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This timeline shows gun related violence that has occurred in past centuries:
(Glavin, 2018)
(Glavin, 2018)
(Glavin, 2018)
(Glavin, 2018)
(Glavin, 2018)
(Glavin, 2018)
(Keneally, 2019)
Different types of safety drills...
Different types of safety drills...
Duck and Cover
Duck and Cover
Duck and cover drills were developed by the federal civil defense administration program in the 1950's during the cold war. These drills were a caution of the atomic bombs. They were teaching schools how to prevent getting hurt. Students were told to hide under their desks and cover their heads with their arms. Schools eventually stopped using these drills in the 1980's. (Duck & Cover, 2023).
Fire Drills
Fire Drills
Schoolhouse fires used to be prominent in the 1900’s. The first huge fire was in Collinwood, Ohio on March 4, 1908. A furnace overheated and killed 172 students and 2 teachers. This fire became the main reason why we have so many fire safety rules now. This set-in motion the easy and safe evacuation routes including fire exits with safety bars in schools (Keierleber, 2023).
Active Shooter Drills
Active Shooter Drills
Preparing schools for an active shooter only began happening after major school shootings. Following the Columbine shooting in 1999, policymakers passed new regulations in hopes to stop this issue. The policies put in place were preparing students for what could happen and not preventing shootings (Cahill et al., 2020).
First Three major school crisis's:
First Three major school crisis's:
William Butlers was a 28-year-old teacher. In his classroom, one of his students, William Ward, was eating food. Butler asked Ward to stop, but he did not listen. Butler then administered a whipping. The next day Ward's older brothers came to the school. After conflict arose between them and the teacher, the brother shot Butler and he unfortunately died. (Cornell, 2018)
Bath Consolidated School was a three-story building that held 314 students. The students were mostly children of farmers. May 18th, 1927, the north wing exploded. In the basement of the school there was another 500 pounds of unexploded pyrotol dynamite rigged up along with a container of gasoline, probably placed there to cause a fire if the dynamite failed. Sadly 44 people died and 38 of them were students. (Boissoneault, 2017)
Columbine High School , April 20th, 1999. Two teens went on a shooting spree killing 13 people and wounding more than 20 people. All this before turning the guns on to themselves, and shooting themselves. They originally walked into the school cafeteria and placed two duffle bags down. Each duffle bag had a 20 pound propane bomb set to explode shortly after they placed them down. When the bombs did not go off thats when they decides to go in with guns. (Cahill et al., 2020)
How did schools move forward in safety?
How did schools move forward in safety?
Some Legislation Facts:
-After both the 2012 Sandy Hook shooting and the 2018 Parkland shooting, policymakers added the highest number of laws focused on preparation strategies for school shootings (Cahill et al., 2020).
-After the 1999 Columbine shooting, "six states created legislation that required districts and schools to address bullying"(Cahill et al., 2020, p.11)
- Most states that have laws based around encouraging or requiring specialized training for SROs and other security personnel put them into action after 2012 (Cahill et al., 2020).
- As of 2019, "32 states encourage or require districts to train staff in emergency preparedness and school safety"(Cahill et al., 2020, p.25).
-49 state laws require "the creation of district- or school-level (emergency operations plans, EOPs) to guide school actions to prevent, mitigate, and respond to safety threats" (Cahill et al., 2020, p.27)
Hardening school buildings includes: (Cahill et al., 2020)
Access control systems
Video surveillance
Metal detectors
Classroom and building locks
Research did indicate that certain hardening protocols "may decrease perceptions of safety and students’ feelings of connectedness to school" (Cahill et al., 2020, p. 29)
- 28 states have requirements in laws that relate to hardening school buildings (Cahill et al., 2020).
-After the Columbine shooting, states added more detailed instructions to improved practice drill requirements (Cahill et al., 2020).
-As of 2019, "42 states encourage or require districts to implement such multi-hazard drills"(Cahill et al., 2020, p. 32).
After a school shooting occurs, policymakers establish new laws and regulations to hopefully prevent other shootings from happening. One important thing to note is that "many current proposals were already firmly embedded in state laws prior to the Parkland shooting in 2018 and the incidents still occurred" (Cahill et al., 2020, p.33).
Back then layouts of schools were not fire safe at all, now there are many ways to get from one floor to another. They had no fire safe doors, some doors opened inward, or fire doors were locked from the inside so no one could sneak in. In the Bath, Michigan fire of 1927, large amounts of students panicking could not open the latched fast enough which a lot of children ended up getting crushed. Which happened in a lot of fires back then because the doors opened inward and there were metal doorknobs. Fire safety regulations were put in place in all public buildings all around the country. Fire escape designs were altered, doorways were widened, and new doorknob styles were put into use. Crush bars, also called panic bars were added to all fire exit doors. Now because of all the fire tragedies in schools, theaters, and other public buildings there is a fire prevention week where we consider how to evacuate the buildings we are in if there is a fire. There is always an easily marked up route of a map somewhere on a wall, where there is a panic bar on a door at the end of the route (Crosswy, 2016).
They recommend whole-school efforts that "build positive school climates, support students’ character development and social-emotional learning"(Cahill et al., 2020, p.3). They also recommend multi-tiered systems of support:
Mental health.
Helping students understand their emotions.
Recognizing how actions could affect others.
Positive resolve conflicts.
(Cahill et al., 2020, p.3)
FSSC - Federal School Safety Commission
FSSC - Federal School Safety Commission
7 topics identified by the FSSC have emerged in state statutes and regulations over the past 20 years to "to identify best practices to prevent future school shootings" (Cahill et al., 2020, p.1).
Character development and culture of connectedness
Cyberbullying
Mental health and counseling
Anonymous reporting systems and threat assessments
School personnel training
School building security
Active shooter preparedness
(Cahill et al., 2020)
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