*Updated February 11, 2023 Loaded gun confiscations and gun use spike on school campuses nationwide Many educators and school safety officials anticipated an increase in student aggression and violence as they returned to in-person learning following remote learning due to COVID. Unfortunately, schools are experiencing not only increased verbal and physical aggression, but also an […]
How Congress and the Biden Administration can restore meaningful programs to strengthen school safety, security, and emergency preparedness
Congress and the Biden Administration do not need to reinvent the wheel to improve safety in America’s PreK-12 schools. They need only do some homework to find multiple meaningful federal programs created in a bipartisan effort by Congress and the Clinton Administration following the 1999 school shooting attacks at Columbine High School that resulted in […]
School security expert witness says school safety civil lawsuits point to allegations of failures of human factors, not failures of security equipment and technology
Being retained as a school security expert witness in Pre-K12 school civil litigation cases ranging from the nation’s highest profile school active shooter cases and wrongful death cases (Sandy Hook, Parkland, San Bernardino, and others) to rapes and other sexual assaults, violent physical assaults, gang violence, crimes on school buses, and other lawsuits provides unique […]
Is remote learning the new crutch for school administrators when safety threats occur? School leaders are forcing students from in-person learning back to remote learning as fights, weapon confiscations, and other safety threats soar
As school violence surges across the nation following a return to in-person learning from pandemic school closures, educators are now forcing students back into remote learning as a knee-jerk response to escalating incidences of threats and violence. School safety experts are increasingly concerned that virtual learning is being misused by school administrators as a crutch […]
School administrators must revisit traditional school safety, security, and emergency crisis plans – not just COVID safety plans.
Students and teachers are back to in-person learning in most schools across the nation. Unfortunately, instances of school shootings, gun confiscations, stabbings, and other violence have also returned to our nation’s schools. In the past week alone, there have been at least four school shootings around the U.S., the most recent on Wednesday at a […]
Balancing school board meeting security and school administrator safety with parental engagement and First Amendment rights
A growing number of parents are frustrated and angry, in particular over school COVID-19 mask policies and hot topics such as discussions around “critical race theory” and school curriculum. Political dynamics from the federal level down to local school communities are exacerbating these tensions in some school communities. What used to be routine, mundane school […]
Swatting threats, with hoax reports of guns and shootings, target schools nationwide
A hoax school gunman threat at Bay High School in Bay Village, OH, is one of multiple swatting-type threats targeting schools across the nation, according to a Cleveland-based national school safety expert. Last Friday morning before the Bay High School threat, a similar hoax gun threat occurred where the 2018 Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School […]
How to do school safety drills while not colliding with COVID-19 safeguards
Quick takeaways: Many educators have yet to tackle how they will conduct school safety drills which conflict with COVID-19 social distancing and related best practices State department of education have yet to provide any guidance to school leaders for active shooter, lockdown, fire, tornado, and other drills State-mandated drill requirements have yet to be temporarily […]
Failed partnerships? If school boards throw out SROs/school-police, should they not also throw out their superintendents and principals?
Partnerships. School Resource Officer (SRO) programs are, by definition, built upon partnerships. The school-based police officers’ partners are school administrators — principals at the building level, superintendents at the executive level. In properly managed SRO programs, these partnerships are formalized in written Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) agreements. These MOUs are typically signed by school boards […]
In times of racial, community unrest with police, schools need quality School Resource Officer (SRO) police programs more than ever
As communities across the nation grapple with race and civil unrest with their police, children and police need to come together to collaboratively understand one another, their relationships, and their communities. There is no better form of true community policing than properly designed and implemented School Resource Officer (SRO) school-based policing programs. School boards, administrators […]