TS writes with a description of school design in Pittsburgh from 20 years ago, where the leading problem was abductions rather than shootings. However, these features would be a significant deterrent to stranger-initiated shootings, like the one yesterday in Pennsylvania, and the one last week in Colorado.

You walk into the building through large doors, one or two entrances. To the left or right is the office. There is no way to gain access to the building except through these two doors. You must then enter the office. Down the hall on both sides are large shatter proof bullet proof doors and the only way to get through them is to be buzzed in by the office staff.

Nobody walks the halls where the classrooms are except the students and teachers. Parents cannot come and go as they please, but the kids are safe. The back doors, which let out to the playground, could only open outward. You could not come in them unless a teacher unlocked it with a key, but fire safety was maintained since you can go out. No one was allowed to go out the doors without permission by the teacher.

The playgrounds were fenced in. The parents said they didn’t like it because they felt they should have access to the classrooms any time they wanted it.

We have to make some choices here and I think the students safety overrides the touchy parents. Also, the office had a panic button — a silent alarm that went straight to the police department. When pushed, the police came immediately.

Although we have made progress toward improved security design in Oak Ridge schools, we’re not at that level by any stretch of the imagination. Last year, we approved renovations to an elementary school that allows the office staff to see who enters the front doors — the only unlocked entrance. All the other elementary schools already have this feature.

The new high school, slated for completion in 2008, also features significant improvements in security via the building design. While these features are an improvement, they primarily address the problem of a potential intruder — not the potential of a student coming to school armed, as seems to be the more frequent scenario.

Under City Council’s strategic plan, Oak Ridge Schools are allowed only $600,000 annually for capital improvements — not even quite enough to cover the bare minimum of maintenance, including roof replacement, HVAC systems, flooring, and such. Last week, the Board approved replacing the gymnasium floor at Linden Elementary, funded through savings incurred in the parking lot work from last Summer, and a $10,000 donation.

Yes, essential maintenance was funded through the generosity of a donation. There’s something wrong with that.

Security is not a luxury item, but like everything else, must be budgeted. As we struggle to maintain existing academic programs that are our core mission, it is just one added factor in the competing priorities for increasingly inadequate dollars.

Last Wednesday, Bailey Colorado: six girls taken hostage, molested, one killed.  Motive unknown.

Last Friday, Wisconsin: freshman teen kills high school principal. Motive: anger over being disciplined for tobacco posession.

Today: Paradise, Pennsylvania: six killed and seven critically wounded, at a one-room grade 1-8 Amish schoolhouse.  Motive: who the hell knows?

Also today: two Las Vegas schools went into lockdown after a former student brought a .25 caliber handgun to the school.  Don’t know what his motive or intentions might have been.

In two of these cases, the perpetrators were adults.  In the other two, they were teens.

In the Bailey Colorado incident, the school was designed and built subsequent to the Columbine massacre, less than an hour away, and was designed with security in mind.  Officials have stated that the horrifying event was much better contained than it might have otherwise been, but still, one student was killed, and many others traumatized.

Nationwide, schools have stepped up security procedures since the Columbine situation seven years ago that ended with the deaths of fifteen people, including the two teenaged shooters.  Some schools have implemented metal detectors (which are costly and inefficient, given the variety of metal objects that are and must be carried into school each day); many have begun using video surveillance; most have implemented stricter visitor sign-in and badging procedures.

More schools are trying to get School Resource Officers — members of the police department assigned to schools — and this is probably the most effective avenue.  SRO’s build a rapport with the students, and locally have gained insight into homes where abuse was ongoing, where drug trafficking occurred, and a number of other situations of interest to law enforcement.  More importantly, they establish the kind of relationship with students where the kids know they’re there to help and protect them.

Sadly, SRO’s require funding, which is in short supply.  And it’s only a step in the right direction, not the answer.

What is the answer? What on earth would make someone do such a thing?