US schools spend billions of dollars to protect themselves from shooters: why it doesn't work

Against the background of the increasing incidence of shooting, schools in the United States began to spend much more money on security measures - from face recognition software to the introduction of former members of the security forces into schools under the guise of teachers.

Фото: Depositphotos

However, the effectiveness of these measures and their costs raises doubts, writes “Medusa".

The security services market in US schools has grown several times in recent years and is now valued at 2,7 billion dollars.

However, it does not save from deaths as a result of the shooting. For example, in 2016, a 14-year-old teenager shot another student, despite the fact that the school had security cameras, iron doors and an armed guard. In the spring of 2018, in Alabama, a teenager brought a gun to school and, demonstrating it to classmates, accidentally shot a student. At the same time, the building was equipped with cameras outside and inside, three guards were on duty in the corridors, metal detectors stood at the entrance, and students' bags were periodically inspected for weapons.

The Washington Post has sent out a list of questions to 79 schools, where students have been shooting in the last six years. Of these, 34, including the Sandy Hook School, provided reporters with questions.

About half of the respondents expressed the opinion that it was impossible to do something to prevent shooting: at the time of such attacks, many schools were believed to have reliable security plans. Only one school stated that security technology could make a difference.

School representatives also said that simple security measures are most effective — teaching staff how to evacuate, barricading doors, and preparing employees for quick and coordinated actions in an emergency. An example to confirm this view is the incident in California in November 2017: then the school secretary heard the sounds of gunfire in the street and immediately instructed students and staff to barricade themselves in the premises - it took only 40 seconds to do so, since such actions were practiced during training sessions. The offender went to school and fired shots around 100, but could not get into the classes and soon left the building. No one died as a result of the attack, only one boy was injured.

In several schools where shooting took place, they noted that trained guards played an important role in minimizing the damage. At the same time, over the past 19 years, only once a school employee managed to shoot the attacker on their own, and the presence of armed guards alone does not stop the criminals: out of 225 shooting incidents on campuses from 1999, 40% of educational institutions were armed.

Most of the schools surveyed by The Washington Post cited the human factor as the main means of preventing such crimes - in the case of trusting relationships with students, they can warn staff in advance that someone is threatening. Very often, schoolchildren, in one form or another, talk about their plans in conversations with friends or on the Internet in one form or another. And if the institution has a good relationship of trust between the administration and the students, then one of the students will tell about the suspicious behavior of another student or about a strange conversation.

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