The beginning of a new year is an excellent time to reflect on the prior year and ponder what the next year may bring. As in our personal lives, professional observations may vary and forecasts will often not pan out. But looking from the lens of others can add perspective and depth to our views […]
Blog Archives
School safety: How will superintendents, principals, and boards keep schools safe – and save face with parents – when pandemic recovery money and state grants disappear?
Many school leaders are funding school security measures and student support services using Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Programs (ESSER) and/or American Rescue Plan (ARP) COVID pandemic recovery funds. If school leaders do not have a plan for sustainability once those dollars begin to disappear in the next year or two, school violence and […]
Parkland one year later: School security and emergency preparedness after the MSD school shooting
During the past half-dozen or so years, I have done an increasing about of expert witness and litigation consulting on pK-12 school security-related lawsuits. These types of cases have included high-profile active shooter cases, such as my retention by the defense for the Sandy Hook Elementary School litigation, as well as rape and other sexual […]
Election day school safety, security, and crisis preparedness
Election day school security is an issue principals, superintendents, and school board members around the country have grappled with in one form or another for more than a decade. We have seen administrators give more attention to the issue post-Columbine and post-9/11, not specifically because of Columbine and 9/11 threats per se, but as a result […]
Police in Schools are Prevention, Not Cuff-n-Stuff, Programs
Civil rights advocates who portray police in schools as overly arresting kids are simply wrong. Police officers who work in schools, commonly known as School Resource Officers (SROs), generally perform more as prevention programs where officers prevent incidents versus taking on a “cuff’n’stuff” role with the intent of increasing student arrests. That’s not stopping civil rights and other […]
Are Schools Prepared When a Terrorist Threat Comes to Their City?
Federal authorities acknowledge a credible terrorist threat to your city or to a city near you. What does a school principal and superintendent do? School officials faced this very reality last night when federal homeland security officials acknowledged a credible al-Qaeda terrorist threat to NY City and Washington, DC. School safety officials in New York City and DC likely […]
It’s Time to Rejuvenate School Safety, Security & Preparedness
Overloaded. Burned out. Unemployed. Distracted. Disjointed. Stressed. These are just a few words describing what I see and hear more and more every day. I find them among school staff, parents, neighbors, family, and about everywhere else life takes me each week. Uncertain Times Breed Stress and Anxiety We live in a time of economic uncertainty, political […]
Omaha School Shooting: Metal Detector or Mental Detector?
Hours after the shooting of Millard South High School principal Curtis Case, and shooting death of assistant principal Vicki Kaspar, metal detectors in schools became the buzz of media and community talk. Parents and communities understandably are grasping for a solution to a problem — school shootings — which has not been “fixed” for a over a […]
School Security Versus the CSI Effect & TSA Effect
Surveillance cameras and metal detectors are used to varying extents in a number of our nation’s school districts. Cameras are in place in many urban, suburban, and rural districts. Metal detectors tend to be used regularly in a smaller number of districts, often larger districts with a chronic history of weapons incidents. Parents, the media, […]
Tying Educators’ Hands In School Safety Efforts
Chuck Hibbert is a national school safety consultant (including for my company) and 21-year-veteran school district administrator over school security and school police services for a 15,000 student district in Indiana. Chuck takes issue with ““Taking Safety Too Far: The Ill-Defined Role Police Play in Schools,” February 24th commentary article in Education Week by authors and civil rights advocates Johanna Wald […]