Although schools remain one of the safest places for children, the recent shootings across the country have many educators, parents and students wondering how schools can prevent more tragedies, especially when the killers are inside the schoolyard walls.
“Schools are still very safe, but the incidents now are much more severe,” said Ron Stephens, executive director of the National School Safety Center. “The firepower that youngsters are bringing on is increasing.”
Thursday’s shooting in the cafeteria of an Oregon high school was the fifth involving an American school since March, when four girls and a teacher were shot to death during a false fire alarm in Jonesboro, Ark. Two boys, ages 11 and 13, are accused of pulling the alarm and then firing at their classmates as they left the building.
Earlier this week, an 18-year-old honor student in Fayetteville, Tenn., allegedly opened fire in a school parking lot, killing a classmate who was dating his former girlfriend.
“One solution is to make schools more secure with security guards and metal detectors,” said Charles Patrick Ewing, a law and psychology professor at State University of New York at Buffalo and author of “Kids Who Kill” and “When Children Kill.”
“But (these methods) keep outsiders from getting in. It doesn’t stop cases where the kids we want in the schools are doing the shooting.
“At the school level, I’m not sure there are any real solutions. I’m not sure schools should be burdened with the task of preventing juvenile homicide.”
Schools are trying, however. Most districts have zero-tolerance policies about bringing weapons to school. The Gun-Free Schools Act, signed into law in October 1994, mandates that each state have a mandatory expulsion policy for any student who brings a weapon to school. Since then, expulsion rates have soared nationwide. In Illinois, expulsions have doubled over the last decade and tripled at the elementary school level.
About half the nation’s schools experienced some crime during the 1996-97 school year and about 10 percent reported serious or violent crimes, according to a recent national survey on violence and discipline problems at public schools by the not-for-profit National Center for Education Statistics in Washington, D.C.
The most common security measures include having visitors sign in, closing the campus for most students during lunch and controlling access to the school building and grounds. About 6 percent of schools have police or other law-enforcement representatives stationed at the school 30 hours or more a week. Three percent of all public schools require students to wear uniforms. Metal detectors, used in Chicago high schools, are installed in 1 percent of schools across the country.
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“Sure, I feel absolutely safe because there is security outside the school and inside the school, and they’re very protective,” said Keturah Clark, 19, a senior at Robeson High School in Chicago’s Englewood neighborhood. “I think no one would have guns up here because they check us like we’re in a prison.”
The full-time presence of law-enforcement officials, while rare at elementary schools, was found in 10 percent of middle schools and 19 percent of high schools, according to the National Center for Education Statistics study released in March.
Four junior highs in Schaumburg District 54 have a juvenile resource officer from the village’s police department. Last May at Schaumburg’s Frost Junior High, a 13-year-old pupil brought a sawed-off shotgun to school to intimidate classmates. He fired one shot into the ground on school property.
Afterward, guidelines limited what can be kept in backpacks, and pupils were told their lockers could be searched. Later, backpacks were banned in hallways and classrooms.
“I think that short of making the schools an armed camp, it’s virtually impossible to protect every moment of the day from total madness,” said Arlen Gould, school board president for Wheeling School District 21. “And yet, I believe our buildings are as safe as they can be.”
High School District 214 in the northwest suburbs has eight police counselors in its schools and is experimenting with other security measures. Elk Grove High School recently installed security cameras, while Rolling Meadows has a keyless entry system.
Elgin High School in District U-46 also has a police officer inside the school, a security table at the door, random locker and backpack searches, and occasional searches with a portable metal detector.
“After (the 1988 Laurie Dann shooting spree in Winnetka) everyone scrambled to increase building security. We locked up the buildings to keep outsiders out,” said Elgin High School Principal Ron O’Neal. “But lately, it is the students who are doing the shooting, and we can’t protect them from that. We have to depend on students to report things and tell us what is going on. And we have to be able to guarantee them anonymity.”
Sue Gamm, chief specialized services officer for the Chicago Public Schools, prepared e-mails Thursday, advising principals and teachers on how to handle questions from children about the Oregon shooting. Gamm, who called for a national dialogue on the way violence is portrayed in the media, emphasized new programs that encourage students to confide in their teachers, counselors and principals.
“We have to do a better job of identifying kids in crisis so that we can address their feelings of anger–this is anger here–and giving them other outlets to express their anger,” Gamm said. “And that’s by everybody. It’s not just a social worker’s job, it’s not just a counselor’s job, it’s not just a parent’s job. It’s everybody’s job.”
Still, students say they feel safe at their schools and can’t imagine tragedies similar to those in Jonesboro, Ark., or Springfield, Ore., happening in their schools.
“I feel very safe here, but I’m sure that all the other kids felt that way until it happened at their school,” said 17-year-old Lauren Youngblood of Hoffman Estates, who attends Schaumburg High School.