Shoot a kid in school, and school safety budgets get cut. But when the shooting is at school board members or elected officials, one of the first discussions is the need for greater security measures. I have watched closely the reactions to December’s shooting at school board members in a Florida school district and now […]
Blog Archives
Omaha School Shooting: Metal Detector or Mental Detector?
Hours after the shooting of Millard South High School principal Curtis Case, and shooting death of assistant principal Vicki Kaspar, metal detectors in schools became the buzz of media and community talk. Parents and communities understandably are grasping for a solution to a problem — school shootings — which has not been “fixed” for a over a […]
Is the Next School Board Shooter Coming to Your Meeting?
Economic problems. Mental health issues. Frustrations at a boiling point. Does this describe anyone in your school community? Could they be the next person to walk through your school’s Administration Building doors or into your next school board meeting? In a December 15, 2010, article entitled, “School board shooter in Florida had frustrated, turbulent life along […]
School Board Shooting Points to Administration Security Needs
A shooting at a Bay District Schools’ board meeting in Florida on Tuesday illustrates the need for school boards and superintendents to include security and crisis planning measures at school administration buildings and support sites. Security is often neglected for school district central office buildings, board meetings, and other administrative sites. Well-intended board members, superintendents, and […]
School Boards Challenge Education Dept Civil Rights Bullying Order
The National School Boards Association (NSBA) is challenging the federal Education Department’s “expansive reading of the law” in which the Department redefines bullying as potential federal civil rights violations. The Department’s Office for Civil Rights issued a 10-page “Dear Colleagues Letter” (DCL) to the nation’s schools on October 26th in which the Department redefined discipline […]
Study: No Link Between Large High Schools & Bullying Victimization
An illusion. That’s how a University of Virginia study describes the perceived link between large high schools and higher student victimization of bullying. A November 2010 Journal of Educational Psychology article entitled, “Is the link between large high schools and student victimization an illusion?,” reports the rate of bullying offenses was actually lower in larger schools. Similar […]
Cell Phones, Texting, School Safety, and Discipline
There is no constitutional right for students to have cell phones in schools. This is one of several points I made in an interview for a Fox News Channel national story earlier this week entitled, “Zero Tolerance for Classroom Texters.” The peg for the story is a Benicia High School (California) policy where school administrators […]
Lag in Wisconsin school hostage response raises questions
How does a student hold two dozen people hostage in a high school classroom with knives, two guns, and more than 200 rounds of ammo for about two hours without someone noticing? Students and others asked similar questions after a student took 23 students and his teacher hostage in Marinette, Wisconsin, last week. Hostages were released, […]
Armed Student Shoots Self After Taking 24 Hostages in Classroom
A Marinette, Wisconsin, student took 23 students and a teacher hostage in a high school classroom, later releasing them and shooting himself on Monday evening. Teaching Kids to Fight Armed Intruders? Interestingly, the week prior to Thanksgiving I received a call from school crisis team members from one of the nation’s largest school districts. They […]
Congress, The Nation’s Biggest Bullies: Fix Your Own Incivility
“Search for civility grows in Washington after midterms,” a recent U.S.A. Today headline reads. On the surface, the article appropriately details the polarized, hostile, and personally-attacking nature of today’s D.C. politics. But having testified four times to Congress on school safety, and getting a closer view of the behind-the-scenes nature of American politics, I particularly […]