Despite a tragic, unceasing tempo of school shootings in America killing students and teachers, a sizable number of districts across the country acknowledge they have not yet briefed their staffs about how local law enforcement would respond to an active shooter on their campuses, according to an exclusive nationwide effort by the Hearst Television National Investigative Unit, with assistance from Hearst Newspapers, to seek answers from every public school district in all 50 states. A 15-item questionnaire, sent to districts from coast to coast at the start of the school year this September, captured a unique snapshot of the evolving way schools are addressing safety – and reveal those that admit they are falling short of securing their schools. The results also spotlight new safety initiatives launched to protect classrooms, including those put in place after massacres of children at Sandy Hook, Parkland, and – earlier this year – Uvalde schools.READ THE FULL RESULTS FROM THE EXCLUSIVE QUESTIONNAIRE SENT TO SCHOOL DISTRICTS IN ALL 50 STATESNo professional security on siteStaffing professional security personnel on school campuses remains a challenge for a third of districts that responded to the Hearst questionnaire. Thirty-three percent – one out of every three – said they did not have a district police department or sworn law enforcement agency or a school resource officer. More than six percent said they had all of those types of personnel currently protecting schools. Strikingly, more than a quarter of districts that responded – 26.5 percent – acknowledged that they have yet to tell all staff members in their districts about their local law enforcement’s active shooter response plan. And of those districts that had not completed briefings so far, 13 percent said they were not planning to do so before the end of the current school year in late spring or summer of 2023 – more than six months from now.Nearly one in five districts, 18.8 percent, said they had not been briefed by local law enforcement on those types of plans this year.‘It’s about time somebody’s asking’ Ty Breitlow, district administrator for Lomira Schools in Wisconsin, about an hour northwest of Milwaukee, responded to the Hearst ‘Securing Our Schools’ questionnaire. “It’s about time somebody’s asking,” he said in an interview at district headquarters, which also is in the same expansive building as the elementary, middle, and high schools.Breitlow has a somber lens on which he views school safety. In 1993, a school shooter killed his father, Dale Breitlow, an associate principal at the time at Wauwatosa West High School, while then-12 year-old Ty was attending middle school across the street. Now in his first full year as an administrator at Lomira, Breitlow says he thinks some districts have not devoted the resources necessary to be adequately prepared in an increasingly unpredictable security environment. “What is lacking is a sensitivity to the depth of preparedness that is required should an event like an active shooter occur,” Breitlow said.Breitlow has overseen a series of safety improvements, including new classroom door locks that can be locked from the inside, not just the outside; physical security enhancements to the building lobby; and use of the CrisisGo app for immediate contact with law enforcement in emergencies. “I can get resources rolling as fast as possible to save lives,” Dodge County, Wisc., Sheriff Dale Schmidt said during a demonstration of the app on campus.District ‘guardian’ programs expand Some districts, however, expressed concern responding law enforcement may take too long in an active shooter situation when seconds matter. More than one in 10 districts who responded to the questionnaire – 11.4 percent – said they allow teachers or district staff to carry loaded firearms on campus, an initiative in some states, such as in Texas and Florida, called ‘guardian’ programs. Don Metzler, superintendent of Callisburg ISD in Texas, just north of the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex, said distance to emergency aid was a factor. “We do not have a local police department in this little town of 342 people,” he said.Many administrators who said their districts allow armed staff also described in a follow-up question the training, licensing, or other requirements necessary to have access to a firearm on campus. Joseph Mabry, supervisor of safety and security for Lake County Schools, Fla., which covers an area just north and west of Orlando, said guardian candidates in his district, for example, must complete a 144-hour training program. Only administrators in his district are eligible. Aaron Dalton, superintendent of Ava-RI school district in southern Missouri, said in a subsequent interview that his school board approved its staff firearm program in June, just a month after a former student shot and killed 19 students and two teachers at Uvalde Elementary School in Texas. “We believe we could have someone to any location, any classroom in our district in under a minute,” Dalton explained. Robert O’Connor, superintendent at Edna ISD in Texas, halfway between Houston and San Antonio, said in an interview that armed staff in his district are “more or less defenders; we don’t ask them to leave their students.”Watch below: Superintendents talk about safety measures added in their districtsNew safety initiatives launched In responses to the Hearst questionnaire, districts around the country described new safety initiatives launched this year in response to a changing security environment, continual requests from parents for increased safety, and growing awareness of the evolving risks to students. Broward County Public Schools, the nation’s sixth-largest district, began a permanent program this Fall to hand-wand a select number of students for prohibited items. A randomizer program selects three classrooms in three schools on three days of the week, and then a dedicated security team uses the hand-wand device to screen the students. So far, the district says, it has seized a blue stun device, vaping devices, and even brass knuckles, among other banned items, during the randomized searches. Last month, a judge sentenced a former student at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla. – one of the district’s 330 schools – to life in prison for killing 17 students and staff members on Valentine’s Day in 2018. “ are safer with this program in place,” then-Superintendent Dr. Vickie Cartwright said in an interview in late October at district headquarters, “because it’s causing our students to second think about bringing things on.” The superintendent cited a “very volatile society,” for why the program is needed and said she would like to expand the program to every school day instead of just three days per week.Earlier this week, a divided school board fired superintendent Cartwright over perceived management issues. After Cartwright took over in February, four years after the Parkland massacre, the district also scrapped a color-coded emergency system in favor of communicating in plain, clear language, using words such as ‘hold,’ ‘secure,’ and ‘evacuate.’“We’re really doing a lot of major initiatives within our county public schools to ensure that we have those safe schools for our students,” Cartwright said. Bullet-resistant vest in closet Creating a safe and secure school while preparing for emergencies is why Ty Breitlow, the superintendent in Lomira, Wisc., whose dad died in a school shooting three decades ago, now has in his district closet what his father did not: a bullet-resistant vest – white, in case dark comes and a Breitlow has to confront it, once again.“I’ve got a bulletproof vest that either I could use to shield myself or children with,” he said. “I do not believe I will in my lifetime – but I will, if I have to.”Mark Albert is the chief national investigative correspondent for the Hearst Television National Investigative Unit, based in Washington D.C. Tamika Cody, Greg Compton, David Hurlburt, Jesse Bailey and MyAhna Alston contributed to this report.If you know of school security concerns you want us to investigate or unique district safety initiatives you’d like to share for our ongoing ‘Securing Our Schools’ investigation, please send confidential information and documents to the National Investigative Unit at [email protected].
Despite a tragic, unceasing tempo of school shootings in America killing students and teachers, a sizable number of districts across the country acknowledge they have not yet briefed their staffs about how local law enforcement would respond to an active shooter on their campuses, according to an exclusive nationwide effort by the Hearst Television National Investigative Unit, with assistance from Hearst Newspapers, to seek answers from every public school district in all 50 states.
A 15-item questionnaire, sent to districts from coast to coast at the start of the school year this September, captured a unique snapshot of the evolving way schools are addressing safety – and reveal those that admit they are falling short of securing their schools. The results also spotlight new safety initiatives launched to protect classrooms, including those put in place after massacres of children at Sandy Hook, Parkland, and – earlier this year – Uvalde schools.
READ THE FULL RESULTS FROM THE EXCLUSIVE QUESTIONNAIRE SENT TO SCHOOL DISTRICTS IN ALL 50 STATES
No professional security on site
Staffing professional security personnel on school campuses remains a challenge for a third of districts that responded to the Hearst questionnaire. Thirty-three percent – one out of every three – said they did not have a district police department or sworn law enforcement agency or a school resource officer. More than six percent said they had all of those types of personnel currently protecting schools.
Strikingly, more than a quarter of districts that responded – 26.5 percent – acknowledged that they have yet to tell all staff members in their districts about their local law enforcement’s active shooter response plan. And of those districts that had not completed briefings so far, 13 percent said they were not planning to do so before the end of the current school year in late spring or summer of 2023 – more than six months from now.
Nearly one in five districts, 18.8 percent, said they had not been briefed by local law enforcement on those types of plans this year.
‘It’s about time somebody’s asking’
Ty Breitlow, district administrator for Lomira Schools in Wisconsin, about an hour northwest of Milwaukee, responded to the Hearst ‘Securing Our Schools’ questionnaire.
“It’s about time somebody’s asking,” he said in an interview at district headquarters, which also is in the same expansive building as the elementary, middle, and high schools.
Breitlow has a somber lens on which he views school safety. In 1993, a school shooter killed his father, Dale Breitlow, an associate principal at the time at Wauwatosa West High School, while then-12 year-old Ty was attending middle school across the street.
Now in his first full year as an administrator at Lomira, Breitlow says he thinks some districts have not devoted the resources necessary to be adequately prepared in an increasingly unpredictable security environment. “What is lacking is a sensitivity to the depth of preparedness that is required should an event like an active shooter occur,” Breitlow said.
Breitlow has overseen a series of safety improvements, including new classroom door locks that can be locked from the inside, not just the outside; physical security enhancements to the building lobby; and use of the CrisisGo app for immediate contact with law enforcement in emergencies.
“I can get resources rolling as fast as possible to save lives,” Dodge County, Wisc., Sheriff Dale Schmidt said during a demonstration of the app on campus.
District ‘guardian’ programs expand
Some districts, however, expressed concern responding law enforcement may take too long in an active shooter situation when seconds matter.
More than one in 10 districts who responded to the questionnaire – 11.4 percent – said they allow teachers or district staff to carry loaded firearms on campus, an initiative in some states, such as in Texas and Florida, called ‘guardian’ programs. Don Metzler, superintendent of Callisburg ISD in Texas, just north of the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex, said distance to emergency aid was a factor. “We do not have a local police department in this little town of 342 people,” he said.
Many administrators who said their districts allow armed staff also described in a follow-up question the training, licensing, or other requirements necessary to have access to a firearm on campus. Joseph Mabry, supervisor of safety and security for Lake County Schools, Fla., which covers an area just north and west of Orlando, said guardian candidates in his district, for example, must complete a 144-hour training program. Only administrators in his district are eligible.
Aaron Dalton, superintendent of Ava-RI school district in southern Missouri, said in a subsequent interview that his school board approved its staff firearm program in June, just a month after a former student shot and killed 19 students and two teachers at Uvalde Elementary School in Texas. “We believe we could have someone to any location, any classroom in our district in under a minute,” Dalton explained.
Robert O’Connor, superintendent at Edna ISD in Texas, halfway between Houston and San Antonio, said in an interview that armed staff in his district are “more or less defenders; we don’t ask them to leave their students.”
Watch below: Superintendents talk about safety measures added in their districts
New safety initiatives launched
In responses to the Hearst questionnaire, districts around the country described new safety initiatives launched this year in response to a changing security environment, continual requests from parents for increased safety, and growing awareness of the evolving risks to students.
Broward County Public Schools, the nation’s sixth-largest district, began a permanent program this Fall to hand-wand a select number of students for prohibited items. A randomizer program selects three classrooms in three schools on three days of the week, and then a dedicated security team uses the hand-wand device to screen the students. So far, the district says, it has seized a blue stun device, vaping devices, and even brass knuckles, among other banned items, during the randomized searches.
Last month, a judge sentenced a former student at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla. – one of the district’s 330 schools – to life in prison for killing 17 students and staff members on Valentine’s Day in 2018.
“[Schools] are safer with this program in place,” then-Superintendent Dr. Vickie Cartwright said in an interview in late October at district headquarters, “because it’s causing our students to second think about bringing things on.” The superintendent cited a “very volatile society,” for why the program is needed and said she would like to expand the program to every school day instead of just three days per week.
Earlier this week, a divided school board fired superintendent Cartwright over perceived management issues.
After Cartwright took over in February, four years after the Parkland massacre, the district also scrapped a color-coded emergency system in favor of communicating in plain, clear language, using words such as ‘hold,’ ‘secure,’ and ‘evacuate.’
“We’re really doing a lot of major initiatives within our county public schools to ensure that we have those safe schools for our students,” Cartwright said.
Bullet-resistant vest in closet
Creating a safe and secure school while preparing for emergencies is why Ty Breitlow, the superintendent in Lomira, Wisc., whose dad died in a school shooting three decades ago, now has in his district closet what his father did not: a bullet-resistant vest – white, in case dark comes and a Breitlow has to confront it, once again.
“I’ve got a bulletproof vest that either I could use to shield myself or children with,” he said. “I do not believe I will [use it] in my lifetime – but I will, if I have to.”
Mark Albert is the chief national investigative correspondent for the Hearst Television National Investigative Unit, based in Washington D.C. Tamika Cody, Greg Compton, David Hurlburt, Jesse Bailey and MyAhna Alston contributed to this report.
If you know of school security concerns you want us to investigate or unique district safety initiatives you’d like to share for our ongoing ‘Securing Our Schools’ investigation, please send confidential information and documents to the National Investigative Unit at [email protected].
