Why School Shooter Safety Measures Don’t Work

How are security measures expected to work? 

Backpack checks work the same way the TSA screening does.  They only stop people from bringing weapons due to a fear of that weapon being found. 

Code red drills work the same way fire drills work. They teach people what to do when the actual event happens. 

And the random searches are more to find drugs and other items than to find weapons.  

Locked doors and IDs are designed to keep unwanted people from getting on campus. 

Why might the security measures be ineffective? 

Backpack checks will not stop school shooters because people can tell when a check is taking place by the line of students that is visible when a backpack check Is happening. A student would know that once a check occurs, another would most likely not happen for quite some time. 

Even if someone did have a weapon during a check, there is a high chance it would not even be found. 

“Undercover investigators were able to smuggle mock explosives or banned weapons through checkpoints in 95 percent of trials,” according to ABC News.  

People who are trained to stop these items from getting through are failing at their task, so it is unlikely that untrained school staff would be able to stop these items from getting through. 

Then, code red drills only teach one part of what to do if there is an actual school shooter - hide. Not how to evacuate if you can or how to fight if you need to. 

Even the passive safety features at school would not prohibit a shooting. Half of school shooters attend the school that they attack, according to The U.S. Government Accountability Office.  This allows them to get past those safety measures.  

A recent change has been that before evacuating during a fire drill, people must wait until an announcement is made. This is to confirm that it is a real fire and not a trick.  But, if it were a real fire it could take too long for school staff to locate and confirm. 

School leaders need to adapt and learn from past experiences to keep students safe. All schools are different, but there are some common measures that need to be taken. Backpack checks need to be more random and more often.  Staff members need to receive more training.  Students need to practice all parts of the Run-Hide-Fight protocol.  Schools have laid the groundwork; they just need to expand and customize the measures to create the safest environment possible for students.