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In the future, upon graduating and receiving my principal's certification, it is my goal to become an elementary principal. After working at the elementary level, I would like to move to the district level of administration to work to improve various aspects of our school system.

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National Education Association: School Safety (Option 2)

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National Education Association: School Safety (Option 2)

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After providing a link to the National Association of School Psychologists website, NEA goes on to provide educator resources and information about educating against violence during their America's Safe Schools Week. They are:
-Preventing School Violence
-NEA's School Crisis Guide
-United Against Hate

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Resources to keep your schools safe, especially during a crisis. Read more "

Resources to turn your school into a bullyfree zone. Read more "

Resources for students, educators, and families to conduct meaningful conversations toward healing in the wake Charlottesville. Read more "

Securing safe, healthy and peaceful learning environments for students.

Mass Shooting and other Traumatic Events: How to Talk to Students

All too often gun violence and mass shootings top the headlines in America, causing anxiety and confusion among young people. To help students who are continually hearing about senseless gun violence in or near schools and are scared about their safety, we offer advice from the National Association of School Psychologists for talking to them about violence and other national tragedies.

America's Safe Schools Week

Explore these educator resources to help students and parents learn about and advocate for school safety, bullying prevention, reducing violence, improving discipline, and increasing student attendance.

Resources for reducing school violence and promoting school safety.

A step-by-step outline of what to do before, during, and after any school or community crisis like a school shooting or natural disaster. NEA offers best practices that address the full spectrum of crisis response from how to prevent and prepare for a crisis to how to respond and recover in the minutes, days and weeks following the event.

In the wake of the recent events in Charlottesville, please find resources for students, educators, and families to address and engage in the national dialogue about racism, hate, and bias. Together we must foster safe spaces to discuss our individual and collective realties to move towards justice in education.

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Resources to keep your schools safe, especially during a crisis. Read more " Resources to turn your school into a bullyfree zone. Read more " Resources for students, educators, and families to conduct meaningful conversations toward healing in the wake Charlottesville. Read more " Securing safe, healthy and peaceful learning environments for students.

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National Education Association: Education Funding (Option 2)

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National Education Association: Education Funding (Option 2)

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Funding for education has seen some improvements with the passing of the FY2018 Budget Bill. This law supports programs like Title I, IDEA, and Career and Technical Education. In addition, the law touches on aspects of school safety, such as improved background checks. Click below to see the full article.

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National School Boards Association: School Wellness and School Lunch Programs (Option 2)

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National School Boards Association: School Wellness and School Lunch Programs (Option 2)

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The NSBA comments on the USDA's proposed rules for school lunch programs and wellness policies in the article linked below. In summary, the NSBA has four major responses:
1. The USDA should conduct a thorough analysis of the impacts of the Act, including the financial and operational impacts.
2. A waiver process should be implemented for districts that would take on additional costs by adhering to the proposed rules.
3. Offer a separate rule for marketing of foods
4. Eliminate regulations that govern foods sold off school grounds.

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National School Boards Association: Trending in School Security (Option 2)

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National School Boards Association: Trending in School Security (Option 2)

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Beginning with outlining an increasing trend of parents suing school districts for safety issues, this article goes on to point out that training for school staff is insufficient and lacking. The author does provide information about essential training needed for school staff. In addition, technology can play a role in school safety. Metal detectors and surveillance systems are deterrents, as well as good door locks. School resource officers (SRO) can be vital parts of school security, as SROs should seek to build relationships with the students they are looking out for. The author ends with some statistics about school safety and includes a resources list for further inquiry.
One of my favorite quotes from this article has been: "Even the most rigorous of security precautions won’t guarantee that a threat can be kept out of a school, but there is evidence that a properly designed front entrance—responsibly monitored by staff—can slow down a gunman and possibly save lives."

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Keeping up to keep students safe

Should teachers be equipped with bulletproof whiteboards? Is it time to monitor students' Facebook and Twitter accounts for posts about bullying, bombs, or guns?

Are you prepared for angry parents to file a million-dollar lawsuit because of your so-called "unsafe" schools?

On the issue of school safety, there is always a new threat, a new technology, or a new strategy to take into consideration.

With that in mind, ASBJ decided to examine the latest trends in school safety and chat with security experts-and put together a list of cutting-edge issues worthy of your attention. This isn't the last word in school safety, but this list should provide fodder for your school board's next conversation on protecting students and staff.

LITIGATION TARGETS STAFF MISTAKES

Ken Trump, president of National School Safety and Security Services, takes many telephone calls from school officials seeking advice on how to make their schools safer.

Yet, in the past year, he's received a growing number of calls from attorneys who seek an expert witness in court cases alleging that school personnel failed to keep a child safe.

"I've seen a dramatic increase in school security litigation by parents who feel aggrieved because their child is injured or there is some security concern," he says.

There are no hard and fast numbers to quantify the scope of this trend, but it should come as no surprise that our litigious society has turned its attention to school safety. Indeed, a quick search of the internet reveals dozens of school systems currently targeted by lawsuits seeking damages for incidents of assault, bullying, and wrongful death.

It's an issue that's worrisome beyond the potential six- and seven-figure payouts of such litigation, Trump says. "Whether an allegation is unfounded or not, when an issue moves from the schoolhouse to the courthouse ... as well as facing the court system, you face the court of public opinion as the issue ends up on social media and in the local media."

So, how do you deal with this trend? Take note of why parents are suing, Trump advises.

"The one common thread is that the allegations are focused on the failure of school personnel who failed to follow [district] procedures," Trump says. "It's not about the failures of security equipment or hardware."

ESSENTIAL TRAINING

This observation leads to the next burning issue in school safety: training. How your staff is prepared to respond to a threat or incident in school is not just a perennial issue; it remains the premiere issue for district leaders wanting to keep schools safe.

Yet evidence suggests many schools still fall short in providing this essential training. Patrick Fiel, founder of PVF Security Consulting and former chief of security for the Washington, D.C., school system, has observed this problem firsthand.

For example, school personnel have been told repeatedly of the importance of limiting outsider access to schools, he says. Yet, in conducting security audits at schools, "we find that we can still walk through side doors, back doors, cafeteria doors, gym doors"-school entrances that are unlocked, not closed properly, or propped open.

To avoid such security lapses, it's essential that district leaders insist upon a well-conceived schedule of professional development on school safety practices, with that training reinforced by regular drills and brief refresher courses. These courses can be as simple as a five-minute "what if" role-playing exercise during staff meetings.

District leaders also need to recognize why schools shortchange training: School administrators are overworked, funding and time are in short supply, and there's a lack of urgency in schools that have had the good fortune to avoid a serious incident. School boards need to make sure these obstacles are overcome.

"School people make up excuses," Fiel says. "They say their budgets have been cut-or their schools are in good neighborhoods. But one of the things I say when I'm in front of a school board is that they've got to make security training a top priority-period."

SMART TECHNOLOGY CHOICES

Technology plays a pivotal role in school safety. Metal detectors may serve as a deterrent to students bringing a gun to schools, and surveillance cameras can help identify those involved in vandalism, fights, or other incidents.

If school officials are looking for technology to keep schools safe, Fiel suggests they start with one piece of technology that's decidedly old-school: a good classroom door lock.

The Sandy Hook Advisory Commission, which looked for lessons in the 2012 school shooting that left 26 dead, noted that, in its research, "there has never been an event in which an active shooter breached a locked classroom door."

But the right lock is needed-one that is easily locked from inside the classroom without a key or, even better, locks automatically when closed. Campus Safety magazine has reported that, after asking teachers to react to a scenario where they hear gunfire, "we often see that it takes the employee between 30 and 40 seconds to find their key and lock the door."
EAR TO THE GROUND
Security personnel have long understood the value of building relationships with students to monitor gossip about threatened suicides, bullying, or a student threat to bring a gun or bomb to school.

The latest twist on this practice, however, is found in Florida's Orange County Public Schools, which is using software to monitor student posts on social media.

The district pays $18,000 annually for software that allows officers to scan for social media keywords associated with cyberbullying, suicidal thinking, or criminal activity. The software flags worrisome student posts for officers to examine for a real threat.

Such monitoring is potentially controversial, so school officials took time before the program began to explain their intentions and the scope of monitoring to the community, says Michael Eugene, chief operations officer for the district.

Only a handful of officers are authorized to monitor social media, and only public postings are examined, Eugene says. Private communications are not accessed.

"Not everyone is in favor of school districts monitoring social media," he says. "So this is an important conversation to have clearly with parents so they understand why it's important to utilize a tool like this."

The district's protocol is to respond immediately to troubling posts, Eugene says. So, it's not uncommon for school police to visit a student's home at night to investigate a suspected problem.

"It changes how you think about the day," he says. "You don't wait until the next morning to deal with an issue. You hit it first thing, as we don't want the issue to come back to school."
UNDERSTANDING THE ROLE OF SROS
You've seen newscasts of school-based police throwing students to the floor or handcuffing students so young that the restraints slip off their tiny wrists.

Such incidents have fueled one of the most significant recent trends in school safety: a rethinking of the role of school-based police.

According to the National Association of School Resource Officers (NASRO), the goal of school-based police or school resource officers (SROs) is to ensure school safety-not school discipline.

"Being a SRO is about community-based policing, not about how many kids you can arrest or how many crimes you can solve," says NASRO Executive Director Mo Canady.

In addition to looking out for potential safety issues, SROs should be getting to know the students they seek to protect, he adds.

"By building relationships, you begin to collect information. It's not about kids becoming a snitch, but it's about good relationships where young people get concerned about some issue or something they saw on social media and they come talk to the SRO."

For district leaders, one of the most important steps they can take is to ensure that SROs are properly trained, understand their role, and have the skills and temperament to interact with young people and de-escalate conflict, Canady says.

While SROs will respond to criminal activity, if asked to intercede in a disciplinary issue, they should know to refuse-and to point out correctly that student misbehavior is not a law enforcement issue, he adds.

"SROs are not there to mete out school discipline. If SROs are writing tickets to students for being late to class, that's insane."
WATCH THE FRONT DOOR
When a gunman was unable to open the locked front doors at Sandy Hook Elementary School, he shot his way through a glass panel at the entrance to gain entry.

The incident highlights an issue much on the minds of school safety experts: How do you screen-and contain-arriving visitors before they gain access to school hallways?

We've already talked about keeping school doors locked. So, let's focus on where you want visitors to enter: the main entrance.

The thinking today is that, if possible, this entrance should have a vestibule with two door entrances: one to the school, the other to the front office. Both should be locked. (Some schools are going the extra mile and installing ballistic plastic over glass panels to make them more difficult for a gunman to shoot his way through.)

The entrance also should be equipped with an intercom and camera so school staff can visually verify a visitor's identity before granting entrance to the school. Some schools opt for a visitor management system to check identification to determine if a visitor is a registered sex offender, has a criminal record, or is otherwise barred from the campus.

Nobody should be permitted inside until screened.

No one wants to turn a school into a fortress, but it's important that staff and students understand the importance of access control, Trump says. He's seen instances where visitors hit the intercom at an entrance and are granted entry without being asked to identify themselves-or a student is buzzed in and holds the door for a nearby adult.

Even the most rigorous of security precautions won't guarantee that a threat can be kept out of a school, but there is evidence that a properly designed front entrance-responsibly monitored by staff-can slow down a gunman and possibly save lives

"We're not likely to stop a determined individual," Fiel says. The goal is to buy time for staff to be notified of the threat, the school to go into lockdown, and police to arrive. "We want to delay the individual."
EVALUATE LIKELY RISKS
Nearly two-thirds of U.S. schools regularly conduct some form of "active shooter" drill to teach students and teachers how to react to an armed intruder.

Unfortunately, far fewer schools prepare for the more common scenario: the appearance of a parent, intoxicated or without custodial rights, who wants to pick up his child and becomes agitated and disruptive when the request is refused.

"The key thing is to understand what your security needs are," Fiel says. "You must do a risk assessment. That's the key to starting everything."

Statistics put the risks in some perspective. For every school-related shooting, there are nearly 10,000 violent assaults, including rape, assault with a knife, sexual assault and violent harassment, beatings, fights, and robberies.

This doesn't include the millions of students who are bullied each year.

"There's been a tunnel vision focused on active shooters," Trump notes. "That's taken the eye off the ball for more common, day-to-day school security issues. Not enough conversations on school safety are talking about the rape that could happen under the stairwell or the importance of supervision during class changes to prevent violence."

A risk assessment, conducted in consultation with security professionals, is designed to identify the potential safety risks of a campus, analyze the campus' vulnerabilities, and point to strategies to improve safety, Fiel says.

What may result are decisions as obvious as expanding the presence of teachers and other adults to monitor hallways, restrooms, and stairwells during class changes, a simple step that can have a greater day-to-day impact on safety than anything else school leaders do.

"Sometimes it's the simple tools, a focus on the basic safety risks, that work," Fiel says.

In the end, the lesson for district leaders to learn is that-if school safety is a true priority, not just a nicely worded goal-they can make their schools safer.

"We reduced [school-based] crime while I was in Washington, D.C., and we had something like 200 gangs we dealt with every day," Fiel says. "If you pay attention to the basics, the fundamentals, and you carry through with them, you'll have safer schools."
RESOURCES
To Protect & Educate: The School Resource Officer and the Prevention of Violence in Schools-A report by the National Association of School Resource Officers (NASRO) that examines the appropriate role of school-based policing.

https://nasro.org/cms/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/NASRO-To-Protect-and-Educate-nosecurity.pdf

NASRO Position Statement on Police Involvement in Student Discipline-A brief outline of best practices for school-based policing.

https://nasro.org/news/nasro-updates/nasro-position-statement-police-involvement-student-discipline/

Planning for and Managing the School Crisis You Hope Never Comes-Advice for leaders to respond to school safety issues. Sponsored by the National School Boards Association's Office of General Counsel and Council of School Attorneys (COSA).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o4qDyOL5F_I&feature=youtu.be

The Final Report and Findings of the Safe School Initiative: Implications for the Prevention of School Attacks in the United States-This 2004 report was a collaboration of the U.S. Secret Service and U.S. Department of Education, which examined 37 acts of school violence to identify lessons and strategies that policymakers could use to make schools safer.

https://www2.ed.gov/admins/lead/safety/preventingattacksreport.pdf

Indicators of School Crime and Safety: 2016-Survey data of students, teachers, principals, and the general population, collected from various sources by the National Center for Education Statistics and the Bureau of Justice Statistics.

https://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2017064

Rethinking School Safety: Communities and Schools Working Together-A policy paper of the National Association of School Psychologists that summarizes the importance of meeting students' mental health needs, the need to respond to the psychological impact of violence, and the importance of engaging families and community in keeping schools safe.

Del Stover ( dstover@nsba.org) is senior editor of American School Board Journal.

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Keeping up to keep students safe Del Stover Should teachers be equipped with bulletproof whiteboards? Is it time to monitor students' Facebook and Twitter accounts for posts about bullying, bombs, or guns? Are you prepared for angry parents to file a million-dollar lawsuit because of your so-called "unsafe" schools?

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Education Week's Trending Articles (Option 3)

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Education Week's Trending Articles (Option 3)

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Transgender issues, gun violence, DACA, teacher strikes, school funding, and special education are among the top articles found in the Law and Courts section of Education Week's website. Lots of the current topics in news and social media are highlighted on Education Week's website, which will be a rich resource for further research!

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The latest news about legal issues in education including articles, Commentaries, and special features.

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Education Week: California may Expand Gun Violence Restraining Order Law (Option 3)

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Education Week: California may Expand Gun Violence Restraining Order Law (Option 3)

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California lawmakers took steps Monday to let school employees ask judges to temporarily strip gun rights from potentially dangerous people in the wake of a mass school shooting in Texas.

California is already one of a handful of states that allow immediate family members and law enforcement officials to request gun violence restraining orders against people who show warning signs of violence. Assemblyman Phil Ting's bill, AB2888, would extend that ability to more people, including school employees and co-workers.

Democratic lawmakers supporting the bill invoked the Friday shooting at Santa Fe High School in Texas that killed 10.

"I ask that we don't just send thoughts and prayers, that we actually send some action to students and families who really are scratching their heads and wondering what we can do to stem the violence at our schools," Ting said.

The San Francisco Democrat also mentioned the shooting earlier this year at a high school in Parkland, Florida. If school officials, family members or police could have requested a restraining order against the Parkland shooter, who had demonstrated violent warning signs, he might not have been able to legally possess a firearm.

"We have reached a crisis that must be addressed," said Assemblywoman Eloise Gomez Reyes, a Grand Terrace Democrat and one of the bill's co-authors. "No child should have to be worried that when they go to school in the morning that they are entering a war zone."

If a judge issues the restraining order, the gun owner would have to surrender their guns and ammunition to law enforcement.

Assemblywoman Melissa Melendez said she doesn't think the bill gives gun owners enough opportunity to defend themselves. She said she otherwise might have supported the bill.

"I don't think there's a person in this room who doesn't want to do something," the Lake Elsinore Republican said. "But whenever anybody says, 'We have to do something,' that usually means they don't know what to do."

Assemblyman James Gallagher, a Yuba City Republican, said he believes restraining orders can be effective, but law enforcement isn't doing enough to enforce them.

Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown vetoed a similar bill last year, arguing that it was too soon to expand the state's existing law on gun violence restraining orders, which was passed in 2016.

According to Ting's office, 200 such restraining orders have been issued since the law was passed.

The Assembly passed the bill 46-23. It now heads to the Senate.

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California May Expand Gun Violence Restraining Order Law

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California lawmakers took steps Monday to let school employees ask judges to temporarily strip gun rights from potentially dangerous people in the wake of a mass school shooting in Texas.

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Education Week: Judge Dismisses Sandy Hook Parents' Law Suit Over Security (Option 3)

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Education Week: Judge Dismisses Sandy Hook Parents' Law Suit Over Security (Option 3)

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A Connecticut judge has cited government immunity in dismissing a lawsuit by the parents of two children killed in the 2012 Newtown, Connecticut, school massacre against the town and its school district over alleged inadequate security measures.

Superior Court Judge Robin Wilson, in a decision released Tuesday, granted the town's request to dismiss the lawsuit, agreeing school officials were immune from being sued and the security procedures in place were discretionary.

"Emergencies, by their very nature, are sudden and often rapidly evolving events, and a response can never be one hundred percent scripted and directed," Wilson wrote.

"To say that the faculty and staff of the school were to act in a prescribed manner in responding to an emergency situation would likewise be illogical and in direct contradiction to the very purpose of governmental immunity: allowing for the exercise of judgment without fear of second-guessing," she wrote.

The shooting killed 20 1st-graders and six educators at Sandy Hook Elementary School on Dec. 14, 2012. Gunman Adam Lanza, 20, fatally shot his mother at their Newtown home before going to the school, where he killed himself as police arrived. Lanza shot his way through a locked glass entryway to get into the building.

The parents of two 1st-graders killed in the shooting, Jesse Lewis and Noah Pozner, sued the town on several claims, including that school officials didn't follow security procedures including immediately ordering a school lockdown after Lanza shot his way in, which they say may have saved lives. They also said the school's classroom doors could only be locked from the outside in the hallway, making it impossible for teachers to safely lock them as Lanza approached their classrooms.

Their lawyer, Donald Papcsy, said they will appeal the ruling and hope the state Supreme Court overturns it.

"This ruling (which every parent should read) should serve as NOTICE to all parents of young boys and girls: Our children are not safe in public schools," Papcsy said in a statement.

"From our neighbors in Sandy Hook, to the young men and women of Parkland, the legislatures and judicial systems have decided for all of us that, even when the facts support a total breakdown of school security protocol, the 'immunity' laws are used as an excuse to prevent parents from holding them accountable," he said. "We will continue to fight for this cause so that, someday, we can live in a world where we know our children are going to come home at the end of the school day."

The lawsuit also alleged that school officials failed to provide keys to either teacher Victoria Soto or substitute teacher Lauren Rousseau so they could follow school lockdown procedures, if ordered, and lock their doors.

Fifteen students and Rousseau were killed in Room 8, and five students and Soto were slain in Room 10.

Charles DeLuca, a lawyer for the town, said Lanza was solely responsible and liable for the shooting.

"We don't believe that there was any evidence that the town or its employees or the Board of Education was negligent or at fault in any way for this tragedy that occurred," DeLuca said Tuesday.

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Judge Dismisses Sandy Hook Parents' Lawsuit Over Security

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A Connecticut judge has cited government immunity in dismissing a lawsuit by the parents of two children killed in the 2012 Newtown, Connecticut, school massacre against the town and its school district over alleged inadequate security measures.

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I would like to further research school safety because I am passionate about my students' learning, but I am more concerned with their safety. If our schools are not safe, true learning cannot occur.
Lessne, D., Yanez, C., & National Center for Education Statistics, (2018). Students' Relationships in School and Feelings about Personal Safety at School. Data Point. NCES 2018-096.

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Zhang, A., Wang, K., Zhang, J., Kemp, J., Diliberti, M., Oudekerk, B. A., & ... American Institutes for Research, (2018). Indicators of School Crime and Safety: 2017. NCES 2018-036/NCJ 251413.

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Hartocollis, A., & Fortin, J., (2018).  Should teachers carry guns? Are metal detectors helpful? What experts say. The New York Times. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/22/us/school-safety-mass-shootings.html

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Even after mass shootings in schools like Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Conn., in recent years, security experts are divided over the question of how to keep students safe. Credit... Michael Appleton for The New York Times

Paul Hankins keeps a box of smooth, colorful river stones - he calls them "fidgets" - in his classroom for students to hold when they need to soothe their nerves.

The stones also have a different purpose, as do the billiard balls and the plank from the old gym floor. They can all be used as weapons in an emergency.

"Before we go to the corner where everybody gets invisible, grab one of those," he tells his students at Silver Creek High School in Sellersburg, Ind. "We could cause one hell of a ruckus if we need to."

Mr. Hankins does not begrudge teachers who argue that they should be allowed to carry guns to class, especially in the wake of attacks like last week's shooting that killed 17 at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla.

For him, stones are better.

They put the fight in "Run, hide, fight," the mantra that he and countless other teachers are learning as lockdown drills become routine.

Yet experts are as divided as Mr. Hankins and his colleagues on how to protect students from violence or whether, for that matter, there is anything that can be done to prevent a determined attacker.

The latest shooting has intensified the debate over what tactics to use to protect against imminent danger: whether teachers should carry guns, or hide with their students; whether schools should invest in fancy security devices like door jammers or put more resources into crisis teams that could identify and intervene with troubled students. What follows is some of the discussion.

Most law enforcement experts argue that teachers should not carry guns. Civilians may be able to hit a bull's-eye at the shooting range, but they lack the tactical knowledge of handling weapons that trained law enforcement personnel get.

Accidents happen. Guns can fall out of holsters, be taken from the classroom or accidentally discharge.

"You don't want to have a gun that's available to a student or another worker who may have mental health issues," said Maureen S. Rush, vice president for public safety and superintendent of the Police Department at the University of Pennsylvania.

But some disagree.

Dave Workman, the senior editor of The Gun Mag and communications director of the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms, said arming guards or teachers could act as a deterrent so that no one had to draw a weapon in the first place.

"I understand the debate out there: 'Should this be the job of a teacher?'" he said.

"Why not? The teacher is going to be there," Mr. Workman said. "They become the first responder sometimes. It does take a while for police to respond to an incident."

The Parkland school had an armed sheriff's deputy who never encountered the gunman.

Metal detectors are unlikely to stop a gunman, experts say. But they can be useful in certain contexts, if, for instance, the school is in a neighborhood with high crime or gang activity, where students may try to bring guns or knives into school to defend themselves.

In a lockdown drill, everyone in the school practices responding seamlessly to the presence of an intruder. Teachers and students go to a secure location, like a classroom, closet or storage area that can be locked, and move out of sight, away from windows or doors.

Speed is important. The typical gunman is like water, the experts said, following the path of least resistance. Typically, a gunman will not try to kick in a closed door, but will look for one with a crack of light showing.

"Within 20 or 30 seconds, I, as a bad guy, should have very little easy access to anybody," said David R. Connors, head of Connors Security Consulting Services in Spencerport, N.Y., and a former police officer. The locks or barricades on the doors do not need to be very strong, just enough to last until help can arrive.

The point of a lockdown drill is to know what to do automatically, without having to think.

"When something's going down, you will not respond from your head, you will respond from your stomach," Ms. Rush said. "You need to get that in your stomach. You need to know what instinctively you will do. That's got to be part of your psyche. So it requires constant training."

Different schools or districts may have different protocols. The important thing is that everyone, from teachers to students to parents, know what they are. "It has to be something that goes like clockwork," said Dr. Irwin Redlener, a professor of pediatrics and public health and the director of the National Center for Disaster Preparedness at Columbia University.

It may be heart-wrenching, but don't open the door, experts say. A teacher has to think of the lives of the many who have moved to a safe place over the one person outside in the hallway who may bring danger in.

"You don't open that door until you know the police are on the other side," Ms. Rush said, adding, "You're doing it for the masses of kids."

It depends on their age. "We don't have to scare the heck out of these kids," Mr. Connors said. "In a kindergarten through third-grade building, you might tell the kids, come over here and sit down next to the wall. Be nice and quiet. I'm going to read you a book. That's all the kids have to know."

Mr. Connors does not believe in making drills too realistic. "You don't have to have someone come over and try to kick in the door. I don't think that's constructive. With staff, yes. But not with kids."

Phones should be put on silent, not even vibrating. "Texting is fine," Ms. Rush said. "You want to be invisible, and you want silence."

Ms. Rush said she was alarmed by the students who took videos while hiding from the gunman in Parkland, not because she disapproved of the video, but because it changed their mentality. "That could be taking them out of their survivor mode," she said.

The experts vary on whether this is possible. Some say that students who become violent are often not the ones who seem most troubled or who make the most noise. "The perpetrators are very often not the bullies or the guys roughing people up," Mr. Connors said. "Quite often, it's the guy who is quiet. In hindsight, they'll go back and find that there's some family or mental health issue."

Others say that schools can do more to enlist students to help identify troubled classmates. Social media can be an early warning system, the experts say. Students may express their violent thoughts there, as did Nikolas Cruz, who has been charged in the Florida shooting, according to law enforcement officials.

"These kids are begging us to stop them," said Amy Klinger, a co-founder of the Educator's School Safety Network, who consults on school safety from the perspective of the former teacher and principal that she is. "We just have to be better at picking up the warning signs."

The schools alone cannot do it. Arguably, Dr. Klinger said, the failure to identify Mr. Cruz as troubled was a failure of the entire community, along with law enforcement agencies that had been warned about him.

"A school can identify the individual of concern, but they didn't create that individual," Dr. Klinger said. "So yeah, there is a role that the community and parents and our society has to play in identifying and dealing with those individuals as well."

Law enforcement experts suggest hardening the perimeter, that is, putting up security cameras, door buzzers, gates, and other barricades or high-tech devices.

But they say that buzzers are not enough, especially at arrival and dismissal times when hundreds of students may be milling around.

"After Sandy Hook, a lot of schools got very panicky and bought $5,000 buzzer systems," Dr. Klinger said. "They bought the system that was breached by the intruder in the first 30 seconds of Sandy Hook. He shot out the door and walked into the school. So your buzzer system did absolutely no good."

Ms. Rush said that everyone at the front office should be informed when a student has been suspended or expelled. A photo should be posted, and they should call 911 if the person appears.

"This happens in corporate America all the time," she said. "Workplace violence, where the person comes back and wants to kill the boss."

Dr. Klinger said that schools should invest in teachers who mingle with students in the lobby or in hallways as a way to learn about troubling behavior that may be brewing.

Even in a large school, the experts said, doors need to be manned by someone who knows the students and will recognize anyone who looks out of place. Dr. Klinger said that this should be a teacher, who relates to the students, not a security guard.

"If you want to take this to the extreme, you can ensure the safety of kids by locking them in a cell, but that's a prison," Dr. Klinger said. "This is not a prison. It's not a shopping mall."

Cultivate the survivor mentality, experts said. Fight. "If he's coming no matter what, if you got that one guy who starts breaking the door out, you take every object in the room and you beat the hell out of him to disarm him, because you're going to die if you don't," Ms. Rush said. "So you might as well take your chances of trying to fight."

Ms. Rush gave the example of a professor who, as a gunman approached, took his phone out to look at pictures of his children one last time before he died. "But a female student jumped and ran and locked the door. She had survivor instinct."

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Should Teachers Carry Guns? Are Metal Detectors Helpful? What Experts Say

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Paul Hankins keeps a box of smooth, colorful river stones - he calls them "fidgets" - in his classroom for students to hold when they need to soothe their nerves. The stones also have a different purpose, as do the billiard balls and the plank from the old gym floor.

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Indicators of School Crime and Safety reports data gathered from students about their perceptions of safety over time within their campuses. As an overall trend, students report that security and surveillance has increased since the late 1900s (Zhang, Wang, Zhang, Kemp, Diliberti, Oudekerk, et. al, 2018).
The article from The New York Times evaluates various aspects of school safety and includes primary sources of information to cover various perspectives of school safety. The article includes information about teachers carrying weapons, the helpfulness of metal detectors, the purposes of lockdown drills, how to communicate with students about threats, the usage of cellphones during events, identifying troubled students, and the purchase of security devices (Hartocollis & Fortin, 2018).
As a Christian, it is important to me that, in the fight of good versus evil, good wins and evil doesn't. As an educator, it is all about my students. They come first, and their best interest is my guiding factor. The focus of school safety should be what is best for the teachers and students within that school.
The issue of school security is a highly controversial topic, but it is a topic of major importance, as lives are at stake. As an educational administrator, it is my upmost priority that my teachers and students are safe and continue to be so. However, legal regulations prevent and limit the actions that an administrator can take to protect their schools. In addition, because there are so many parties involved (law makers, administrators, principals, teachers, students, parents, others in the public arena), ethical views of this topic vary widely. It is hard to do the "right" thing when so many opinions of what is "right" exist. However, I personally believe that what is best for the students is the right thing to do.
In my future as an elementary administrator, I may encounter some scenarios of violence or threats. In addition, I may encounter more serious actions than I would like. However, these resources will hopefully aid me in responding to various situations that I may encounter.

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A Colleague's Padlet about Sexual Assault and Gun Violence

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A Colleague's Padlet about Sexual Assault and Gun Violence