Just days into the new school year, the nation was rocked by yet another school shooting after a 14-year-old in Georgia shot and killed four people at Appalachee High School. In Connecticut, a number of schools were also shaken by a string of threats in the first few days of the school year.
"This is the world that we live in now, whether we like it or not," said Dan Maxwell, a University of New Haven criminal justice professor and a former Madison police officer.
Fran Rabinowitz, executive director of the Connecticut Association of Public School Superintendents, said she remembers a time when schools didn't have to constantly think about their security protocols. "But you know, the reality is, we have to worry about them," she added.
But as new school security technologies emerge, there is a sense of responsibility to use the tools available, said Kate Dias, president of the Connecticut Education Association teachers union.
"I think the fact that we don't go very long in a school year before the first school shooting arrives, I think that there's a real desire for our organizational leaders, be it our superintendents, our boards of education, our town committees, to do as much as they possibly can," Dias said.
In the past decade, schools statewide have installed surveillance cameras, hired school security guards, and set new standards to keep their schools safe.
"Those bare essentials, visitor protocols, security cameras, keeping doors locked — I would say most schools in Connecticut have at least that level of technology," said Jody Goeler, senior policy associate at the Connecticut Association of Boards of Education. But over time, as new technologies and security measures become increasingly common, more schools are starting to resemble fortresses, he said.
"Columbine was the catalyst for what we're looking at today," Maxwell said of the 1999 high school shooting in Colorado.
Following every school shooting since, especially after Connecticut's own Sandy Hook tragedy in 2012, districts have had more intense conversations about what their own response would look like, said Goeler, a former Hamden school superintendent.
"We started to get more sophisticated, and not only looking at our own behavior, our own approach," Goeler said, "but also the technology became our advantage, and that's where we got into things like alert systems and glass fortification systems and barriers and other ways to fortify schools."
NEWER TECH, SAME PRIORITIES
Now more than ever, the country is seeing a push for more products, technology and hardware to secure schools, said Ken Trump, president of the National School Safety and Security Services, a Cleveland-based consulting firm.
School boards and superintendents are under an enormous amount of pressure to do something to heighten school security, and quickly, he said.
In Connecticut, school districts are required under laws passed in the wake of Sandy Hook to annually review, and if necessary update their plan for school safety and security. In recent years, most schools in the state have upgraded their crisis preparedness methods by instituting panic buttons, new computer software, adding more cameras and radios, bringing in armed school resource officers and improving building design as security technology advances.
Buzzing door systems, one-touch door lock mechanisms, panic buttons, anti-shatter film on all glass entrances and virtual software with interactive maps and floor plans are just some of the technology implemented in Windsor schools within the last 10 years, Windsor Superintendent Terrell Hill said.
Communication systems seem to be the first priority across all schools, Goeler said, as more districts are investing in more upgrades in that area in recent years.
"I would say that kind of instantaneous communication, is the big thing," said Sasha Douglas, superintendent of the Capitol Region Education Council Magnet Schools, which instituted a new panic alarm and emergency communication system five years ago.
Hartford Public Schools has installed a visitor management system that conducts background checks on those who enter school buildings and a messaging system for families to alert them of emergencies. A new pilot program was also recently installed in two schools this year that gives staff a panic alert on their mobile phone to instantly request help, district spokesperson Julia Skrobak said.
"The lag of communication is what makes people nervous," said Waterbury Public Schools Interim Superintendent Darren Schwartz, whose district uses an emergency system called Everbridge to send automated alerts in a crisis situation.
Maxwell sees communication as one of the most impactful security measures, not only for a smooth, instant chain of information within the school and with families, but most importantly with first responders.
In situations where lives are at risk, response time is vital, Dias said, and when the latest technology can help with that, it's a no-brainer. She expects other kinds of emerging and more creative security measures, like silent panic buttons, to grow in prevalence.
"I think it's going to continue to be an ever present conversation that we're going to be having," Dias said, "and I think that there will always be somebody who's trying to be out there and innovating and trying to come up with solutions."
To Rabinowitz, it made sense that schools would purchase the newest tech as it emerges.
"I think that the safety of the students and the staff are the number one priority. It's the foundation of all that we do," she said. "And so as they find out new inventions and new procedures in the technology realm, they're going to do whatever they can to make their schools as safe as they possibly can."
INVESTING IN SAFETY
It's a never ending process, Goeler said, for schools to not only implement new measures but continue to upgrade them as new technologies come out. Finding a way to fund that is another issue.
For the 2023-24 school year, the Hartford school district secured about $1.3 million through the state's School Security Grant program and spent roughly $3 million in federal funds for infrastructure upgrades, including access control and security cameras for more than 12 schools, district officials said.
The state grant program provides funds to schools to implement security improvements to their buildings and grounds, such as panic alarms and camera systems, enhancements to doors and windows, access control systems and perimeter security.
"So that was really a real game changer for districts having access to those resources," Goeler said.
Much like Hartford, districts across the nation took advantage of the federal pandemic-relief funds to implement other new security technologies, Trump said.
"But there's the question of what will happen when that money dries up, and whether or not schools will continue to push for new security measures and take on those costs themselves," he said.
Trump thinks many school districts are at risk of not having the funding to sustain the repair, replacement, upgrades and upkeep for these high tech and varied systems.
"I think the challenge is within education, the scope of project to secure a school is huge, and so the resources it takes to do that is extraordinary," Dias said. So it comes down to where and how districts are spending their already limited resources, she said.
"And that's a tough one, because we can get to a situation where we say something like, 'well, we can either buy new textbooks for the math classes, or we could buy panic buttons for all the teachers,'" Dias said. "And you're sitting there and you're like, well, these are not choices I want to have to make, but fundamentally, you have times where that has become the question."
Districts also have to be wary of what Trump calls "security theater," he said. Sometimes after a school shooting, "there's an onslaught of overnight experts, charlatans, gadgets and gurus who pop up, promoting that they have the ideal, best product or technology to solve" everything. But often it's little more than an emotional security blanket that doesn't make them any safer, he said.
For Goeler, that's why District Safety Committees are so important in determining the most effective use of district resources to create a safe environment for students. In Connecticut, each local and regional board of education is required to establish a school security and safety committee, which Goeler said was essential in helping vet the various technologies out there.
Even with all of the new and increasingly common security technology and infrastructure, the traditional practices and approaches to school safety should not be forgotten, Goeler said.
"Oftentimes, some of the most simple things — rather than all the high tech bells and whistles and millions of dollars of AI and other types of products being floated out on the market — make a difference," Trump said.
Things like functional, up-to-date radio and PA systems cannot be underestimated, he said. Neither can the importance of open communication, building relationships of trust and honesty between students and teachers, Goeler said.
Because ultimately, people have to remember the kind of environment they aim to protect in their schools, Dias said. "This is a safe space. Let's keep it that way."
©2024 The Hour (Norwalk, Conn.). Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
