School Security: Preventing School Violence

It’s an unfortunate and troubling fact that many children have more to be concerned with at school these days than simply whether or not they’ll pass their latest test. While the last thing they should have to worry about is their own safety at school, violence on school grounds is an all-too-common occurrence that can happen in many forms. Most recently as seen in the tragic shooting in Omaha, Nebraska just a few weeks ago.

Consider, for example, the following Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) statistics taken from a sample of high school students in 2009:

• 11.1% reported being in a physical fight on school property in the past 12 months
• 5% did not go to school at least once in the previous 30 days because they felt unsafe either at school or on their way to or from school
• 5.6% reported carrying a weapon on school property on one or more days in the previous 30 days
• 7.7% reported being threatened or injured with a weapon on school property at least once in the previous 12 months

From 1992-2006, 116 students were killed – that’s an average of 16.5 student homicides each year. What’s perhaps even more surprising is that these rates actually represent a decrease in student homicides! Even though the numbers can seem shocking, it’s important to keep in mind that only 1% of all homicides and suicides among school-age youth occur on school grounds, on the way to or from school, or on the way to or from school-sponsored events. While 1% seems like a small percentage, we must remember, however, that any preventable death due to school violence is unacceptable, and that schools, parents, students and their communities should work together to prevent such unnecessary tragedies.

Another interesting fact this study highlights is that from 1992-1999, perpetrators of school-associated homicides were likely to have exhibited some form of suicidal behavior before the event, and preceded their deadly actions by some signal, such as threats, notes, or journal entries. All these “warning signs” reinforce the importance of providing quality school violence safety and prevention training for all school employees, so that they are better able to identify possible signifiers of violence and intervene before it’s too late.

SafeSchools, the nation’s leading provider of safety and compliance solutions for K-12 schools, offers a suite of expert-authored courses that can be used to properly train staff to prevent and respond to violence in your district:

• Arson Awareness and Prevention
• Bullying: Recognition & Response
• Crime Prevention through Physical Security
• Crisis Response and Recovery
• Emergency Operations Planning
• Family Reunification
• Incident Command Systems
• Managing the Aftermath of Tragedy
• Pandemic Flu
• School Intruders
• Tactical Site Surveys
• Visual Weapons Screening
• Youth Suicide: Awareness & Prevention

SafeSchools’ school violence prevention courses are written by the nation’s leading K-12 safety experts including, Michael Dorn, Sonayia Shepherd and Paul Timm:

Michael Dorn is one of the most credentialed, experienced, highly respected and most trusted school safety experts in the nation. Selected as the world’s top school safety expert by Jane’s after an international search, Michael has authored and co-authored twenty books on school safety and has three more books due for publication. Michael has also authored hundreds of articles as well as columns for School Planning and Management, Campus Safety, Today’s School, School Transportation News and College Planning and Management magazines.

A graduate of the prestigious three month FBI National Academy, Dartmouth College’s Advanced Russian Language Immersion Program and Bachelor’s and Master’s programs at Mercer University, Michael also received fourteen days of intensive antiterrorism and counterterrorism training from the Israel Police, Israel Defense Forces and the Mossad through the Georgia International Law Enforcement Exchange Program at Georgia State University.

Sonayia N. Shepherd (or Sony for short) has authored and co-authored sixteen books on school safety and emergency management, including four books for Jane’s, the highly regarded British defense, intelligence and school safety publisher. She currently serves as an incident response team member for an international government terrorism response unit and has deployed across the United States as well as to numerous countries including Switzerland, Thailand, Haiti, Puerto Rico, Angola, South Africa, and India. With an extensive background including serving as a full time school safety practitioner in the nation’s largest state government school safety center, Sony has worked directly with hundreds of public and private schools across the nation and has provided crisis response and recovery support following many school crisis situations and major disasters around the world.

Graduating from high school at the age of 16, Sony has earned two graduate degrees in Clinical Psychology and Human Ecology from Cameron University in Oklahoma and earned her undergraduate degrees in Political Science and Spanish from Phillips University. She recently received her Ph.D. in Public Administration & Emergency Response Policy.

Paul Timm is a board-certified Physical Security Professional through ASIS International. He was in the first group ever to test for and obtain this credential. Paul is a trained and experienced School Crisis Assistance Team (SCAT) member employing the methodology of the National Organization for Victims Assistance (NOVA). He currently serves on the Illinois Terrorism Talk Force (ITTF) and was an ASIS International Regional Certification Award winner in '04 and '05. Paul is certified in Vulnerability Assessment Methodology (VAM-CF) through Sandia National Laboratories.

In addition to School Violence Safety training, SafeSchools also offers more than 175 high quality safety courses that are 100% school-focused. So administrators can rest assured that their staff is receiving the superior educational training they need to keep themselves, students and the surrounding community safe.

By: D McMullin

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D. McMullin of SafeSchools is the author of this article. In addition to School Violence Safety Training, SafeSchools also offers more than 175 high quality safety courses that are 100% school-focused. So administrators can rest assured that their staff is receiving the superior educational training they need to keep themselves, students and the surrounding community safe.