Districts remain focused on safety

School building design standards and identifying troubled students were topics discussed by state Board of Education leaders at a recent meeting in the wake of another school shooting that resulted in multiple casualties.

During a school safety presentation at its May 24 meeting, board members held an open discussion about ways to better protect schools from gun violence. But most of the ideas tossed around would require legislative action and some board members remarked on how little power they felt they had in preventing a school shooting in Oklahoma.

“We don’t know what we are talking about, I don’t think,” said board member Leo Baxter, whose frustration comes as the nation has seen several school shootings this year.

There have already been at least 31 deaths in 16 school shooting incidents in 2018, according to analysis by The Washington Post.

The board’s discussion took place less than a week after a student at Santa Fe High School in Texas used multiple guns to shoot dozens of students and staff members, killing 10.

In February, 17 were killed during a school shooting in Parkland, Florida.

Gun control debate

The spate of school shootings has intensified a national debate over gun control, with some calling for laws that would ban certain weapons or increase background checks. However, gun control was not a topic raised by the state board and following the Parkland shooting, some Oklahoma lawmakers pushed for an increased presence of guns inside schools.

Oklahoma law already allows local school boards to give permission for teachers and staff to carry a gun. “We don’t have an official number of school districts that (allow this), but

just asking around there are a little more than half a dozen,” said Jason Pittenger, executive director for the Office of Accreditation in the state Department of Education.

Earlier this year, a state House committee approved a bill that would have allowed anyone with a valid handgun license to carry inside a school. “Any time you have a perpetrator with a weapon, the only reasonable response to that situation is to meet force with force,” said Rep. Jeff Coody, R-Grandfield, who authored the bill, which never received a hearing on the House floor.

However, students across the country have led gun control advocacy efforts, lobbying both state and federal lawmakers.

“We asked (for change) after Columbine, we begged after Virginia Tech, we pleaded after Sandy Hook, but nothing changed,” said Sallisaw student Jamie Nicole Pool, speaking at a March for our Lives rally in Oklahoma City in March, listing the sites of school shootings that have taken place over

the years. “We are not giving our lawmakers a choice anymore. Give us change or we will vote you out.”

After the February shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, students quickly drew attention for their own gun control advocacy efforts.

“If we say we are the greatest country on earth then why can’t we address these problems that only affect us?” asked Parkland student David Hogg, speaking this month at the Education Writers Association’s national conference in Los Angeles.

Buildings and health

While gun control remains an intense political fight, schools have looked for other ways to improve safety, including better building designs and putting bulletproof shelters inside classrooms.

Members of the state Board of Education said they would like to see those strategies expanded on and more information shared with Oklahoma schools about how they can better protect their students.

Some members proposed lobbying the Legislature to set minimum building standards that

consider an active shooter situation. The Oklahoma School Security Institute does work with many Oklahoma schools to provide training and advice on how to better secure school buildings, Pittenger said.

While Oklahoma schools do not have specific building standards in terms of entrance design and security check points, the state does require schools to hold several safety drills each year. Oklahoma schools are required to hold four security drills a year, with the first drill in the first 15 days of the school year.

Schools are also required to perform six additional safety drills to prepare for fire, tornado and other potential emergencies.

Completing the drills, creating a safety plan and establishing a safe school committee are required of all Oklahoma districts to receive accreditation and state funding, Pittenger said. During last week’s meeting, board member Bill Price asked about better identifying students who might be dealing with a mental illness.

“In a shooter type situation, by the time someone is in there shooting someone it is too late,” Price said. “In Florida, there were all types of indications

this guy (who was the shooter) was crazy and likely to cause trouble. We have to have some mechanism on identifying people who are dangers and mentally ill, to be able to take care of them.”

The mental health of school shooters is often a focal point, and while some studies have shown more than half of public mass shootings in the United States were carried out by someone who had been diagnosed with a mental disorder, research also shows most people dealing with mental illnesses are nonviolent and more likely to be the victims of violence.

“First off, mental health services across the board, whether for kids or adults, are underfunded, so it’s hard for people to access the services they need,” said Julie Summers, director of outreach and prevention at the Oklahoma Mental Health Association.

“But if we are talking about reducing school violence, we are not only talking about stopping a school shooter, we are also talking about suicide prevention. Suicide is the second leading cause of death among young people in Oklahoma, and we are eighth in the nation in (overall) suicide.”