The shooting of a suspected burglar by a Pasadena (Texas) school police officer appears to have triggered an immediate scrutiny of school police officers as much as it did a scrutiny of the shooting itself. The suspect, an eighth-grader, was shot by the officer who responded to a school trailer burglar alarm at 12:30 a.m. […]
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Cafeteria worker saved lives at Chardon High School shooting
Cherie Reed, a cafeteria staff member at Chardon High School, comforted students and may have saved lives thanks to her quick thinking and action as shooter T.J. Lane fired gunshots, killing three students and wounding two others in the school’s cafeteria on Feb. 27 in Chardon, Ohio. Reed and student Travis Carter, a 16-year-old junior, […]
California school shooting suspect: Warning signs or not?
The founder of the California Christian university where a shooter killed seven people and wounded three others says the shooting suspect had not shown any signs of violence, according to an Associated Press story on the school shooting published on Saturday. But the same article also said, “Numerous administrators have said Goh grew angry during […]
Chardon High School shooting CNN interview shows media focus on school safety
Media and parent questions about school safety following a school shooting make up what we often refer to as “the post-crisis crisis” for educators, law enforcement officials and their community partners. School and safety leaders can expect to be asked tough, pointed questions about safety, security and emergency preparedness procedures in their schools. Gone are […]
Chardon High School shooting analysis reveals safety challenges, what works
Social media, reporting threats, drills, how schools can find out in advance about threats, and where we fall short in school safety were topics I discussed during an in-studio interview at the Cleveland ABC-affiliate on the evening of the nearby Chardon High School shooting. Are your schools prepared to prevent and manage a school shooting? Ken Trump Visit School Security […]
Jay Mathews’ “Overdoing School Security” Partially Hits Target
Locking down eight schools in the vicinity of a Los Angeles high school where a school police officer reported being shot was not overdoing school security. How the lockdowns were implemented probably was over-the-top, however. Jay Mathews, a respected education columnist for The Washington Post, partially hit his target in challenging the way lockdowns were put […]
Congress & School Boards Beef Up Their Security, But Not For Kids
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 […]
What Parents Expect After a Shooting & Pipe Bombs at School
A 14-year-old South Carolina high school student shoots at a school resource officer (SRO). He has two pipe bombs in his backpack. A search of the student’s home finds a wide array of items including shotgun and handgun shells, multiple cigarette lighters, exploded bomb pieces, 14 carbon dioxide cartridges, and the list goes on. Authorities later find […]
Knoxville School Shootings: Were they Foreseeable?
An elementary school principal and assistant principal were allegedly shot by a teacher this past Wednesday. It only took two days before news headlines started reading: Teacher who allegedly shot principals called a ‘time bomb’; School officials investigated negative claims about Foster Brother of alleged shooter at Inskip Elementary blames schools; Sibling says he warned […]