Arming Teachers Not the Answer to Stopping Active Shooters – continued from page 5
Timm says that allowing teachers to carry guns on campus would also create the risk of students gaining access to them. Fiel believes that there is a small percentage of schools that have taken the right steps when it comes to securing their facilities, but that there is room for improvement on the vast majority of campuses.
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Rural N.C. K-5 Could be Secure School of the Future
A now highly secure rural elementary school is piloting a program that it hopes will become a model for other schools not only within its district but across the country. The layered security at Wallace Elementary, a K-5 school with 725 students in Duplin County, includes a video intercom system at the locked front doors that are additionally protected with security screens that cannot be ripped or penetrated. Visitors are buzzed in remotely. Once into the secure lobby, they must present government-issued ID to the receptionist, which are scanned through the visitor management system against a number of databases, including those for sex offenders and restraining orders against parents. Surveillance cameras in hallways and other common areas and outside, panic buttons that alert directly to 911, and automatic locks on classroom doors have been added too. The pilot project, with equipment and systems contributed at no cost by a number of major players in the physical security industry, came about immediately after the Sandy Hook shootings. The local sheriff‘s department recommended Patrick Fiel, a nationally recognized school security expert and founder of PVF Security Consulting for the project. Fiel did a ―walk-around‖ at the school and within weeks, he had spoken with the superintendent and executive team about his findings and briefed the school board. ―It might take four or five years,‖ said Fiel. ―But this is a start. It‘s a continuation process, and it‘s all about leadership mentalities and being proactive.‖
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A Campus Shooting Victim Had Sought Restraining Order
A shooting in an office on the U.S. Veterans Affairs campus in Vancouver involved a male victim, who last year sought a restraining order against the woman who is the alleged shooter. Deborah A. Lennon, a former Veterans Affairs employee, faces charges in Clark County Superior Court of first-degree attempted murder, stalking, cyberstalking and first-degree assault. The victim and VA chief financial officer, Allen Bricker,
sought a protection order against Lennon in January 2013, alleging that she was stalking him with daily emails. Lennon wrote to Bricker sometimes several times per day, according to court records filed in Clark County District Court. Her emails professed love for Bricker, urged him to leave his wife and included threats to kill him. According to the Clark County Sheriff‘s Office, Lennon walked into Bricker‘s fourth- floor office, pulled out a handgun and shot Bricker twice in the chest. Veterans Affairs employee and former Marine Neil Burkhardt then wrestled the gun from Lennon, detaining her until police arrived. Lennon was a financial auditor before she resigned from the agency on her own accord because Bricker was married. Megan Crowley, spokeswoman for Veterans Affairs, said that Bricker and Lennon did not have any sort of sexual relationship. Bricker sustained serious injuries and remains hospitalized. Investigators continue to look into the motive behind the shooting.
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Arming University Police: The Impact of Mass Shootings, Part 1
From providing students with a safe escort to reporting and responding to violent crimes, public safety officials at universities help to ensure the physical wellbeing of students, faculty and staff. This charge becomes even more important in light of recent mass school shootings, such as those at Virginia Tech (2007), Northern Illinois University (2008), and Sandy Hook Elementary School (2012), which emotionally affect parents, the education community and the nation as a whole. Although school safety experts typically consider school shootings to be low-probability incidents, they force university officials to re-examine their ability to respond to such events. To understand the current status (armed or unarmed) of university officers and the potential impact of mass shootings on the decision to arm, CNA, a not-for-profit research organization, conducted phone interviews in August 2013 with 66 universities that noted in a 2004–2005 BJS survey that they did not employ sworn armed officers. Since the survey was conducted, 28 (42%) of these 66 universities have decided to arm their sworn officers, indicating a substantial shift in the last nine years. Of particular interest is the increase in universities arming their officers after significant mass shootings, indicating that institutions are re-examining their protective measures and are actively arming their officers as a way to protect and ensure the safety of their students, faculty and staff.
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