What Happens After a School Shooting
A school shooting is a highly traumatic event. From the law enforcement response to the aftermath, a lot can happen. The effects of a school shooting, especially from a mental health standpoint, can last for decades. From a security perspective, what happens after a school shooting is an evaluation of the response and its effectiveness.
In addition, it’s common to look at a school’s existing security protocols and judge where better standards are needed, if different security measures should be taken, and if there is a better security plan.
Let’s learn what happens after a school shooting:
Improving School Security Measures
Post-school shootings, many of these facilities revise school security solutions. They look at identifying potential violent behaviours and institute better access controls.
Measures like metal detectors, however, are typically shown to not work. There are still ways to conceal weapons and bring them into a school. A much more reliable entryway security system is an AI-powered weapons detection system.
AI entry screening can detect guns, knives, and other threats more accurately than a metal detector. It’s also discrete and non-invasive. Students must walk by the threat detection system, which they normally do upon entering the building. Students and staff alike do not have to set aside personal items or endure a pat-down.
It’s all done via AI scanning. Security is discretely notified when a weapon is located on the body, and the threat can be promptly handled.
Law Enforcement Response During a School Shooting
The typical law enforcement response to a school shooting, under the guidelines of stopping an active shooter, is, to start, officers arriving in teams. They proceed to the area where the last shots were heard. They often wear protective gear, such as bulletproof vests and other tactical equipment.
These officers arrive armed with guns, pepper spray, and tear gas. Commands are shouted, and sometimes force is used to keep individuals safe, such as pushing them to the ground.
How Effective The Law Enforcement Response Was
There have been several school shooting incidents, such as Uvalde, where law enforcement’s response time and strategy were highly criticized. Evaluating is necessary for what to do after a school shooting because, as a real-life scenario occurs, one can properly see what worked and what didn’t.
Any opportunity to save even one life in such a situation is worth pursuing. It’s necessary to look at how law enforcement could have responded better.
Evaluating the School’s Emergency Action Plan
Every school should have an EAP or Emergency Action Plan. How well did the EAP do in a real school shooting? If it did not do what it was intended to do, that has to be closely looked at, and alterations need to be made. Some common aspects of an EAP are as follows.
- How to report the emergency.
- What the evacuation procedure is.
- Route assignments, i.e. safe areas and floor plans.
- An emergency notification system to alert law enforcement, hospitals, and individuals at remote locations within premises.
Ensure Staff Are Fully Trained In How To Respond
Furthermore, staff must be trained with mock training exercises and understand what’s required of them in such a situation. After a school shooting, it gives you a chance to re-evaluate training and what, if any, changes may need to be made.
Students look to teachers for guidance in a school shooting, and teachers are the ultimate authority regarding what to do, where to go, and the reaction. They must have the tools and knowledge to act.
Mental Health Response After a School Shooting
Counselling is usually made available to staff and students to mitigate the impact of a school shooting on the mental well-being of the survivors. There are often aspects of post-traumatic stress disorder present, survivor’s guilt, and anxiety that has to be addressed.
Such a traumatic community event can be difficult to process for most people, so a coordinated mental health response is an absolute must.
School Safety Redesign
After a school shooting, another area of improvement one may look at is physical design. Improving physical access controls, making it harder to enter schools. Securing entrances and exits. Improving lighting conditions in hidden or indoor/outdoor areas with poor visibility.
Locking classroom windows and doors. These are things that most schools have already implemented, but some haven’t. Alternatively, you may identify other design choices that could be improved upon.
Security Personnel On-Site
This can be a costly security measure that many parents would argue is unnecessary. However, the presence of security personnel in the aftermath of a school shooting can assert safety. The visual presence of safety can help reassert security, but for others, it can be traumatic, so this is certainly an area to be cautious in. Having security personnel on-site may be combined with CCTV video surveillance and other security measures.