Posted on Feb 15, 2018
What to Do About School Security in the Age of Deranged Shooters
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From December 2012 - and still relevant today in light of the recent Florida school shooting. When will we do the right thing?
What to Do About School Security in the Age of Deranged Shooters
Posted from savinggraceatguantanamobay.com
Security
Active Shooter
Law Enforcement
Schools
Posted 7 y ago
Responses: 5
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MAJ Montgomery Granger Many years ago, when I was the County Chief Deputy and for many years there after I was the High Sheriff. One of the things I did was teach D.A.R.E in the elementary schools grades 5 & 6. It was an 16 week class and the primary goal was to teach kids how to avoid drugs, but it did other more subtle things as well. I was always in full uniform and armed, and my classes were at various times. I also ate lunch with the kids and visited lower grade classes randomly as well as the upper grades. They got familiar with me by me being approachable, they asked questions that they were never able to do on the street. I had a DARE box that only I could open and it had a slot for anonymous questions to which I would openly answer in the class.
In my 18 years as a LEO and DARE instructor the curriculum was very successful as a Drug resistance program, but it was also very successful in that I was able to halt numerous cases of child abuse, both physical and sexual in nature. But I also got to meet parents, and they too became more approachable to me with issues about their children. I was by no means an expert in many of these issues, but I became a resource to them and a conduit of the help they needed at the time.
The bottom line and the lesson I am trying to convey, is that schools need to have Law Enforcement in the schools, not necessarily as security, although that in of it's self is a by product of their presence, but rather to be approachable to the staff and students. The problem today though is many of the teachers and principals today are very anti-police and and anti-guns. So, I ask you this, what do the children learn from their teachers and schools when they will not allow Law Enforcement officers in the schools? In just one decade since I retired as a LEO, I have seen a 100% reversal of attitude toward Law Enforcement by out youth! And I ask you this, what have we all witnessed on TV about students on collage campus and their attitude toward civil unrest and damage to public property?
In my 18 years as a LEO and DARE instructor the curriculum was very successful as a Drug resistance program, but it was also very successful in that I was able to halt numerous cases of child abuse, both physical and sexual in nature. But I also got to meet parents, and they too became more approachable to me with issues about their children. I was by no means an expert in many of these issues, but I became a resource to them and a conduit of the help they needed at the time.
The bottom line and the lesson I am trying to convey, is that schools need to have Law Enforcement in the schools, not necessarily as security, although that in of it's self is a by product of their presence, but rather to be approachable to the staff and students. The problem today though is many of the teachers and principals today are very anti-police and and anti-guns. So, I ask you this, what do the children learn from their teachers and schools when they will not allow Law Enforcement officers in the schools? In just one decade since I retired as a LEO, I have seen a 100% reversal of attitude toward Law Enforcement by out youth! And I ask you this, what have we all witnessed on TV about students on collage campus and their attitude toward civil unrest and damage to public property?
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MSgt Neil Greenfield
I believe it depends on the locality. Where I live in Central Ohio, a number of the school districts have partnered with local LE and have School Resource Officers assigned to each school. They also teach DARE and such. They can provide security of sorts, but I doubt they could prevent something like what happened in Florida. And I don’t think arming teachers is the smart or right thing to do. People will die because of the high availability of guns, legal or otherwise. It could be a school, business, church, store, etc.
I have no desire to ban guns and I do not advocate gun bans - I have several of my own - but I am for common sense gun ownership, laws and regulations. I have my doubts that is going to happen anytime soon. With gun ownership comes responsibility and accountability, with an equal measure of common sense and maturity. That’s what’s missing in this discussion.
I have no desire to ban guns and I do not advocate gun bans - I have several of my own - but I am for common sense gun ownership, laws and regulations. I have my doubts that is going to happen anytime soon. With gun ownership comes responsibility and accountability, with an equal measure of common sense and maturity. That’s what’s missing in this discussion.
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CWO3 Dennis M.
MSgt Neil Greenfield - I am greatly impressed with what you say about your schools and what they are doing, I hope that the community continues to embrace the programs already in place and grow new ones as well. The school resource officer program was relatively new when I retired and I am happy that it is still going forward to this day. I was by no means implying that a single officer in the school would have been able to stop this the massacre that happened yesterday although he/she would have had some effect I am sure. The student in this case did not get deranged overnight, it was most likely years in the making and perhaps an officer could have picked up on that long before yesterday. I was trying to say that over a long period of time the exposure in the schools by Law Enforcement has a long lasting effect on the children and staff that can and will have a very positive effect on attitudes towards police, violence and hatred and in that light, the LEO presence every day over time could have changed that students thinking to some degree, at least to the point where he would not have picked up an AR-15 and started shooting. And yes, if a person has such a mental derangement that all they want to do is shoot & kill people that will and can happen anywhere, not just in a school. The only reason I am talking School is because that was the Major's concern, and I was responding to the Major's post about Law Enforcement in the schools.
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MAJ Montgomery Granger
Thank you! They stopped DARE in the County schools where I am several years ago because "statistics showed no difference in the amount of drug use from year-to-year, and the funding depends on concrete evidence of effectiveness." Boy did they miss the boat! Those "little things" you describe are actually the BIG things! Bad guys with guns are stopped by good guys with guns? Train and then arm volunteers on the staff; teachers, administrators, custodians , secretaries, et. al. We protect our money and jewels with armed guards, are our children less valuable, less important? Who will pay for the training? Local and state governments can PRIORITIZE spending. Who would volunteer for such training? I would. Others would as well because it would be explained to them that the FREE training would be useful to them anytime and anyplace they and their loved ones go, 24/7/365. Just like may answer above, to get public access defibrillation trainees we offered the training for FREE (a budget priority) and reminded volunteers that the CPR/AED skill they learn could help save the life of a loved one.
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I'm going to go off on a related tangent. I don't think we can solve this problem, or any of the other major problems we face right now. Why? Because we have become so polarized that we can't even agree on the reality of the situations we are presented with.
We can no longer sit around and talk about different solutions and come up with the best ones, even if parts of it may conflict a little with our ideals. Instead we only listen to what we want to hear, cherry pick facts and sources that agree with our feelings and end up with very flawed solutions since any information that would point out problems in them isn't allowed in.
It's a mess and our problem with mass shootings and the related intractable positions around it are just on example of it. We just sit around fighting over our ideologies convinced we are right and everyone else is wrong because we only allow ourselves to see what we want to see.
We can no longer sit around and talk about different solutions and come up with the best ones, even if parts of it may conflict a little with our ideals. Instead we only listen to what we want to hear, cherry pick facts and sources that agree with our feelings and end up with very flawed solutions since any information that would point out problems in them isn't allowed in.
It's a mess and our problem with mass shootings and the related intractable positions around it are just on example of it. We just sit around fighting over our ideologies convinced we are right and everyone else is wrong because we only allow ourselves to see what we want to see.
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MAJ Montgomery Granger
Right. I agree. The collective "we" cannot solve any of these problems. It's like abortion. People are emotionally invested in their opinion and will never change that opinion. As are people emotionally invested in how they feel about guns and gun control. Where we can find common ground is in the fact that we need to protect children, just like we protect money and jewels by employing armed guards to protect those physical assets. How do "we" do this? "We" don't. Local problems deserve and demand local solutions. Governments can facilitate these changes, but people, real people must decide to make them happen. In New York State we have a Public Access Defibrillator Law that says all public facilities MUST make AED's available to the public. There is no companion law requiring that anyone be trained in CPR/AED's except for school nurses and athletic coaches. So how do you get others to take the training and then make themselves available in the public facility that requires AED's be available and that someone who is trained be available should there be a need to use one while school activities are ongoing? You offer the training for FREE to all staff and then remind prospective trainees that the training can be used when they are with their loved ones, anywhere, anytime. This is how you get people trained in how to respond to an active shooter situation as an armed responder, offer the training for FREE. Governments can PRIORITIZE funds for this training.
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Excellent points. As I, and many others, have said regarding mass shootings and terrorism, the targets are always ‘soft ‘ targets. No one holds up a cop bar or the police station.
The answer is to reduce your the softness in schools.
The answer is to reduce your the softness in schools.
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