Robb Elementary School had measures in place to prevent this type of violence. A fence covered the school property. Teachers were ordered to keep classroom doors locked and locked. The students faced drills of confinement and evacuation.
But when an 18-year-old arrived Tuesday in Uvalde, Texas, aiming to kill children, nothing stopped him.
Security breaches allowed the assailant to bathe 19 students and two teachers in blood, according to school protection experts. The shooting has already prompted calls to additional schools, in addition to millions spent on gadgets and other measures in the wake of previous shootings. But more security gives inconveniences, with no guarantee of ending mass violence. In the worst case, as in Uvalde, it can be counterproductive.
“You can do everything you can to avoid a school crisis, but we can’t read the minds of every offender out there,” said Ronald Stephens, executive director of the National Center for School Safety, a nonprofit that works with schools across the country. “We save you all the crimes. “
According to a district security plan, uvalde schools had a wide range of measures in place to prevent violence. The district had 4 police officers and 4 councillors, according to the plan, which appears to date from the 2019-2020 school year. The district had software to monitor social media for threats and software to screen school visitors.
Still, when the gunman arrived at the school, he jumped the fence and entered smoothly through a back door that had been kept open, authorities said. Behind the locked door of a fourth-grade class, he shot and killed children and teachers.
In the midst of the attack, only about 20 officers were in a hallway because the commander at the scene thought the attacker was entrenched in the classroom and that the children were not in danger, Texas Department of Public Safety Director Steven McCraw said at a news conference. Convention Friday. It was the decision. “
The case underscores that even the most powerful protection plans can be undermined by a potential undeniable violation, said Curtis Lavarello, executive director of the School Safety Defense Council, which provides school protection training. The Texas school seemed to be doing a lot of things right. But none of that mattered once the shooter was able to enter the building and classroom unhindered.
“All those things on paper mean nothing if they are not followed in practice. And there will be a number of loopholes,” he said.
After the shooting, some Republicans called for new investments in school protection to prevent further attacks. Some have pushed for more armed police in schools, as well as steel detectors and measures to make it harder to access schools.
Among those selling physical security measures is Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas. Appearing on Fox News on Wednesday, he cited the 2013 law that would have created grants for schools to install bulletproof doors and hire armed police, among other measures.
If the grants had gone to Robb Elementary, Cruz said, “the armed police could have taken it out and we would have 19 young people and two teachers still alive. “
When the National Rifle Association opened its annual meeting Friday in Houston, the gun rights organization called for safer schools. Former President Donald Trump, who is due to speak at the event, will call for “a top-down safety review of schools across the country,” while rejecting calls to disarm gun owners, according to excerpts from his speech.
Security experts say Uvalde’s case illustrates how fortification of schools can backfire. A lock on the classroom door, one of the most important and suggested security measures at the school, prevented patients from entering and police from entering.
U. S. Border Patrol agents The U. S. department of homeland security used a master key to open the locked classroom door where they confronted and killed the gunman, McCraw said at Friday’s news conference.
Some argue that investments in school protection have come at the expense of students’ well-being. Lockdown trainings that are in place for a generation of American students have traumatized students and increased strains on intellectual health, educators say.
Schools want more counselors and psychologists for suffering students, not more powerful buildings, said Dewey Cornell, a psychologist and director of the Virginia Youth Violence Project at the University of Virginia.
“We have systematically reduced the number of staff in our schools and have focused too much on installing steel detectors, surveillance cameras and electronic locks, which are very short-term, responsive and very expensive,” he said.
In the wake of the 2012 bloodbath at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, schools across the country began spending huge sums of cash on fortifications, adding bulletproof glass, steel detectors, and armed security.
But such measures can create an environment in which students feel uncomfortable and less confident, and that doesn’t necessarily prevent attacks, said Matthew Mayer, an associate professor at Rutgers who works on issues similar to violence in schools.
“You are passing to move into this kind of endless rabbit hollow, how much protection is enough. And when it comes to who comes in heavily armed, you’re not going through to arrest him,” Mayer said. “So the concept is that you have to realize why other people do this in the first place and have the means (multi-level savings systems) to prevent this from happening. “
He advocates for a multifaceted prevention technique that also includes steps such as getting better intellectual aptitude services, more effective risk assessment, and accepting construction as true so that academics and families aren’t afraid to speak up if they’re worried someone has the means. or intent to cause harm.
Still, there’s not much schools can do, he said, and he’s not sure the public outrage against Uvalde will lead to significant change.
“The challenge is that a lot of this public reaction, you know, is riding like a wave and then going back over time, and politicians are used to overcoming that. You know, they make speeches, etc. , and there’s a commission appointed and reports are published,” Mayer said. “But it lacks a really extensive change. “
___
The Associated Press education team is backed by the Carnegie Corporation of New York. The AP is only for all content.