Firms selling school “hardening” as solution to mass shootings

Security companies spent years pushing schools to buy more products — from “ballistic attackresistant” doors to smoke cannons that spew haze from ceilings to confuse a shooter. But sales were slow, and industry’s campaign to free up taxpayer money for upgrades had stalled.

That changed last February, when a former student shot and killed 17 people at a Florida high school. Publicly, the rampage reignited the U.S. guncontrol debate. Privately, it propelled industry efforts to sell school fortification as the answer to the mass killing of American kids.

Since that attack, security firms and nonprofit groups linked to the industry have persuaded lawmakers to elevate the oftencostly “hardening” of schools over other measures that researchers and educators say are proven to reduce violence, an Associated Press investigation shows.

The industry helped Congress draft a law that committed $350 million to equipment and other school security over the next decade. Nearly 20 states have come up with another $450 million.

Most everyone agrees that schools can be more secure with layers of protection, such as perimeter fencing, limited entrances and classroom hiding spaces.

But there’s no independent research supporting claims that much of the hightech hardware and gadgets schools are buying will save lives, according to two 2016 reports prepared for the U.S. Justice Department.

There also are no widely accepted standards for school building security, as there are for plumbing and fire protection systems.

That has not stopped industry representatives from rushing in, as they did in past highprofile shootings, some stoking fears that “soft target” schools could suffer terrorist attacks or negligence lawsuits.

“School safety is the wild, wild West,” said Mason Wooldridge, a security consultant who helps school districts assess vulnerabilities. “Any company can claim anything they want.”

Several years ago, Wooldridge helped his stepfather’s firm, NetTalon Security Systems, install a $500,000 system that included smoke cannons at an Indiana school. Wooldridge then helped get state legislation that prioritized hardening.

Now selfemployed, Wooldridge says the school, marketed as the “Safest School in America,” could have been made just as safe for $100,000.

An AP analysis of FBI statistics showed 35 active shootings at elementary, middle or high schools, resulting in the deaths of 61 students and staff members, from 2000 to 2017, the last year for available statistics.