The alerts, like modern variations of bank-teller alarm buttons, silently transmit information to 911 dispatchers and police, such as the precise location of the caller, school floor plans and live video feeds from cameras on campus.
Browsing: School Crime
In a tabulation of threats made by schoolchildren, the South Florida Sun Sentinel said some were the idle words of indiscreet adolescents, but a “disturbing number” came from mentally impaired children who are fixated on violence and have access to guns at home.
Teenagers in at least eight high schools across Wisconsin were involved in crime incidents within three days this week, leaving some parents and school officials helpless and police in a position of using deadly force on children.
Last week’s deadly shooting at Saugus High School in Santa Clarita, Ca., prompted calls for more metal detectors at schools. Safety experts say that’s the wrong response. There’s a cheaper, more effective approach, but it’s a tough sell.
Texas prosecutors agree with defense attorneys for the teenager accused of killing eight students and two teachers at Santa Fe High School last year that he is not mentally competent to stand trial now.
Nine out of 10 threats to schools are hoaxes, but “nobody wants to be number 10,” says one expert. School districts are quick to lock down or evacuate buildings when they get threatening messages.
While the federal government has spent close to $1 billion to deploy School Resource Officers, many of them armed, in our nation’s public schools, it remains “unclear how effective” they are, said a new study.
Surveillance video of a security guard from Oregon’s Parkrose High School security guard and coach Keanon Lowe disarming a student who brought a gun to school has drawn nationwide praise for Lowe’s response and his compassion. The Parkrose School District says the tape should not have been released.
After the Parkland shooting last year, which left 17 dead, Florida legislators required school districts to station at least one armed official, including civilians, on every K-12 campus. School districts in Georgia and Arkansas created their own police departments.
An Indiana woman who called the police and told them that her 14-year-old son had threatened to shoot up his former school apparently will face criminal charges. Mary York said she did not see warning signs that her son would take weapons to his former school in Indiana, where he took his own life.