Wyoming School Safety Issues: Part 3 – Facilities Analysis

by Tom Rose

The Wyoming School Safety and Security Task Force was initiated in early 2013 and published its recommendations on October 24, 2013. The team was "…asked to evaluate the current state of safety and security across Wyoming school districts; identify weaknesses, strengths and best practices; and to propose recommendations for improvements". Three subcommittees were formed to

1) Increase the number of School Resource Officers in Wyoming Schools;

2) Update/modify schools with controlled access systems; and

3) Develop a comprehensive crisis management training program for district staff.

We have discussed the general composition of the task force and the recommendations of the first task force subcommittee, the School Resource Officer subcommittee. In this blog we will consider the recommendations of the Facilities Analysis task force subcommittee. The full recommendations of the task force are available through the Wyoming Department of Homeland Security in PDF form online.

As previously observed, there is no question that the possibility of school violence and school shootings is horrific and terrifying. There is, however, no reason to believe that Wyoming either has a current problem with school violence or credible indicators that significant school violence or escalation to school shootings is likely.

The task force was begun ostensibly to consider security needs for Wyoming's schools but the inherent assumptions were clearly that more SROs were "needed" and increased facility security was "necessary". These assumptions are disturbing because Wyoming has a very low rate of violent crime compared to national rates and also as compared to other states in which there has been an "active shooter" situation, as discussed in the above-linked blogs on this topic. Additionally, national experts and many different school districts, including Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado, have pursued other directions which successfully deter school violence without creating armed and armored school facilities which tend to criminalize the very students that they are supposed to be protecting.

"The Facilities Analysis Subcommittee is a branch of the School Safety and Security Task Force. Its purpose is to evaluate the various security systems being used in K-12 facilities across the state, and propose recommendations for increased safety and readiness."

The Facilities Analysis Subcommittee reiterates the "need" for increased SRO presence in schools and then goes on to foster fear by saying such things as: "We cannot effectively predict where school violence might happen next." This statement comes after the acknowledgement that: "…chronic, potentially lethal school violence poses an ongoing threat in only a handful of economically depressed urban centers…"

The findings of this subcommittee describe school environments in Wyoming that are already disturbingly like juvenile prisons.

• 80% of the school districts report that most schools provide monitoring (electronic or personnel) to the entrance to the schools.
• More than half of the school districts report the utilization of internal and external surveillance systems
• 63% of the school districts report monitoring more than half of the doors by technology/cameras

The comments included in the Facilities Analysis Subcommittee report are perhaps the most disturbing facet of this entire report. As you read the comment below remember that this person is talking about Wyoming children in schools from Kindergarten to high school.

"To succeed, we must make security and safety an everyday priority in education, while maintaining a comprehensive and fluid program that includes a continuous source of funding, accountability and enforcement, as well as continuously looking to establish new countermeasures, the latest in technology, implement best practices and evolve preparedness guidelines that our school districts can mobilize to protect its physical, intellectual and human assets."

Should our children be the last consideration? Should they be considered "human assets"?

Recommendations included increasing physical security of school buildings and, of course, requesting additional funding to make Wyoming schools more like the lock-and-bar facilities in other states using a combination of technology and additional security personnel (SROs).

As you consider the transformation of Wyoming's schools into what are essentially juvenile incarceration facilities let's end with a reality check. The following chart compares violent juvenile crime arrests for the year 2011 (the latest available through FBI arrest data) for the states of Colorado (home of Columbine High School), Connecticut (home of Sandy Hook Elementary School) and Wyoming.

While it may seem to shocked communities and grieving parents that these school shootings come completely without warning it should be noted that juvenile arrests in Connecticut and Colorado far exceeded Wyoming's. Furthermore, juvenile arrests for violent crimes in these other states already comprised higher percentages of overall juvenile arrests. Now look again at Wyoming juvenile violent crime. Do you really believe that Wyoming needs to turn our schools into lock-down facilities with armed police officers?