Violence in schools: Having a plan is key to survival

It’s a parent’s worst nightmare: worrying about the safety of a child. But many parents were thrown into that situation on April 16. As the nation well knows by now, on that day, student Seung-Hui Cho unleashed 170 rounds from his two pistols, killing 32 people and himself on the Virginia Tech campus in Blacksburg, Va.

The bloodbath lasted nine minutes — enough time to fire off one shot about every three seconds. During that time, police spent three minutes dashing across campus to the scene, then another five minutes assembling a team, clearing the area, and trying to break through the doors.

Those last five minutes proved to be crucial, because it was during that time that Cho picked off his victims, analysts now say.

It is easy to second-guess the actions of campus safety and security personnel after the horrific event and wonder whether staff moved quickly enough to quell the disaster. However, it is much more important, and more useful, to use the university shooting as a learning lesson. While experts emphasize that there is no way to anticipate such an event, colleges nationwide can assess their safety and security systems. That’s also where the insurance industry can help: Insurers and agents can educate their clients and help them reduce risk.

Indiana Insurance, a member of Liberty Mutual Group and an insurer of public and private schools throughout the Midwest, hosted a free, day-long seminar last fall to help school officials develop better school safety plans.

Recognizing that violence is a pressing concern in schools today, Indiana Insurance invited Michael Dorn, an expert in school violence prevention, to deliver a series of presentations at The Fawcett Center on the campus of Ohio State University in Columbus. Dorn is the founder of Safe Havens International, a nonprofit organization that helps schools around the world to internalize school safety expertise. Dorn has conducted trainings at all levels, with high-ranking Israeli police officials to staff at the Vietnam National University in Ho Chi Minh City.

Polling by Safe Havens International of educators and law enforcement officials in all 50 states indicates that fewer than 10 percent of school systems have any safety plan in accordance with best practice models. A safety plan would include tactics for the most violent scenarios.

At the seminar, Dorn detailed the comprehensive school safety-planning model used by more than 8,000 public and private schools nationwide. He addressed realistic anti-terrorism measures, emergency preparedness, weapons in schools, school hazard and vulnerability assessments, crisis planning, the consequences of school bullying, and access control measures.

Following are some recommendations from Dorn and other safety service experts.

Knives, guns and more

The adage actions speak louder than words can be true when it comes to school safety. At the seminar, Dorn began by demonstrating how easy it is to conceal weapons. Without saying a word, he pulled out small knives, then a long blade, next two rifles, a sword and a long-handled axe from his shirt and slacks. Finally he produced a hand grenade. The audience of approximately 200 educators and law enforcement agents from Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana gasped with surprise, stunned at what Dorn concealed and was able to produce in a matter of minutes.

“As far back as 1927, when more than 40 students and staff were murdered at a Bath, Mich., elementary school, there have been far too many acts of violence in American schools,” Dorn said. “We are again seeing the very real consequences of school violence with recent deadly events occurring in schools across our country. No school can be 100 percent safe, he said. Yet some techniques can be applied to avert dozens of planned school shootings and bombings.

Overall school safety should be a goal too, according to Indiana Insurance, sponsor of the training event.

“Schools need safety plans not just for the violent, unexpected intruders, but for more common hazards,” said Steve Munro, loss control manager for Indiana Insurance. “More students die from heart attacks than from gunmen or hostage situations — still a rare occurrence.”

Monru, who annually visits 800 schools in Indiana and six other states, indicated that although events like the Virginia Tech shooting, Amish school shooting, Columbine and other horrific school tragedies make headlines, more kids are injured, many seriously, on the school playground, in the bleachers of their school sports arenas and from school access areas that are not secured.

Indiana Insurance, which has been providing loss control services for schools for more than a 100 years, advised working with an insurance agent to identify risk areas and to assess potential loss exposure in operations, in the areas of playgrounds and playground equipment, science laboratories and chemical storage, vocational and technical areas, athletic facilities and equipment, challenge courses, climbing walls, and kitchen and food service areas. Basic safety procedures and safe practices should be followed in those areas, Monru noted.

Schools also should prepare for the worst. Campus crime varies widely by school, but is more widespread than many students realize. Among the 17 million college students, institutions reported relatively few criminal offenses in the category of murder or non-negligent homicide: just 15 on campuses in 2004, and 48 overall, according to federal figures.

Nevertheless, large communities of peers living together makes colleges more vulnerable to other types of crime. On-campus alone, there were nearly 40,000 burglaries and more than 3,600 forcible sexual assaults in 2004.

Covering all possibilities

Experts say colleges should assess their mental health and security resources.

The presence of school resource officers in schools is a critical element in an effective school safety plan, according to Delhi Police Corporal Joe Middendorf, president of the Ohio School Resource Officers Association.

“School resource officers are not just a first line of defense against school violence. The work they do as counselors to troubled students can steer them back on track and away from dangerous and reactive choices, potentially defusing what might eventually evolve into a life-threatening situation on school grounds,” Middendorf said.

A university’s counseling center should be accredited by the International Association of Counseling Services. If it is, it means the center has reached a number of benchmarks in such areas as training and ethics.

The 200 accredited U.S. universities on IACS’ Web site are mostly larger schools, but small schools can also have best practices, according to Keith Anderson, a staff psychologist at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, chair of a national task force on counseling center best practices.

IACS suggests having one counselor for every 1,000 to 1,500 students; having someone from the counseling center available 24 hours per day; having procedures for emergencies and walk-in appointments; having broad outreach programs where patients can speak regularly to faculty, and the center can provide resources on prevention to help resident advisers and students learn about warning signs; and having a psychiatrist on staff.

A growing number of students arrive on campus already taking medication, Anderson said. If no psychiatrist is on staff, students may have to find an off-campus doctor to monitor medication, or have it sent from home.

Crime statistics can be scary, but high numbers are not always cause for alarm. “If a school with 10,000 students shows 15 sexual assaults, that may raise a red flag,” said Alison Kiss, program director at Security on Campus. “But when you call, you may find out they have phenomenal sexual assault services” so students may feel more comfortable reporting assaults. It’s not credible that a large school would have no sexual assaults, and that claim would raise a different kind of red flag, she said.

Security and communication check-ups

Of course, campus security plays a crucial role in keeping school grounds safe. At some schools, police are sworn officers with full arrest powers who are as well or better trained than their municipal counterparts. Elsewhere, they are more like private security guards who have to call on better-trained law enforcement in crisis, according to Security on Campus.

The campus police force should be accredited by the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies, which indicates they have gone through a rigorous evaluation and are on par with a municipal force. Thirty-nine university police forces have CALEA accreditation, including Virginia Tech, and another 23 are pursuing it.

Campus police also should have a close working relationship with other area police.

Schools also should have emergency communication systems in place. Virginia Tech faced criticism for failing to notify students after the first two students were shot, in the two hours before the other 31 people were killed. Some schools, such as the Universities of Washington and Iowa, are considering warning sirens and outdoor speakers. Others are trying to see if cell phones might help.

Finally, remember that “creating and maintaining the safest school environments possible needs to be a continuous cooperative effort between educators, law enforcement and the community at large,” said Dr. Kevin Bright, superintendent of Mason City Schools, a suburban Cincinnati district comprised of six schools, 10,400 students, and 1,300 staff, including 630 teachers. Bright attended the seminar in Ohio.

That community effort includes insurers and agents. “As an insurer of schools, we are committed to providing information to improve the safety of schools. Through seminars, and through the creation of our Safety Advantage Network, we can get meaningful and actionable information into our policyholders’ hands and the community at large,” said Michael D. Connell, Indiana Insurance president and CEO.

Seminars like the one sponsored by Indiana Insurance “give educators access to experts whose mission is to deliver the most effective procedures and tactics available to improve existing safety plans,” Bright said.

The Associated Press and Indiana Insurance Co. contributed to this article. Justin Pope is an AP education writer. Copyright 2007. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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