Reply to MCPS policies to prevent school shootings

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Hardening schools is not the same thing as achieving school safety. Most school shooters are part of the school community in some way (whether current or in the past) and know the security and blindspots. It has to start with creating a culture of trust and support. [/quote]

[b]That's not the approach we take for concerts, athletic events or the airport. Why are schools supposed to be a free-for-all when they house our most precious resource?[/b][/quote]

THIS. No one can seem to answer this fundamental question. Why do we protect concerts, government buildings, sport events, airports, etc. with armed security but not high schools with 2000+ students?  Are they not worth protecting? In fact, schools are government buildings.  [/quote]

Because when you go to the airport, a concert or a mall you are around strangers. Because they are strangers there is an inherent amount of distrust being around them. When you go to school with the same students and teachers every day they aren’t strangers. But, having the same types of security signals you shouldn’t trust the people around you every single day. This makes kids feel less safe, not more safe. This is why the focus needs to be on trust not on creating prisons. [/quote]

Just to add one more thing here, when you exist in that security environment every day you easily see the blindspots. So a student determined to commit violence wants to, they will figure out how. The vast vast majority of incidents are committed by those already connected to the school in some way; it’s not an unknown stranger trying to infiltrate the school. The focus needs to be on prevention— building trust, addressing social skills (SEL), school climate, mental health services, and overall building connection between students and school. And gun control to make sure if an incident does happen it isn’t so immediately deadly. [/quote]

Even if I buy what you're saying, that the way to make schools safer is to, as you say "build trust, address social skills, school climate, mental health services and overall building connection between students and school," those are all LONG-TERM solutions that would take perhaps years to implement and to see the effect of it.

So let's assume those long-term solutions are viable and worth doing.

What are we doing in the immediate and short-term to prevent the next violent incident from happening next week or next month? What are your solutions for that? That is what most parents are asking and demanding from the schools.[/quote]

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