Risk Assessment Of School Shootings In The United States

American schools are facing a threat at levels that have never been seen before. Mass shootings occur everywhere in the United States and at alarming rates as compared to other developed countered in the world. However, this violence also plagues American schools, with children losing their lives to this violence every year and policy makers seem unable to stop them. This risk assessment presentation will discuss the statistics of school shootings, the vulnerability of schools as a target, as well as suggestions on how to prepare for such an event before it occurs. Additionally, the real-life example of the shooting at Columbine High School will be discussed and how it served as a catalyst to the growing fear of the American people, the implementation of school policies, and the rise in the interest of gun control.

Introduction

Since 1970, there have been about 1,300 school shootings in K-12 schools in the United States. The deadliest year being 2018 with 82 recorded incidences of school shootings that amounted to 51 deaths. After such an event, politicians, the media and the public are usually very quick to put the blame on violent video games, the current culture, bullying, medications, gun laws etc. While trying to determine the cause of these shootings as well as attempt to prevent them is, and should remain, a top priority, the threat of these shootings is very real and needs to be assessed as well as planned for in order to minimize the loss of life and stop the threat faster.

Short History of the Threat

As mentioned, there have been about 1,300 school shooting events in the last 5 decades or so with more than 350 of them occurring in the last 10 years alone amounting to over 190 deaths including students, staff, and others including the shooter. This does not even include gun violence that occurred on college campuses. While these numbers may be alarming, school shootings are not a new occurrence but do happen at an alarming rate. Even though school shootings only account for about 2% of the annual homicides for individuals aged 5-18, the issue attains overwhelming media coverage due, in part, to the shocking nature of the phenomenon. These threats come from all types of offenders such as students, teachers, parents, rival school students to complete strangers with no relation to the school at all. They occur for a number of reasons including dispute escalation, gangs, bullying, or even just indiscriminate shooting and are carried out by all types of weapons such as handguns, rifles, shotguns, and even bombs (CS Staff, 2019). This is what makes preventing the threat so difficult; the variables that exist.

Turning Point

Although not a new occurrence, the Columbine High School shooting receiving an almost unrivaled amount of media attention than any other school shooting before. In April of 1999, 2 students from the high school carried out a premeditated attack on their school that killed 12 students, 1 teacher, and injured 24 before taking their own lives. Their weapons used to carry out the attack ranged from pistols, to shotguns, and rifles. Homemade bombs were even brought to the scene by the boys but were unsuccessful in their use. The shooting led to a nation-wide panic regarding the safety of children at school and the public all but demanded answers and action from the schools and the government on the issue.

Post Columbine, schools began to implement zero-tolerance policies regarding violence, and drugs/weapons on school grounds and the punishments for even the smallest infractions are getting harsher. In one instance, a seven-year-old student in Illinois was suspended for bringing nail clippers to school, in another, an 18-year-old student in Atlanta was brought up on criminal charges for a story he had written in his journal about a school shooting (Cloud, 1999). The issue became and remains a hot topic for political debates and controversy. With about 300 million firearms in the United States, in the wake of tragedies such as these, Americans everywhere call for gun reform, stricter laws, and even more focus on mental health. It continues to be a topic that is very widely debated on and many people are sensitive on the issue, so, the remainder of the paper will focus on risk assessment and response rather than assuming that policy change, or gun control would solve the problem.

The Threat and Response

Schools are a relatively easy target for attack due to their general lack of security, abundance of targets, and “easy” prey in children. In contrast to popular opinion or even the saturation of media coverage, the actual threat of a school shooting is not that great. As mentioned previously in this paper, it only accounts for about 2% or homicides of school aged children. There are about 50.75 million school aged children in the United States and, on average, about 17 individuals were killed in a school shooting incident every year from 2013-2017. That means that every year there is about 1 in 2.99 million chance that any one child will be killed in a school shooting. Although the odds are very low, and 98% of children that are killed every year are by other means, the issue never fails to gain national attention and outcry. This may simply be because school shootings are an act of horrendous violence, that is targeted at an innocent population, at the place where they should have a sense of security.

Even though the threat is minimal, schools have recognized that the threat is real and can happen anywhere at any time. For this reason, many schools even regularly practice their first method of active shooter protocol; the “lockdown”. Some schools even conducting realistic simulations using actors and blank ammunition to help prepare students for such a threat (Evie, 2018). The problem with this response, however, is that shootings may occur when these methods cannot be executed, case in point, the Columbine incident. The students were not in their classrooms where lock down protocol is often practiced but rather in large common areas such as the library and the cafeteria making the “lockdown” an ineffective method in cases like this.

Reducing Risk

Along with the traditional “lockdown”, other methods of security need to be put into place to reduce the risk to human life if such an instance were to occur. Many have been suggested, however only a few will be discussed here. The first and easiest method of reducing risk is to improve the lockdown protocol. The traditional lockdown protocol involves only the safety of a locked door and a dark room with the assumption that the shooter will think the room is empty. This method is taking a lot of chances and it should easily be assumed that if the shooter is a student, which in many instances they are, they too have been through lockdown protocol and are aware the rooms may not be empty. It would be far to easy for them to shoot though the locked door to find a prime target in a large group of students huddled together. In such a situation, time is of the essence. The shooter is looking primarily for the easiest, largest number of targets in the least amount of time. Therefore, to improve the lockdown protocol, students should also be taught how to barricade their classrooms. The barricade can be anything from furniture to desks and chairs with the goal of restricting easy access to the room. 69% of school shootings end in less than 5 minutes, meaning it does not have to be the most effective barricade but effective enough to hold the shooter long enough that he/she moves on for time management purposes and ease of access, sparing those inside. Devices have even been made accessible to schools to assist with denying ease of access to a classroom by means of quickly deployed door stops and jams which can be especially helpful for elementary school teachers who’s students physically assist in barricading the doors with furniture and the like.

After a school shooting, many people are quick to call for armed guards at schools or resource officers tasked with not only acting as a deterrent, but also as a first responder to such an event. The problem is that one officer or even two may not be able to stop the threat from inflicting just as much damage. Additionally, it could take years for the school boards to approve and hire that many officers and funding may not even be available. For these reasons, the next step in risk reduction should be denying access to the building as a whole. Barricading the door denies access to those inside that classroom, but efforts can and should be made to deny access to the building and everyone inside. The main building should have locked entry points and breakage resistance tempered glass in all areas where windows are desired making them with the ability to only be opened from the inside. Additionally, traffic and access to the school should be routed to a single point with access only being granted by means of ID cards or access codes (Jonson, 2017, p.963). This would only allow for individuals with legitimate business access to the school. This along with the implementation of resource officers may have the potential to stop shootings before they even begin.

Conclusion

Although it’s unfortunate, it is impossible to eliminate any threat of violence completely. Even with any type of prevention method, access control, preparation, gun reform or otherwise, almost nothing can stop a truly determined individual from accomplishing their goals. It is possible however, to take steps to reduce the damage created by the event, the loss of life and the risk of the threat over all and such measures should be taken. The stakeholders in this situation are great; from students and parents to administrators and policy makers but the focus should be placed on the schools and their administration. They have the power to make immediate and cost-effective changes to their security measures and threat response as well as the resources to immediately improve the ease of access to the school which alone has the capability to save countless lives.

References

• Cloud, J. (1999, November 28). The Columbine Effect. Retrieved from http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,35098-1,00.html.
• CS Staff. (2019, April 26). The K-12 School Shooting Statistics Everyone Should Know. Retrieved from https://www.campussafetymagazine.com/safety/k-12-school- shooting-statistics-everyone-should-know/.
• Evie, B. (2018). What Principals Can Do to Keep Schools Safe Amid Shooting Fears. Education Week, 38(9), 5–7. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com.saintleo.idm.oclc.org/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ehh&AN=132974317&site=ehost-live&scope=site
• Jonson, C. L. (2017). Preventing School Shootings: The Effectiveness of Safety Measures. Victims & Offenders, 12(6), 956–973. https://doi-o rg.saintleo.idm.oclc.org/10.1080/15564886.2017.1307293
• Morrow, W. J., Vickovic, S. G., Dario, L. M., & Fradella, H. F. (2016). Assessing the influence of the Columbine shooting on federal sentencing outcomes. Criminal Justice Studies, 29(4), 378–396. https://doi-o rg.saintleo.idm.oclc.org/10.1080/1478601X.2016.1238826
• The Creeping Normalcy of School Shootings. (2018). America, 218(13), 8–9. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com.saintleo.idm.oclc.org/login.aspx?direct=true&dbrfh&AN=ATLAiFZK180625000471&site=ehost-live&scope=site