A Tragic Call To Action

Oct 1, 2006 12:00 PM, Larry Anderson, Editor

Nothing is more shattering to the concept of school security than the image of a crazed gunman entering a rural one-room schoolhouse and opening fire. And yet the tragedy in Pennsylvania is only one of several high-profile school shootings in the last few weeks.

And even as the incidents remind us that we cannot prevent all violence in our schools, they also urgently require us to ask: Are we doing enough?

We certainly acknowledge and mourn the tragic consequences of the latest spate of school shootings, but as pragmatic security industry professionals, we have the opportunity to benefit from the tragedies in two ways:

• We can look for lessons we can learn, in terms of future prevention and how well we are prepared to react when violence erupts.

• We can take advantage of the increased security awareness that comes in the wake of a school tragedy.

After a school shooting or other tragic event, everyone's attention turns immediately to the issues surrounding the event and how it could have been prevented. There is a predictable call for more gun control, for example. In the case of a school shooting, the expected reaction from every school official in the country has to be: “It could have been us,” followed by “What can we do to make sure it isn't us next time?”

In the last few weeks, local newspapers across the country, looking for ways to localize a national story, immediately started asking such questions and publishing the answers for all the world to see. That translates into more awareness among newspaper readers, taxpayers, voters, parents and the public at large.

Even President Bush hastily arranged a six-hour conference on School Safety in response to the recent shootings. We are all looking for “best practices.”

Security costs money, and almost always it's money that one would prefer to spend on something else. No one wants to spend more on security than is required.

But when school violence blares from every headline, it's time to think about the consequences of inaction.

It reminds us that we need more security … or else.

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This month in Access Control

• Targeting The Customer
• Electronic Pedigrees
• One Hero Among Many
• Who? What? When? Where? Why?
• More from September's issue