Responding to the active shooter threat

With the most recent school shooting in Iowa, the cries for a police officer in every school has risen again. The fact is that there are numerous reasons that a uniformed police officer is not an answer to the problem. The first issue is the cost of salary and benefits that the school district has to bear. The response to that is to hire retired law enforcement officers, but the mobility of a 50+ officer reduces the response time. In the Iowa case, officers were on the scene in seven minutes, which is a similar time it would take an officer to get from one end of a large campus to the other. A retired officer could take even longer.
Uniformed police officers have been on the campus of most of the mass shootings dating back to Columbine. It has been established that most of the devastation occurs prior to the arrival of the first officer. In many of the cases, the shooter has already taken his own life before the first officer(s) arrive.
There are things which can be done to reduce the magnitude of the event without building prison-quality structures, Some of them are:
Building a Foyer entrance
The enclosure should be a walkway between twenty and fifty feet in length and eclosed in glass. The first doorway is normal glass doors while the entry into the school being bullet-resistant glass doors with an electronic lock that can be released from the office. There should be an intercom system halfway for use by visitors after the class day begins and the entry doors to the school locked. The hallway should have a camera that can be viewed from the office.
Electro-magnetic locks on all classrooms
Should an incident occur, the principal would enable the electro-magnetic lock on all of the classroom doors. The lock would be able to be opened individually with a kay card in the possession of all of the staff. A staff member needs to be assigned to the responding police officers to open the classroom doors.
Exterior Doors
All exterior doors need to have an alarm wired into the central office that will alert them if any door is opened.
Cameras
Surveillance cameras need to be installed in all hallways so that an open door or other situation can be monitored from the central office.
Drop Down Gates
Electronic gates should be installed at the end of all hallways and steps that can be activated from the Principal’s Office. The same key card can be used to open each gate individually for the tactical team.
Arming Staff
The concept of arming teachers and staff with firearms is fraught with danger for the following reasons:
1. Is the armed teacher expected to leave their classroom and respond to the gunfire, abandoning their own students?
2. Police officers have qualified immunity from actions in the performance of their duties. Staff and the school district are not afforded that protection (NOTE: Police officers receive sixty hours of firearm training and have an accuracy rate of approximately thirty-three percent.)
3. Will a teacher or staff member actually jkll a 14, 15 or 16 year old child? (NOTE: The only reason a police officer will is they will react to their training and not think about their action until after the shot(s) have been fired).
Escape Window
The rear window of the classroom should be modified to serve as a door opening to the inside. It can be used as an escape route for the students and will work on all floors of the school. For the second floor and higher, the students can be extricated with the use of a fire ladder truck.
Placard
When an emergency lock-down is implemented, the teacher should put a placard in the window of the hallway door to block the view of anyone passing. The placard could be of a certain color or fruit of the day. It would be announced in the morning announcements. When officers pass the room, seeing the correct placard will tell them that room is safe and they can move on.
Students
Students of middle and high school age should be trained to exit the building with their hands in the air. That reduces the confusion of the officers because they would know that the students can not hurt them. Keep in mind that the police do not know who are ‘good guys’.
Finally, the costs for these safety measures is a one-time expenditure and should be low maintenance. The cost of police officers is an ongoing expense and would be less effective. Having one police officer is still a wise choice.
The reality is that this type of incident is not likely to be preventable because of the mental status of the perpetrator. But the ability to reduce the damage risk is something that will always need to be improved.