Education Week - December 11, 2013 - 18

Scattered Policy Changes Followed Shootings
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1
as suicides, according to data from the U.S. departments
of Education and Justice. But the
most recent information available from those
agencies doesn't include the 2012 deaths in
Newtown. More children ages 5 to 18 died in
that single event than in homicides at schools
nationwide in six of the last 15 years, the data
show.
But statistical realities may not calm the
fear of anxious parents after tragic events
that are widely covered by national media,
said Michael S. Dorn, the executive director
of Atlanta-based Safe Havens International, a
school safety consulting group. He said schoolrelated
actions after Sandy Hook came from a
sense many state and district leaders had that
"people needed to feel safe," even about statistically
improbable possibilities.
Police Presence
The armed security that some districts
added in the wake of Sandy Hook came in all
forms: police officers, contracted guards, even
volunteer military veterans.
At a Newtown school board meeting after the
shooting, a mother asking board members for a
long-term police presence in the schools put it
this way: "We feel this has gone from a want to
need." Newtown has assigned police officers to
all of its schools, First Selectman Pat Llodra
said in a June blog post.
School security data from the National Center
for Education Statistics do not include the
two most recent school years, so it is impossible
to track how many schools have added school
resource officers since the shooting. But school
security organizations have said an increased
demand for training courses and tactical equipment
suggest an uptick.
Such a response is common after a largescale
event of school violence, Mr. Dorn said.
But adding armed officers at the elementary
level is an element of the Sandy Hook response
that is atypical, he said.
SANDY HOOK:
WORDS AND ACTIONS
The months following the massacre at Sandy Hook
Elementary School were filled with emotional responses
from victims' family members and influential educational
and political leaders. Here's a sampling of their remarks
and the actions that followed:
"
I still find myself reaching for
Dylan's hand to walk through a parking
lot or expecting him to crawl into bed
beside me for early morning cuddles
before we get ready for school. It's so
hard to believe he's gone. ... I've had
the honor to meet people from similar events at Aurora,
Columbine, and Virginia Tech and hope that they can
teach us ways to help heal our families and town. I do
not want to be someone sharing my experience and
consoling another parent next time. I do not want there
to be another next time." (Jan. 14, 2013)
Nicole Hockley, mother of 6-year-old Dylan
> In the last year: Ms. Hockley collaborated with former U.S. Rep.
Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz., and a teacher to write an anti-violence
lesson plan for schools. The resulting "Hands of Hope for Sandy
Hook" materials are hosted on the UClass.org website.
18 | EDUCATION WEEK | December 11, 2013 | www.edweek.org
As schools have added officers, critics of "zero
tolerance" discipline policies have feared that
the additional police presence will lead to excessively
harsh discipline, said Matthew M.
Cregor, an assistant council for the NAACP Legal
Defense and Education Fund.
"As more officers have been placed in our
schools and more funding removed for counselors,
we've found that school resource officers are
being misused to address the types of matters
that are better handled by parents and educators,"
he said.
Arming Staff
Many educator groups, including the
National Association of Secondary School
Principals and the National Association of
Elementary School Principals, have said
only police officers should carry weapons
in schools, but some districts have instead
opted to train and arm staff members-
including teachers. Alternatives to school
resource officers were among recommendations
included in a report released in April
by a National Rifle Association task force,
which suggests a training plan for armed
school personnel and changes in state laws
that prohibit or hinder the carrying of firearms
on school grounds.
After Newtown, lawmakers in 29 states filed
62 bills that would have allowed teachers to
bring guns to school, permitted local school
boards to designate employees who could be
armed, created training programs for school
employees, and eased other restrictions. Of
those bills, just six have passed.
A new law in Texas, for example, created
school marshals, a designation for existing
school employees who will be authorized by
their school boards to be trained to confidentially
carry weapons in schools. New laws in
Kansas, Mississippi, South Dakota, and Tennessee
allow districts to authorize employees
with concealed-weapons permits and required
training to carry guns in their schools.
Districts also used existing laws and loop-
holes to arm their staffs.
The school board of the 1,000-student Mont-
pelier, Ohio, district voted shortly after the
Newtown shootings to allow some staff members
to carry their own firearms on school
grounds. A year later, Montpelier Superintendent
Jamison J. Grime won't say how many
employees carry guns on the district's single
campus, but he confirmed that the program
remains in place.
"We just don't have the resources to hire
somebody just to be here in case of an emergency,"
he said.
In Arkansas, some school districts quietly
acquired private security guard credentials
for staff members and teachers. A state
licensing board for security guards has since
halted the practice, allowing the dozen districts
involved to keep their existing guard
credentials for two years.
But few widely followed discussions of
arming school employees led to broad policy
change, said Ms. Goins of the Council of State
Governments. And that's also true of other
proposals related to school safety, she said.
"We really didn't see the major outcome after
all that flurry of initial activity," Ms. Goins said.
An Education Week analysis of measures
tracked by the National Conference of State
Legislatures found that state lawmakers proposed
442 bills and resolutions related to school
safety and guns in schools since the Sandy
Hook shooting. Of the 77 of those bills that
were signed into law, 42 were related to school
emergency planning. Those measures included
new requirements in many states for districts
to practice lockdown drills with the regularity
of severe weather and fire drills, and the formation
of school safety study groups. (See chart,
facing page.)
Federal Efforts
At the federal level, most efforts have also
stalled or failed.
After the shootings, the Department of Education
went to work on new safety guidelines
for schools, which were issued in July.
In January, President Barack Obama's administration
unveiled a wish list of proposals
that needed legislative approval, including
new restrictions on gun sales and a litany
of new federal programs aimed at bolstering
school safety and student mental health. None
of the proposed new programs included in that
list has been enacted into law.
Mr. Obama sought a ban on assault weapons
sales, magazine-capacity limits, and increased
background-check requirements for
gun purchasers. Those efforts failed for lack of
congressional support.
The president also proposed $150 million in
new money for school-based resource officers
and mental-health professionals, $50 million
for training new social workers, $30 million
to help districts revamp their emergency-preparedness
plans, and $15 million in new funding
to train teachers in "mental-health first
aid." Congress, which has been bent on reining
in spending, has not provided the funding for
those initiatives so far.
Senate committees approved legislation
that would authorize funding for security infrastructure
upgrades, encourage states to
help districts implement new mental-health
programs, and allow states and schools to use
money under the roughly $60 million Safe and
Drug-Free Schools and Communities National
Activities program to establish partnerships
with mental health clinics, among other measures.
None have been enacted.
Mr. Obama also tapped Secretary of Educa-
tion Arne Duncan and Health and Human Services
Secretary Kathleen Sebelius to launch a
national conversation on mental health. This
has not since been a significant focus for Mr.
Duncan or the administration. The Education
Department did point to a few outcomes from
the dialogue, including new websites-mentalhealth.gov
and creatingcommunitysolutions.
org. And the White House hosted a conference
on mental health this summer.
In the absence of federal action, several
states have addressed mental-health issues
through their schools. Minnesota beefed up
an existing school-based mental-health program,
Texas added training in mental-illness
recognition to its teacher licensure require-
"
In the coming weeks, I will use whatever power
this office holds to engage my fellow citizens-from
law enforcement to mental-health professionals
to parents and educators-in an effort aimed at
preventing more tragedies like this.
Because what choice do we have?
We can't accept events like this as
routine. Are we really prepared to say
that we're powerless in the face of
such carnage, that the politics are
too hard? Are we prepared to say that such violence
visited on our children year after year after year
is somehow the price of our freedom?"
(Dec. 16, 2012)
President Barack Obama
> In the last year: The centerpiece of Mr. Obama's post-Newtown
legislative efforts, a set of new policies related to the sale and use
of certain types of firearms, failed in Congress. Politicians' positions
on the proposed bills became divisive subjects in many campaigns.
In January, the president announced 23 executive actions designed
to reduce gun violence. They included several steps to improve the
federal background check system, a memorandum directing the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to study the causes of
gun violence, and the development of model emergency-response
plans for schools and colleges.
As brave, heroic, and self-sacrificing as those
teachers were in those classrooms, and as prompt,
professional, and well-trained as those police were when
they responded, they were-through no
fault of their own-unable to stop it. As
parents, we do everything we can to keep
our children safe. It is now time for us to
assume responsibility for their safety at
school. The only way to stop a monster
from killing our kids is to be personally involved and
invested in a plan of absolute protection. The only thing
that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy
with a gun." (Dec. 21, 2012)
"
Wayne LaPierre,
Executive Vice President and Chief Executive Officer,
National Rifle Association
> In the last year: The NRA released its "Report of the National
School Shield Task Force" on April 2, 2013. Its recommendations
include easing restrictions many states have on allowing anyone
other than a sworn law enforcement officer to carry a gun on school
grounds and passing state laws requiring schools to assess their
security risks and create security plans. Several states have enacted
such policy changes, but many other proposals failed in state
legislatures.
http://www.mentalhealth.gov http://www.mentalhealth.gov http://www.UClass.org http://www.edweek.org
Education Week - December 11, 2013

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