Concealed carry in schools: some considerations

 As with metal detectors in schools, I am not pro arming teachers. I am not against arming teachers. I am for informed decisions, not knee-jerk, emotional reactions. This is a subject that should be thoroughly considered and the decision to arm school staff should have input from the teachers themselves, the parents, and everyone involved in the schools--even the students. It should not be a decision made lightly. 

I often see calls for arming teachers, usually after a school shooting. What I don't see is learning from past instances of guns mishandled in schools, so this post will cover just a few of those instances. The hope is that it will get people to start thinking things through, and for those who are pro arming teachers, to consider potential implications. Would I want my child to attend a school with armed staff? No. I would not want my child to potentially be in the line of friendly fire, and possibly injured or killed. Too many times, guns have discharged accidentally (I prefer negligently) in schools. My son is now grown so thankfully I don't have that worry.

The incident that sticks out most in my mind is that of Vicky Nelson in Ohio. Nelson was allowed to carry a weapon (a 9mm handgun) as part of the district’s concealed-carry plan to arm administrators and select staff members to protect students from potential gun violence. Yet Nelson, a transportation director in her district, left her handgun in an office where two first graders found the weapon. One of the children, the boy, was her grandson. The boy allegedly pointed the gun at the other first grader, a girl, and told her to put her hands behind her back, she was under arrest. Thankfully the boy did not shoot the girl. But it was what happened after the incident--lies and attempted cover up. Nelson is reported to have stated that she went to the restroom briefly and when she returned, the gun was in plain site, out of the case. Later it came out that she had left the gun unattended with the two students in the room while she drove to a nearby high school, being gone for about half an hour.

Rather than recap the entire incident here, I will post links to the story. Reading them all will give a clearer picture of the incident. It can also give interested persons something to think about when considering arming staff in their schools.

Elementary Students Gained Access to a School Administrator's Gun

School district takes heat after first graders accessed gun in unlocked case

Ohio first-grader points loaded gun at student in school office, email says

First-grader pointed gun at student, email that superintendent forgot says

Read the tweets in this piece by Shannon Watts:

Ohio Faculty Member Left Loaded Gun In School. First Grader Finds It & Threatens Another Child

Teachers need to be vetted thoroughly before hiring. Anyone who works with children should be vetted thoroughly. Thankfully no children were injured under this teacher's care:

Georgia teacher, 23, arrested for starting fire and firing gun in school

And then there are guns left in places where students can, and have, found them. Below are links to guns left where left in bathrooms and other places. This negligence can cost lives--is it an acceptable risk?

Some of these reports go back for some years, others more recent--which gives a glimpse into how this is not a one-off, not a rare occasion. And this is not an exhaustive list, by any means.

Somerset Academy Bay Student Finds Security Guard's Loaded Gun in Bathroom

Police: Whitney HS vice principal left gun unattended in bathroom

Texas school chief ousted for handgun get $106K severance

Kindergarten teacher allegedly drunk, carrying loaded pistol at school

Duplin County Sheriff: Teacher accidentally brings gun to class

Teacher charged after students find her loaded gun in bathroom

Teacher arrested for carrying a gun to school

Local janitor charged for bringing gun to school

Report: Loaded gun fell out of substitute teacher’s waistband on Pinellas County playground

Seaside High teacher accidentally fires gun in class, students injured

Whitney Middle School teacher left gun unattended in teacher's workroom

Second incident of unattended gun in Whitney ISD

Louisa teacher charged with possession of a firearm on school property

And then there's this: "A chemistry teacher who said he would be willing to be trained to carry a weapon to protect students at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., has been charged for allegedly leaving a loaded pistol in a public restroom." 

Parkland teacher charged with leaving loaded gun in public restroom 

Even trained security/law enforcement has had problems:

Gun discharges during struggle between deputy, high school student

Students find cop's gun in bathroom in middle of school day

Missoula school resource officer on leave, left gun in bathroom

Ringgold student finds security guard's loaded gun in bathroom

5th-grader takes security guard’s gun at school, officials say

Girls Find Cop's Gun in Bathroom at Catherine Cook School in Old Town

School officer suspended after leaving gun in middle school restroom

Video shows aftermath of school resource officer accidentally firing during school 

School security officer accidentally shoots maintenance worker in the face

Dania Beach Middle School Worker Brought Gun to School on First Day: 

"BSOA security specialist at a "Dania Beach middle school was arrested after he brought a gun to the school in his car on the first day of classes, authorities said."

Details Emerge About School-Shooting Suspect

"The alleged gunman in the Kelly Elementary shooting had a license for his .357 Magnum handgun, according to Carlsbad police."

"Brendan O'Rourke, 41, was a licensed security guard. O'Rourke's security patrol license, or guard card, isn't set to expire until January 2011, according to the California State Department of Affairs."

There are many more instances not even listed; it would take a lot of time to catalog them all. With trained law enforcement and security specialists having these issues, how are we to expect that school personnel will do better? Especially considering all of the links above. 

These links don't even go into the possible liabilities should a school employee's weapon cause harm to others, or the myriad other considerations. Humans are fallible. Humans make mistakes. And the idea of arming school employees needs to be thoroughly considered. Some were trained, and were still negligent.

Is arming school employees worth the risk? Why are we not being more proactive before jumping to reactive?

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Content copyright © J Clark 2022. Please seek permission to use material from this blog.

Clear backpacks--safety or security theater?

 

I often hear people--parents, mostly--ask for schools to provide clear backpacks to all of their students. I disagree with this because clear backpacks have not been shown to keep weapons out of schools. More on that in a moment. If parents want their child to have a clear backpack, they are available on Amazon if not in your local stores. No one is stopping you from purchasing a clear backpack. 

Since Uvalde, more schools are requiring clear back packs. Note: The killer did not tote his weapon/s into the school in a clear backpack. People saw the weapon. People heard the weapon. He still gained entry.

In this photo, which I personally took, there are a good number of weapons hidden in the notebook, the lunch bag, and wrapped in the gym clothes--knives, guns, lighters, etc. The water bottle contains vodka. So much for a "clear" backpack, eh? Some students have put black backpacks inside of the clear ones! They know that no one will have the time to look intently over each and every student's backpacks.

The intruder shooter is more rare but you can bet they won't be using a clear backpack... (See: Uvalde.)

Hearing the calls for this purchase or that purchase, I can understand the fear. Columbine, as well as several other rampage shootings, happened when my son was in elementary school. Woods were around one side of the playground, and a subdivision on another side. Teens from the subdivision built treehouses in those woods overlooking the playground--easy for a sniper to hide and shoot at kids, as happened in Jonesboro, Arkansas when 11 and 13-year-old boys shot and killed classmates and teachers. I was worried about my son attending school during that time. But I was also researching school shootings as a researcher for the book Raising a Nonviolent Child, by author John Rosemond. I realized that, while horrible tragedies, they remained relatively rare occurrences. 

I have been researching school shootings for almost 25 years now, and can say that a clear backpack is not likely to stop a school shooter.

In researching school shootings for over two decades, I have studied in detail how the shooter got into the school, time of day, location/s of the shooting, weapons used, how the gun was brought into school, and so on. I notice trends, I notice patterns. I'll list a few of them and list a few of the reasons why I don't think clear backpacks would be a worthy investment for a school to take on. If parents want to speak to their school boards, at least do some research to make informed decisions, rather than knee-jerk emotional decisions. 

One--The backpacks are clear. If a student wanted to shoot up his/her school, they wouldn't put a gun in a clear backpack for all to see. Kid have hidden guns in band instrument cases, lunch boxes, trench coats, waistbands, pockets, strapped to their legs, under blankets, etc. 

"They [students] very typically just hide the weapon inside something in the bookbag. They take a book and hollow it out and put a gun in the book. This is not an anomaly. It’s a repeatedly used method. They buy all of these different containers and put the gun in there, or they put it in a tennis shoe or wrap the gun in their gym shorts. They get a rifle and put it in a musical instrument case."

Clear Backpacks Probably Won’t Prevent School Shootings

"Clear backpacks are security theater. Weapons and other items can still be hidden inside. There are many other proven best practices in school safety that may be less visible, but more meaningful."

National School Safety and Security Services

"A North Carolina school district plans to auction off 46,000 unused clear backpacks as it tries to recover money it spent under a plan for increased security in schools.

The Charlotte Observer reports that the Charlotte-Mecklenburg district spent almost $500,000 on the backpacks for high school students. Critics, however, said little to no research has proven that the backpacks can help stop weapons at the door. The backpacks ultimately were not used after school officials were surprised to find many of them had a warning label about cancer-causing chemicals while unpacking them."

School district to auction off unused clear backpacks

Two--More school shootings are happening in parking lots before or after school. They may have had their weapons in their vehicles, or hidden outdoors, which a number of shooters have done. More shootings are happening at recess or outdoor lunch, or just before or after school on the sidewalk. When it is harder to get guns and knives inside of the schools, shooters will still find a way. A clear backpack won't stop a determined shooter.

Three--These items just give a false sense of security. They are just one more expense that can take away from already strained budgets for security. Feeling safe isn't the same as being safe. Which do you want--to feel safe? Or to be safe?

There are a number of books and resources to learn more about school safety. I highly recommend Readiness and Emergency Management for Schools (REMS)

This book by school safety expert Dr. Ken Trump is a very good resource:

School Safety and Violence Prevention is also a very good resource.

In the meantime, the best things you yourself can do to help prevent school shootings is to stay alert to your surroundings--numerous school shooters have carried out plans for months, and over a years' time, before carrying out their plans and no one noticed the small arsenals they were accumulating, or their deteriorating mental health, or their numerous other activities related to the planned shootings. 

If you own firearms, know where they are because you can bet your kids know. Don't think that your child is "too smart to touch them." You're wrong. Store them safely and store the ammo separately and safely.

Teach your kids about leakage. Leakage is when a student talks about a school shooting, talks about past school shootings, seems obsessed with school shootings, and may outright try to recruit others to help them commit a school shooting. Teach them how to report what they have heard safely. They should not announce that they are going to tell, but should report as soon as it is safe for them to do so. Some good ideas in this piece:

School shooters often hint at their plans. How to help kids spot threats

Get involved in your child's school. Attend school board meetings. Read up on school safety. Ask if your school regularly conducts safety audits (many, if not most, do not). If not, ask them why not. Form groups of like-minded parents. But educating yourselves on school safety--what's crap, what's worthwhile--first will go a long way to forging good relationships with school districts, rather than adversarial one.

**Update: Since I first posted this piece earlier today, several parents have told me that these plastic backpacks are cheaply made and soon fall apart under the heavy load of books, so schools no longer require the clear backpacks as a replacement!**

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Paying attention can pay off

While most people are waiting for this politician or that politician to “do something,” and while many people wait for the Second Amendment to be changed (good luck with that; it ain't as quick and easy as one thinks), there are things we can do to do our part in attempting to prevent as many school shootings as possible.

As we go about our daily lives, many have their faces stuck in their phones, tuning out the world around them. And right under our distracted noses, there may be someone planning to commit a crime, right in plain sight. But we don’t pay attention to our surroundings, we don’t practice situational awareness.

There’s another kind of distraction as well. Arguing over arming teachers, or not arming teachers. More guns in schools, or fewer. More police/SROs in schools, or fewer. Metal detectors, or no metal detectors. Make schools warm and welcoming, or turn them into prison-like fortresses. And while we’re distracted with arguing, or shouting at politicians on social media, what are kids doing? Even if they aren’t planning a school shooting, do you know what your kids are doing? Do you know how your kids are doing?

And while we don’t pay attention to what our kids are doing—whether we’re tied up in our jobs, personal lives, or other distractions, some kids are carrying out plans and amassing small arsenals right under our noses.

We can’t totally blame our devices for distracting us. Everyday tasks and concerns can consume us as well. In thinking of the Westside Middle School shooting in Jonesboro, Arkansas in 1998, cell phones and other devices were not as prevalent then, but we were similarly distracted from what was going on around us. Two boys, 13 and 11-years-old, stole a small arsenal of weapons from a relative without being detected. The night before their planned shooting, the boys packed the 13-year-old's mother’s van with 9 weapons, 2,000 rounds of ammunition, food, and camping supplies. Their activities went unnoticed by any adult.

The next morning, missing the bus on purpose, the 13-year-old took his mother’s vehicle keys while she was distracted with taking care of a younger child, and drove off with her van. While driving to pick up his 11-year-old accomplice, he nearly ran into a stop sign. No one called police that a young boy was driving a Dodge Caravan, which he nearly wrecked.

After picking up his accomplice, the 13-year-old recognized that they needed gas. Driving up to a gas station, neither boy knew how to pump gas. After asking for help several times, they left to go to another gas station. No one called police that two young boys, dressed in camo on a school day morning, we driving around without an adult. At the second gas station, again, no one would help the boys pump gas into the van, and so they left for a third gas station.

At the third gas station that the boys went to, someone did help them to pump gas and then they were on their way—but still no one called in to police, or even asked the boys what they were up to and where their parents were.

After parking the van near some woods, one boy got the weapons ready for the sniper-style attack which they would soon carry out, killing four of their classmates and a teacher. Ten others were wounded. They walked some distance, dressed in camo with 9 weapons between them, on a school morning, and no one reported them. No one asked "hey, what are you kids up to?" No one who saw the boys that day reported their activities to police or the school. Right under our noses…

Similarly, the Columbine shooters carried out a good deal of preparation without anyone noticing. They amassed a good number of weapons, ammo, and bomb-making supplies.  An article in the Denver Post revealed that their arsenal included “95 explosive devices—enough firepower to wipe out their school and potentially hundreds of students.”  No one noticed a thing. 

The shooters, on the morning of the shooting, stopped by a convenience store to purchase propane. No one asked these two boys why they needed to purchase propane on a school morning. No one thought it suspicious enough to call it in, or question the boys.

The two shooters placed several propane bombs in a park. These were to be decoys to get police presence at the park and to delay a police presence at the school, but the bombs got little attention. All of this planning never caught the eye or ear of any adult—including the younger shooter’s probation officer. The judge who oversaw the boys' mandated diversion program praised them for their good behavior and allowed them out of the program early.

All of this planning took place over some 13 months, without anyone noticing. Right under our noses…

Studying how a shooter or shooters were able to pull off their plans gives us lessons in what to do better. Each shooting gives us many lessons, but, sadly, these lessons have not been learned since Columbine, and school rampages still happen. I often think of former FBI Agent Mary Ellen O'Toole's words from a few years ago: “On the news, people are saying we should be concerned about this and that, and I thought, ‘We identified that 20 years ago. Did you not read this stuff 20 years ago?’ … It’s fatiguing. I just feel a sense of fatigue.”

Pay attention. If something seems off, report it to authorities. It isn't our job to decide if it is a credible concern; that's the job of law enforcement. If you are driving by a school and see something suspicious, call 911. I also keep the phone numbers of the local schools in my phone, as well as that of the school superintendent if I happen to see something amiss. If you hear someone making threats or talking about school violence, call law enforcement. Paying attention can pay off. 

My letter to the editor:  We should all do our part

My follow up letter to the editor:  Pay Attention

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