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VP Candidate Vance on Stopping School Shootings: Get Doors that ‘Lock Better’

There’s an innate tension between school safety and students’ civil rights. The 74’s Mark Keierleber keeps you up to date on the news you need to know

School (in)Security is our biweekly briefing on the latest school safety news, vetted by Mark KeierleberSubscribe here.

The presidential election hasn’t focused much on education — but the nation got to witness an in-depth debate this week on the partisan responses to school shootings. 

Democratic VP candidate Tim Walz, who said his 17-year-old son witnessed a shooting last year, focused on limiting guns used to perpetrate mass attacks. JD Vance highlighted how schools could better defend against their bullets. Heightened physical security, Vance said during the Tuesday evening vice presidential debate on CBS, is the key response to school shootings. 

“We have to make the doors lock better, we have to make the doors stronger, we’ve got to make the windows stronger and, of course, we need to increase school resource officers,” he said. 

Yet, while school shootings have reached record levels in recent years, so too have the number of campuses that deploy various forms of campus hardening, including locks, perimeter fencing and armed police. 

The market for school-hardening products is fast and growing: AI-enabled notification systems, panic buttons, bulletproof windows, bulletproof marker boards, bulletproof shields, bulletproof blankets and even bulletproof hoodies with a guarantee: “If you get shot (God forbid) with our hoodies on, we’ll send you a replacement hoodie FREE of charge.”

I made this handy chart — based on federal Education Department data — to show how school security measures have changed in the last two(ish) decades (1999-2000 and 2021-22). 

According to the latest data, 45% of campuses — and 63% of high schools — had sworn police officers. That tally doesn’t include non-sworn security personnel. Random contraband sweeps are conducted in more than half of high schools. 

Nearly all schools — 97% — control access to buildings with locks and monitors, and a similar number require visitors to sign in and wear badges. Security cameras have been installed to monitor 93% of schools. 

The feds have since expanded the types of hardening measures they track. According to the most recent data, 76% of schools have locks on classroom doors and 43% have silent alarms directly connected to the police. Both were deployed during last month’s mass shooting at Georgia’s Apalachee High School. 

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Though there are a handful of cases where school police and other security prevented or mitigated mass shootings, research suggests they’re ineffective at preventing attacks overall and fail to reduce fatalities. Armed guards were stationed on campus during a quarter of school shootings over a 30-year period.  

Vance said during the debate that 90% of “gun violence in this country is committed with illegally obtained firearms,” likely referring to a survey of federal prison inmates who possessed guns during their offenses. Yet an overwhelming majority of mass shooters obtain their weapons legally. School shootings — the topic at Tuesday’s debate — are most often carried out by aggrieved students who get guns from their parents. 

Click here to watch the full exchange.


In the news

High schools have become a “cesspool of sexually explicit deepfakes” as AI-generated images of child sexual abuse flood the internet. | The Atlantic

Hoax threats of shootings and bombings have caused disruptions in schools nationwide, a majority of which have been spread by teens on TikTok and Instagram. | The Wall Street Journal

A new California law to standardize active-shooter drills bans simulated gunfire after the use of a masked man with a fake gun stirred controversy. | Los Angeles Times

  • President Biden signed an executive order last week that seeks to ensure active-shooter drills are effective without traumatizing students. | The 74

Indicted New York City Mayor Eric Adams is in no shortage of controversy. Add this to the list: The school district is piloting school bus surveillance cameras from a company run by a former high-ranking administration official. | Chalkbeat

As a ransomware group takes credit for a cyberattack on the Providence, Rhode Island, school district, school officials have kept quiet. | News from the States

District leaders can assess their schools’ cybersecurity vulnerability with a new resource guide from the Education Department and Federal Communications Commission. | FCC

A Florida father notified the police after his 10-year-old son threatened on Snapchat to shoot up a high school. | USA Today


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