DoE: "there's a lot of school shootings". NPR: "Not so fast..."

[black dog]

DoE: "there's a lot of school shootings". NPR: "Not so fast..."


TL/DR: U.S. Department of Education’s Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC) claims, 235 schools reported at least one incident involving a shooting over the course of the academic year. NPR's investigators were only able to confirm eleven of those.


And the FBI only reports two, because they don't count it unless someone dies.

So, given the very low number, and the very low risk, are we overspending on school safety?



https://www.npr.org/sections/ed/2018/08/27/640323347/the-school-shootings-that-werent

 

[stgislander]

So, given the very low number, and the very low risk, are we overspending on school safety?

I guess we'll see when all the Fed and state grant money dries up and the counties are left to foot the bill on their own.

 

[Hijinx]

I guess we'll see when all the Fed and state grant money dries up and the counties are left to foot the bill on their own.

What the schools need is tougher principals with balls enough to not cower when an angry parent show up bitching about their little snowflake being punished.
Then we need a school board to back that principal.

 

[stgislander]

What the schools need is tougher principals with balls enough to not cower when an angry parent show up bitching about their little snowflake being punished.
Then we need a school board to back that principal.

School boards are just stepping stones to higher elected office.

 

[This_person]

So, given the very low number, and the very low risk, are we overspending on school safety?

We lost roughly the same number of kids yearly to school shootings as we do to being hit by a bus at the school.

So, yeah, we are overspending on school safety if we are drastically increasing spending on school safety, which is currently close to nil for most schools.

 

[Gilligan]

We lost roughly the same number of kids yearly to school shootings as we do to being hit by a bus at the school.

So, yeah, we are overspending on school safety if we are drastically increasing spending on school safety, which is currently close to nil for most schools.

Hardening/securing entrances to control building access, and allowing some specifically trained school personnel to be armed, and I bet the problem, as statistically small as it already is, might be reduced even further.

 

[This_person]

Hardening/securing entrances to control building access, and allowing some specifically trained school personnel to be armed, and I bet the problem, as statistically small as it already is, might be reduced even further.

Ok. That seems pretty low-cost. I would not be against that in our own county.

 

[Gilligan]

Ok. That seems pretty low-cost. I would not be against that in our own county.

As far as I can see, there are not any other options that could work..no matter how high the price tag. Any more would be analogous to the massive waste of money that is the TSA.

 

[Hijinx]

School boards are just stepping stones to higher elected office.

I cannot argue against that, but when I mentioned the school board I was referring to the Executives who sit in their chairs at the administrative offices.
The head of the school administration that get the big checks and do little.

Perhaps school board is the wrong name for them ,Administration is better.
but that is who needs to back up the teachers, tighten discipline and get rid of principals who have no idea how to make the kids behave in their school.

 

[Hijinx]

Hardening/securing entrances to control building access, and allowing some specifically trained school personnel to be armed, and I bet the problem, as statistically small as it already is, might be reduced even further.

I saw this in DC when Principals locked the fire doors with a chain to keep out dealers and others who didn't belong in the school.
Locks or panic bars do not work when there are kids in the schools who will open the doors for them.
Putting chains on the doors is against any fire regulations but the panic bars there can be alarmed I suppose.

Until the kids bug hell out of everyone when they find out it causes problems.

 

[Gilligan]

I saw this in DC when Principals locked the fire doors with a chain to keep out dealers and others who didn't belong in the school.
Locks or panic bars do not work when there are kids in the schools who will open the doors for them.
Putting chains on the doors is against any fire regulations but the panic bars there can be alarmed I suppose.

Until the kids bug hell out of everyone when they find out it causes problems.

Modern wireless systems make it easy to monitor and control access in real time from the main office. But of course nothing is ever 100% fool proof.

 

[PeoplesElbow]

Far more are lost due to the bad decisions that a young driver often makes.

To give you an idea of the size of my HS my graduating class was 130, almost every year since I graduated in 92 at least one student has died behind the wheel. One year, back when I was in grade school, four were lost as they tried to beat a train right after the homecoming parade and the jeep they were in got caught in the safety bars that came down on them. They tried to free the jeep and all four that were in the jeep died. After that the homecoming parade was moved from downtown (a town of 6000 people) to the residential street that the high school was on.