Many school crisis plans are on paper and sitting on shelves. Some schools and police conduct tabletop exercises to take plans closer to reality. Last Friday, schools and police in the Greater Cleveland area put their plans to the full blown test in simultaneous active shooter drills in multiple suburban communities.

Police and school officials conduct active shooter training in Broadview Heights, Ohio (photo credit: newsnet5.com).

The Brecksville-Broadview Heights School District, Brecksville and Broadview Heights Police and Fire Departments, area hospital officials and other partners joined forces to conduct a school active shooter training during a school in-service day when most students were not in attendance. Drama students added realistic dynamics, bloody make-up and crying included, to give the drill the most realistic flavor possible.

The drill is one in an ongoing series of drills conducted in the school district in recent school years. A federal grant helped fund the drill, a school security assessment and security equipment needs for the schools.

A neighboring school district simultaneously conducted a similar drill to help test how responders managed multiple unfolding high-profile incidents and how it impacted mutual aid agreements, area hospital capabilities and related preparedness and response measures.

The Department of Justice grant obtained by the police to conduct these school security enhancements is one of the few, if not the only, remaining federal grants dedicated for school security and emergency preparedness. Sadly, even after a recent school shooting in Chardon, Ohio, sent shockwaves across the nation, our state and federal legislators are still tone deaf to the need to restore funding cut for school safety, security, prevention and preparedness.

At a time when school safety has fallen to the back burner in many school communities, and school security funding has all but disappeared, it is refreshing to see school and police leaders forge ahead with school emergency planning. It is a good sign of school safety leadership.

Are your school and public safety officials leading with action, not just rhetoric, on school safety and emergency preparedness initiatives — even when money is tight and time is limited?

[Disclosure: The Brecksville-Broadview Heights school district is one of our clients. Our firm was not, however, involved with the planning, execution, evaluation or other functions of this exercise.]

Ken Trump

Visit School Security Blog at: www.schoolsecurityblog.com

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Anything remotely close to comprehensive and balanced federal school safety public policy and funding died in 2011.  Minus a handful of exceptions, if that many, the same can be said for state level school safety efforts.  And far too many local school districts are not far behind.

The U.S. Department of Education, academic experts and school safety professionals spent over a decade preaching that the best chance of effectively addressing school safety is to have policy and programs comprehensive and balanced in their approach.  This means prevention-only or enforcement-only approaches are destined to fail.  Prevention, intervention, mental health, security, school-based policing, emergency preparedness, school climate, school discipline and other strategies collectively reflect such balance and comprehensiveness.

Although the “comprehensive and balanced” philosophy continues to be generally accepted in professional school safety circles, it did not stop the Obama Administration, Congress, special interest groups, state governments and others from destroying anything resembling  comprehensive and balanced school safety public policy and funding in 2011.

Some factors contributing to a “perfect storm”  climate that a number of school safety professionals believe has set back over a decade of progress made in professional school safety policy and funding include: 

• Obama Administration destroys the federal Office of Safe and Drug Free Schools:  Kevin Jennings, Obama’s Assistant Deputy Secretary for Safe and Drug Free Schools, finished off his two-year stint in the U.S. Department of Education by almost single-handedly destroying anything resembling a comprehensive and balanced approach the federal school safety public policy and funding.  Jennings, an Obama campaign-bundler and founder of the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN), publicly advocated almost exclusively for “anti-bullying” policy and funding.  School emergency planning, school security, school-based policing, drug prevention and other violence prevention efforts were either eliminated or marginalized to the point of total ineffectiveness with Jennings at the helm.  Jennings resigned mid-year and moved seamlessly into a CEO job at a national non-profit organization having political origins.  Bill Modzeleski, the long-time number two guy in the Office of Safe and Drug Free Schools, retired from federal service after a decade in that office as what some privately described as the consummate bureaucratic “survivor” who followed the political winds of the day.  The Office of Safe and Drug Free Schools was eliminated weeks after Jennings left with the remaining programs tucked away under the Department’s Office of Elementary and Secondary Education where they continued the last few months of the year by putting out lame newsletters referencing other federal studies and programs, research reports, non-profit organization links and a periodic  reference to federal school nutrition and health programs. The Education Department attempted to spin the demise of this office by blaming Congress for cutting safe schools funds.
• Special interest groups intensified the politicizing of school safety by labeling gay rights special interest goals of creating federal and state laws enumerating the phrases “sexual orientation” and “gender identity” into a new protected civil rights class under the guise of “bullying.”  Simultaneous lobbying for federal “anti-bullying” laws and state-level laws have similar themes of protected class language, although federal efforts appear stalled due to the balance of power in Congress while state-level efforts have had mixed results. This “anti-bullying movement” or “safe schools movement” continues as we head into 2012.  Look for federal efforts to focus on slipping in language in the federal Elementary and Secondary Education (ESEA) Act reauthorization pending in Congress since the actual “anti-bullying” bills before Congress will likely go nowhere with the current Republican House majority.
• Civil rights special interest groups continued their assault against school-based police, school security and school discipline (suspensions and expulsions) by issuing multiple “studies” and “reports” from civil rights and liberal activist organizations.  Efforts continue behind-the-scenes to use these “studies” and “reports” to influence language in the federal ESEA Act mentioned earlier. 
• State education departments eliminated or dramatically downsized state-level school safety programs and funding.  The South Carolina Department of Education eliminated its state school safety office. Other state school safety centers or offices downsized their staff, programs, funding and/or influence.  A few state programs continue to surviveand thrive, such as the Indiana School Safety Specialist Academy in the Indiana Department of Education, but they are the exception and not the rule.
• School safety and prevention were first on the chopping block in local school district budget cuts.  2011 saw continued and intensified cuts of drug and violence prevention programs, mental health services, counselors, school security staff, school resource officer (SRO) programs, professional development training and similar school safety programs in local school districts.  Very early signs of the adverse impact of these cuts have already popped up in scattered areas.

Penny-wise but pound-foolish school safety budget cuts will likely continue into 2012 barring a major national catastrophic school safety incident with shortwaves reaching into local schools nationwide.  The politicizing of school safety will unquestionably continue, especially given the Obama Administration’s political courting of civil rights, gay rights and related special interest groups. 

Veteran school safety professional agree that it will take a long-time to undo the damages done to school safety public policy and funding leading up to and through 2011. 

Fortunately, at ground level we still have many school safety professionals advocating for truly balanced, comprehensive and professional school safety programs and strategies. Unfortunately, their backs are against the wall and they are fighting an uphill battle. They need our support, even if it is just moral support, now more than ever.

Ken Trump

Visit School Security Blog at: www.schoolsecurityblog.com

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Good theory, perhaps, but clueless in understanding School Resource Officers (SROs), school security, and so-called “zero tolerance.”

This is my take on America’s real school-safety problem, an article posted Sunday on salon.com.  The article is mostly a Q&A with Aaron Kupchick, author of “Homeroom Security: School Discipline in an Age of Fear.”  He spent two years researching “zero tolerance” and security measures at four (4) public high schools. 

School Resource Officers Mischaracterized

Kupchick has quite a different perspective on a number of issues related to school discipline, School Resource Officers (SROs), school security equipment, and related topics.  For example, on SROs he described them as “great” and noted that he “really enjoyed the time” he spent with them, but then went on to say:

“But their role is an odd one for schools. They don’t have a counseling background, and they are just not able to deal with kids’ problems the way that some of these problems need. Their day-to-day experience trains them and socializes them to deal with kids in not the most productive manner. And their presence in schools creates a law-and-order mindset to govern schools rather than the type of counseling and democratic mindset that we know prevents crime.”  

I have seen great counselors in schools and every now and then, I have seen lousy counselors.  The same applies to SROs.  But in the majority of my 25+ years in school safety, the number of good counselors and SROs has far outnumbered the bad.

Kupchick notes there have been “big decreases in crime” and comes to the conclusion that, “it’s unlikely that the SROs have had an effect on that.” But in the next sentence, he says, “There have been only a few studies that have tried to look at effectiveness, and they’ve been totally mixed.”

Well if they few studies are totally mixed, how can he conclude it is unlikely that the SROs have had an effect on decreasing school crime? (We also know the claim that of dramatic school crime decreases is questionable because there is no federal mandatory K-12 school crime reporting and tracking.)

Zero Accuracy on “Zero Tolerance”

The article also claims that schools have adopted “strict policies” and are filled with “armed guards, metal detectors and drug-sniffing dogs.” Perhaps the author of the article and/or Kupchick visited four very tough schools in a large district with chronic violence or four schools in some other country?  I have been in the school safety field for over 25 years and this characterization of the majority of our schools is totally off-base. 

My take on zero tolerance is that there really is no mass conspiracy in education called “zero tolerance.”  Most administrators strive for firm, fair, and consistent discipline applied with good common sense.  Unfortunately, from time to time we see the “good common sense” missing in the application of discipline in anecdotal cases, but there is no mass conspiracy in my experience in education.

Maybe Kupchick’s research was limited to a non-representative sample of America schools.  Or perhaps Kupchick has some pre-determined, biased philosophies and slants?

I do find it ironic that an article and book portraying school discipline and school-based policing strategies as fear mongering is actually written in a manner to create unnecessary fear of reasonable school security and emergency preparedness measures.

What’s your take on the article?

Ken Trump

Visit School Security Blog at:  http://www.schoolsecurityblog.com

Yesterday I shared how the South Carolina U.S. Attorney’s Office has taken a leadership role in promoting school safety annually for the past 19 years.   

Kevin McDonald, the Acting U.S. Attorney and First Assistant U.S. Attorney in that office, shares his perspective on the importance of federal, state, and local partnerships not only in putting together statewide training each year.  He also shares how helpful it has been working across agencies on specific incidents, including a foiled school attack plot and an officer-involved-shooting at a school:

We hear a lot about “sustainability” in today’s tight economy:  How do you keep things going over time, especially when money gets tight?  South Carolina’s U.S. Attorney’s Office and its partners have done so for 19-years!

Tell us about the partnerships for school safety you have in your school community.  What is working for you and who is involved?

Ken Trump

Visit School Security Blog at:  http://www.schoolsecurityblog.com