Should schools be hardened? Or softened?

On Board Online • April 2, 2018

By Pauline Liu
Special Correspondent

In the wake of deadly shootings in Parkland Fla., school districts are re-examining "target hardening," a police and military term for using architecture, technology and procedures to make it more difficult for an intruder to gain entry to a school building.

"We can always do more to harden our buildings," John Perrino, president of the Middletown school board told On Board. The district already has more than 700 surveillance cameras to help keep its 7,000 students safe. The school board is now looking into technology that can lockdown a school almost instantaneously with just the click of a "panic button."

Jack Grogan, the head of security for Albany City Schools, calls metal detectors "a must" in most schools, because many young people "believe that carrying guns is the thing to do."

At the same time, some experts are recommending softening schools by making them more tuned in to the emotional lives of all members of the school community. An interdisciplinary group at the Curry School of Education at the University of Virginia, for instance, recommends a "public health approach" that includes hiring more counselors, psychiatrists, psychologists and social workers, as well as "removal of legal barriers to sharing safety-related information among educational, mental health and law enforcement agencies in cases where a person has threatened violence" and "a national program to train and maintain school- and community-based threat assessment teams."

The group also calls for a national ban on both assault-style weapons and bump stocks, implementation of universal background checks and new laws to allow courts to authorize police to confiscate firearms when there is evidence the individual may be planning a violent act.

The statement ( https://curry.virginia.edu/prevent-gun-violence ) has been endorsed by 57 national organizations including the American Federation of Teachers, the National Association of School Psychologists, the National Association of Secondary School Principals, the National PTA and the Sandy Hook Promise.

Then there's the "walk up" message of Ryan Petty, the father of one of the students killed in the Feb. 14 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. "Walk up to the kid who sits alone at lunch and invite him to sit with your group; walk up to the kid who sits quietly in the corner of the room and sit next to her," he wrote on Twitter.

On the other hand, the Blue Mountain School District in Pennsylvania has placed buckets of rocks in classrooms and urged students to use them to stone any armed intruders.

In New York State, school boards are discussing options and taking action:

• In Warren County, the Hadley-Luzerne school board will spend up to $60,000 a year for retired police officers to be present in each of the district's two buildings and monitor school functions such as sports games and evening events. Under state law, retired police officers can make up to $30,000 a year and still receive their pensions.
• Saugerties, in Ulster County, plans to launch a smartphone app to anonymously report perceived threats against its schools.
• The legality of arming administrators with pepper spray or Tasers is being discussed in the Delaware Academy at Delhi.

School district officials told On Board that they feel compelled to do more to reassure parents, students and themselves, especially after the shooting in Parkland left 17 people dead and 17 more wounded.

But many are asking questions about what a "safe school" looks like and how best to spend limited resources.

Security technology does not come cheap, according to districts and security companies:

• A one-button lockdown system is about $10,000 per building.
• Metal detectors range from $2,000 to $10,000 per unit. (Higher priced ones emit less radiation.)

Does the prospect of installing energy-efficient windows in your home sound like a complicated endeavor? Try pricing hurricane- and bulletproof- windows; options and costs vary widely.

What costs nothing, though, is having a school culture in which students come forward with information. Experts cite an FBI profile that found school shooters always tell someone about their plan or give other signs of being troubled.

If students express reservations about being "a rat" for reporting potential threats to school authorities or law enforcement, just remind them about what's at stake, advises Southampton Police Chief Steven Skrynecki. "Help yourself stay alive" needs to be the message, he said. "This is about self-preservation."

The toughest nut of all, experts say: creating a culture of vigilance. The best security system in the world can be compromised by a student or teacher who props open a door on a hot day, according to Lee Mandel, chief executive of Intralogic Solutions, which provides security systems that enable police and fire officials to monitor school surveillance systems whenever there is an alert.

Mandel says technology is only part of the solution. He recommends a four-step plan: target hardening buildings, information-sharing, coordinating an emergency response and frequent training. He recently traveled to Florida to describe that strategy to parents in Parkland. "It was a very emotional experience," he said.

According to Mandel, Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School had multiple entrances. That enabled gunman Nikolas Cruz, 19, easy access into the school building. Most school buildings in New York have single-point entrances with buzzer systems or personnel serving as door monitors, he said.

Single-point entrances are a recommended security measure but are not required by law or regulation in New York State, according to Mandel.

Some ideas launched after the Sandy Hook massacre in 2012 are being revisited. Assemblyman Clifford W. Crouch (R-Bainbridge) has reintroduced a bill to authorize the use of electronic stun guns on school grounds and buses by trained "school safety agents," which could include administrators.

"I don't know if Tasers are the answer, but we need to provide an additional layer of nonlethal protection for our students," said Delaware Academy Superintendent Jason Thomson, who drafted the bill with Crouch. Thomson said he would be willing to carry a Taser if the law included a requirement for continual training.

He added that the use of pepper-spray projectiles ("pepper bullets") is also under consideration in his district. They are being used in many Texas school districts, where they are considered controversial.

Some districts have either used or plan to use a portion of the $2 billion Smart School Bond Act toward security improvements. The bond act was approved by New York voters in 2014.

In Suffolk County, Levittown parents are so eager to update school security cameras and purchase other forms of school security that they have proposed going online to start GoFundMe accounts, according to trustee Michael Pappas.

Federal grants are possible. Congress's 2018 omnibus budget bill includes $75 million for school safety grants through the U.S. Dept. of Justice and $1.1 billion for student support and academic enrichment grants (which the U.S. Dept. of Education says can be used for school mental health services or bullying and harassment training).

Districts are required to submit emergency response plans to the State Education Department and hold lockdown and evacuation drills annually.

Some parents have complained about active shooter drills in Albany County schools, but Sheriff Craig Apple says the priority is preparedness.

"They felt we traumatized their kids," Apple said. "But we were like, 'You know what? Unfortunately, this is the new norm.' So we wanted it to be as realistic as possible and experience all of the adrenaline and all of the emotion as possible."

New York will become the first state in the nation to require all schools to incorporate mental health education into their curricula by July 1. And Education Commissioner MaryEllen Elia has asked all districts to prepare to give their students annual school climate surveys, which give students the opportunity to rate how safe they feel in school.

The Board of Regents recently re-established the state Safe Schools Task Force, which was formed in 2013 after a massacre in Newtown, Conn. in 2012. According to Renee Rider, associate education commissioner, the panel came up with a list of more than 20 priorities after Newtown.

What was at the top of the list? Single-point entrances? Metal detectors? Surveillance cameras?

Nope. The group's top recommendation for school safety was having schools provide more social-emotional support to help students manage emotions and maintain positive relationships, according to Rider.