so much as camera installation and positioning, the designation of various perimeters and zones and planning for constant eyes-on attention when the building is in use as well as off-hours monitoring and opening review and assessments (you'd want to know, for instance, if someone approached within a perimeter and put something in a waste bin during the night. Maybe it's just someone trying to save money on home waste disposal costs, but maybe it's something sinister, too.)
Second, every school district should have a security management division that hires, trains, and supervises well-prepared and well-compensated staff both for in-place and oversight security monitoring. These are not nose-picker jobs or retiree volunteers. Any trained security or LEO knows that this job is enormously challenging in terms of maintaining alertness, awareness, etc. for the many hours when nothing seems to be happening at all, and instant escalation of that alertness when anything trips a 'potential incident' awareness. Short shifts to maintain alertness. Regular reassignment between working locations to keep awareness 'fresh'. This is not cheap. Certainly not as cheap as regulating access to firearms. But it is critical, if you're not going to remove firearms from the mix.
Third, every school in the district needs to have a Situational Awareness team that is intimately familiar with the staff, students, parents, regular visitors, and community around that school, empowered to do regular assessment of potential problems. And, given the nature of how mass shooting incidents happen, this requires people with "people knowledge". Who got expelled? Which kids are bullying what other kids? Which parents showed up at a PTA meeting all bent about some teacher? This is the case for restoring a robust school counseling staff in every school and having them be an integral part of the team.
And finally, every school district and every school needs to establish and constantly update and upgrade their incident response doctrines and training using the data gathered from their environmental and situational awareness personnel, local responder teams, etc. And undertake regular training, not just for active shooter situations, but for a whole array of potential incidents and even regular events that pose potential security problems at schools. A shared awareness of a particular class having lots of bullying incidents, or which kids and their families seem to need extra help and understanding, will go a long way to preventing mass slaughter.
And this needs to be part of every school budget in every school district in America. Yes, the cost will be astronomical. But dear morons, y'all are saying, you're willing to do anything, ANYTHING (except that obvious, cheap, simple thing) to "keep our children safe."
So do it, then.
disgustedly,
Bright
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