School shootings. Ideas on how to reduce the damage?

[Vamoose]

Lock all external doors to exit only and monitor the one entrance door.

 

[piston10]

Lock all external doors to exit only and monitor the one entrance door.

With armed, well trained guard.

 

[jdagreek]

Unless we turn our schools into armed fortresses....we won't ever completely be safe. Barring that, schools can take a lot of basic steps to try and mitigate the damage.

My kid's school has only one way in during the day, and that route takes you past the large glassed in front office. The folks who man that office take visitors seriously. My kids have been going to that school for almost a decade and they still challenge me when I come in. All the classroom doors are thick metal/wood with a small reinforced glass window with a pulldown shade. Doors to all classrooms stay locked while class is in session and the door is not opened during class unless the teacher knows who is requesting entry. They practice their lockdown drills every quarter etc...

Other than a full time LEO patrol, I am comfortable that they are doing just about everything they can.

What you describe would be a good start. And, I think it is doable by about every school with little or zero disruption to the mission of schools, which is to educate our children and grandchildren. When you think about a school there are only a few areas where a perpetrator can garner access to teachers and children. The target rich areas are where the kids are let off the bus and where they enter the school. You also have parking lots where some kids and teachers exit their autos and access the school buildings. There should be some way in most instances to limit the ingress and egress to the school buildings. Also fortify the classroom doors to restrict access to only teachers etc. Hell every hotel/motel room in this country has key access to the rooms. It can't be that expensive to have some kind of card entry to the classrooms. There are lots of ways schools can make their facilities less easy to access to those who have no reason to be there.

If there is someone out there who is bent on committing this kind of crime there is just no way to stop every one of them from having some success. Guns or no guns, there are hundreds of ways to commit these kinds of heinous crimes. History is full of examples of these kinds of acts.

 

[GroupGuy]

Good ideas, keep em coming.

 

[kroberts2131]

All it takes is one bad teacher to ruin the armed teacher idea. I think full time LEO's in addition to the security like SMS mentioned is the best idea.

 

[JCW355]

Lock all external doors to exit only and monitor the one entrance door.

Lot of good things mentioned already. There needs to be security measures in ALL schools. Armed school staff would be good for those who want to carry.

 

[10Seconds]

You guys are coming up with good ideas, but remember that many school shootings like Columbine were done by students. So a secure perimeter would not help when the shooter is already inside. Also while the idea of keeping the doors locked is good, but if you are a crazed shooter it would only take a round or two to get in through a window and all schools have a lot of these.

I dont think you can secure the school in a way to keep an intent shooter out. At least not in a cost effective way. We have got to come up with effective ways to stop one when he is already inside. Arming people inside is a good start.

But ultimately that would only reduce casulties not prevent these shootings. And if you have the school protected these sickos might just choose another target. What about the school bus when its almost full, etc.

The only way to prevent these tragedies is to identify the threat before he attacks.

Not that I would endorese it by any means but for discission purposes, a gun ban wo uld likely stop these shootings completely. While we know criminals will still be able to get guns the average guy would have a hard time and might get identified when he tried. Not one of any of these mass shooters was part of any criminal organization where he could have had easy access to guns. The all got them legally or from someone else who did.

 

[Gun Dude]

My kids' school is locked up during the day. A police officer should be stationed there IMO. They should not have to be hired, they should be provided. We pay enough in taxes for them to "guard" Quicktrips and speed traps, I don't think it's too much to ask that they have one officer in the school. I think it's time that local police departments focus a little more on serving their communities than running around writing tickets and being a general pain in our collective butt. Sapulpa has an abysmal police force that is way too big and not interested in serving anyone but themselves.
If necessary, I would have no problem kicking in some cash along with other parents for the added security even though we shouldn't have to.

 

[RyanSixer]

Lock all external doors to exit only and monitor the one entrance door.

This is how my school is. I have to admit, I've opened one of the doors for someone standing outside knocking. Granted, it was an elderly woman.

My sons school also has an office you have to sign in through before you can enter. It would be a good idea, to go along with arming teachers, to have at least one armed person in that office. Being as that is the point of entry and all. I mean as it stands now, if someone was wanting to get in to do harm, they could just barge on through the office and there would be nothing they could do.

We've got a sign-in office to the left of the entrance, but it's in a small room behind a wooden door, no windows. Farther down the hall are class rooms, as are to the right. Straight ahead is a library. It's really not safe at all..

 

[GroupGuy]

The purpose of the post is not to totally prevent this, read the title, but reduce the body count. We all know that someone with a death wish, intending to do harm, will succeed in doing harm. The point is to reduce the damage by said individuals. Arming security, teachers, staff, volunteers, is a way though it would require a change of legislation as it is currently against the law to carry there. Good ideas, keep em coming.