Standardization of the security system of schools and other educational institutions - good or bad?

 

Attention: English is not my native language, the text is translated with the help of technical translation tools. I apologize in advance if the meaning of some phrases will be incorrectly conveyed.

Analyzing publications in the media, websites of law enforcement agencies, expert and scientific organizations, as well as specialized communities in social networks, I noticed some changes in the trends of statements, statements and comments from officials and specialists. Albeit with a great delay, but law enforcement services and other legislative and executive authorities of many countries are slowly beginning to recognize the fact that schools, other educational institutions and places with mass attendance of children have become objects of increased danger, that they have become an attractive target for criminals and terrorists*. There are also cautious statements that a special approach to their security is needed. There are few specifics in such statements, but the fact that the threat is being recognized at a fairly high level can already be called positive progress, albeit tentatively.  

Among those involved in the development of solutions in the field of security of educational and other children's institutions, especially in recent times, there is often expressed an opinion, which has a lot of support in the expert community, about the need to create the introduction of a single standard (format or template) of safety and security systems for educational institutions. There are even initiatives that such a standard should be made international. However, the question arises - how effective will such a «standardized» approach to the security of educational institutions be?

Proponents of standardization believe that it will be, arguing that such unified standards and templates are already used and quite successfully, for example, in terms of ensuring the protection of such facilities from fire or natural disasters in dangerous areas. They are developed on the basis of a long, deep analysis of real and probable emergency situations, natural and man-made, best practices of rescue services, as well as modern technical means of detection, warning and elimination of dangerous phenomena, such as fire, gas leakage (or other dangerous chemicals), earthquake, tornado, tornado, flood and others. The experience of using such templates is quite successful, it is indeed true.

However, in the above cases, we are dealing with unplanned and uncontrollable phenomena of natural or man-made nature. But let us consider the situation, in a different scenario. In any educational institution there is a detailed instruction on actions in case of fire, which is studied in classes, periodically repeated, drills and exercises are held, throughout the building hanging plans, information signs, signs of evacuation routes, main and emergency exits, sound warning buttons, sensors, water sprayers, fire extinguishers other elements of fire protection system. All this was calculated on the basis of the versions of the occurrence of fire due to natural causes, such as: short-circuited wiring, electrical appliance malfunction, lightning, careless handling of fire or even hooliganism. But, what if the cause of the fire will be the willful actions, of one or more criminals whose goal is to commit mass murder, using fire and smoke as weapons. They will have studied all the instructions and fire protocols in advance, and with this information in mind, they will develop their arson plan. What are the potential consequences of this scenario? When the perpetrator knows in advance every move of the potential victims?

Some may say that this is unlikely, I disagree, let's look at the statistics: in the world, for the period from 2000 to 2023 inclusive, in schools, kindergartens, colleges and universities, there were 249 crimes**, falling under the signs of mass murder and terrorist acts. Of these, 16 were committed using incendiary devices and mixtures as weapons, 252 victims (140 dead and 112 injured), most of the victims were children.

For comparison, in the period from 2009 to 2012, in Russia, in schools and other educational institutions there were 1,504 fires (not one of them was not related to mass murder), in which 42 people suffered (9 dead, 33 injured). [1]

This example, clearly shows that the use of uniform standards in the field of fire safety is really effective in emergency situations of unintentional nature, where the casualty rate is only 0.03. However, in cases where the fire was a consequence of intentional actions such a coefficient is already 15.8, a difference of more than 500 times. 

I have always said it and I will say it again, the biggest mistake law enforcement makes in dealing with criminals who commit mass murders in schools and other educational institutions is underestimating them. An analysis of mass murders and terrorist acts committed in educational and other children's institutions directly indicates that such crimes are very rarely committed spontaneously or in a state of passion. On the contrary, most of them are preceded by careful planning and long, painstaking preparation.

Consider the events at Columbine High School. If everything had gone according to the original plan of the criminals, it would have been a tragedy on a scale comparable to «Beslan» or «September 11». In total, the criminals' plan had three stages of implementation and it was designed with the school's security protocol in mind. Firing sectors, main and reserve firing points, were formed according to the directions of movement of people during evacuation. Yes, their plan misfired, poor technical skills failed (the detonators of the largest bombs failed), what happened next was an unplanned improvisation on the part of the perpetrators, but even with this development of events - 27 victims (13 killed, 14 wounded).

If it had happened not 25 years ago, but in our days, the result would be different, because today, the detonator does not need to be made by yourself, the simplest, yet quite reliable version of the remote igniter can be ordered on the Internet, ready-made, and the whole system of explosive and incendiary devices can be controlled through an application in a smartphone or tablet. I am not talking about the possibilities for criminals to use unmanned aerial vehicles (drones), even those versions that are freely available, but this is a topic for a separate study. 

Based on the above, we can conclude that the creation and use of a single security standard for educational institutions will not improve their protection, but on the contrary, will create a dangerous vulnerability in it. This will give potential criminals the opportunity to build their attacks, taking into account all the weaknesses of the object and mechanisms to respond to threats, in different scenarios. If the crime is prepared by the student himself (almost 45% of mass murders in educational institutions are committed by their students), then he will be able not only to learn these features, but also to visually see how this system works, for example, during drills and exercises.

 

My opinion in this matter:

I am in favor of a compromise solution. I believe that there is indeed a need to form a unified (including international) standard for the safety of educational institutions and places with mass attendance of children, but in a minimal format. In the form of a set of minimum requirements, general purpose, providing a fundamental basis for the security system of an educational institution. What are these requirements?

The presence at the protected object:

- video surveillance system, both inside the building and on the external boundaries;

- a physical security post;

- a system of technical access control with identification of visitors;

- a system of technical control of visitors to carry weapons, ammunition, explosive devices, explosive, incendiary or poisonous substances into the premises;

- emergency call buttons for the police;

- intercom systems between the premises;

- safe zones in each room.

Also with modern features in mind, I would add to this list a drone (unmanned aerial vehicle) detection detector.

I am sure that such a minimum set of the above mentioned basic security measures should be in every school, kindergarten, college or university. There is no doubt about the effectiveness of these measures, they comply with the main principle of «Do no harm». However, at the same time, as I have already said, this should be only the foundation, but the other elements of the security system should be developed for each object individually, taking into account the peculiarities of the educational institution, the nature and degree of probability of threats. This can be different approaches to the organization and activities of physical security, the use of technical means of security and access control, methods of engineering reinforcement, both the entire building and individual rooms, surveillance systems, control, communication, alarms, alerts and much more. 

Note: It is important not to get carried away with engineering solutions and technical security features in facilities such as educational institutions. Not everything that at first glance seems useful and effective in theory is so in practice. I made a detailed analysis of such «means of protection» with analysis of application and examples in this article. 

 There are a lot of ways and possibilities in this direction, and with their proper use at the protected object, the level of its security can be raised to the maximum possible***.

There are no universal solutions (except for the basic security measures described above) in ensuring the security of educational institutions. The main components of an effective security system are its uniqueness, based on the individual characteristics of the protected object and limitation of access to this information by unauthorized persons.

It is important to realize that this system is built, not against petty thieves and hooligans, but against murderers and terrorists who do it deliberately, consciously, and cold-bloodedly, according to a pre-prepared plan. Their main goal is to kill as many people as possible. The main task of the security system is to prevent them.   

The creation of such a system should always start with a deep analysis of vulnerabilities and their expert evaluation, based on which, experts develop a detailed list of recommendations to eliminate the identified vulnerabilities, or to minimize their negative effect. All this should be combined into a single document – «Security Protocol», which after completion and approval should receive the status of «official» (closed) with a limited list of officials who have access to its contents. On the Internet site of an educational institution or its page in a social network, it is enough to inform about its compliance with the «basic» security standard, all other information should be closed.

One more important condition to be taken into account: yes, in the 21st century, schools, other educational institutions and places with mass stay of children have become high-risk objects and their protection requires a special approach, but they should not turn into analogs of prisons or military bunkers. Is it possible? Yes, it is possible.

In this article I will not consider the questions of what specialists should be involved in assessing the vulnerabilities of schools and other educational institutions (including preschools) and what means and methods should be used to create a system to ensure their security. This is a very voluminous topic that I will include in the second part**** of the study on comprehensive security systems for educational institutions, which I plan to finalize and publish in 2025. As for the active discussions on the application of technical means of safety and security for these purposes, I have already expressed my opinion about it in one of my previous articles.

 Author - Roman Grishin

 

* Although some may not see the difference, I still tend to separate these two types of criminals based on their motivation. For the «School Shooter», mass murder is a way of self-expression, he is guided by goals he alone understands and tries to convey only his personal message to others. A terrorist commits a crime guided by the ideology of a particular terrorist movement (organization) and pursues the goals that this extremist ideology (or organization) professes.

** Handbook of Crimes and Terrorist Acts in Schools and Other Educational Institutions (second edition, revised and supplemented)

*** absolute security does not exist even in theory, the maximum possible indicator of the effectiveness of the security system is to reduce, to the possible minimum, the risk of a successful attack on the protected object and the damage caused by such an attack.

**** «Ensuring the safety of schools, other educational organizations and institutions with mass attendance of children» publication dated 05 January 2022.

#standardization #standards #safety #safeguarding #school #nursery #kindergarten #college #university #children #analytics #statistics #debate #opinion #effectiveness #Columbine #SafeandSoundSchools #SchoolSafety

Columbine High School tragedy, 25 years later, facts, thoughts, unanswered questions

The other day I finished reading Dave Cullen's book «Columbine» (in my country the book was published under the title «Columbine - an exhaustive report from the scene». The second, supplemented edition of this book was published back in 2016, but in my country it was not published until the end of 2023).

For all those who are seriously interested in the Columbine tragedy and school massacres in general, I would recommend reading this book. Such books are very rare today, its author has done a tremendous job (according to his statement, the collection, verification and systematization of materials for the book took him almost 10 years), combining in one publication a large number of facts «from the first person». Everything is here: testimonies of direct participants and other witnesses, data from police and court reports, conclusions of criminalists, psychiatrists and other experts. The book reconstructs a detailed chronology of events, along parallel time lines (perpetrators, victims, eyewitnesses, police). There are quotes from the perpetrators' diaries, their plans and plotting, transcripts of “basement videotapes” and a lot of other useful information.

Another (in my opinion) plus of the book is that Cullen, does not take the bad example of many other authors who first give their version of the event, and then begin to adjust the facts under it, while indicating only what corresponds to their interpretation, ignoring everything in it does not fit. Here, the author puts only facts, and from all participants of the tragedy, as if offering readers to see the tragedy through their eyes, from the position of the perpetrator, victim, student or teacher, parent, police officer, FBI agent, journalist, ambulance doctor, firefighter, just a random onlooker, and then, on their basis, to draw their own conclusions. In general, my impression of the book, only positive, it is a good solid work, a real criminal journalist, with a competent and interesting form of presentation of material.

For those who are interested in a personal analysis of school shooters (including the Columbine killers) - I would recommend Dr. Peter Langman's book «Why Kids Kill». There he provides an objective comparative analysis of the most notorious «school shooters» by psychological and forensic measures. Once again confirming the theory, previously repeatedly expressed by various criminologists and law enforcement agencies that there is no single psychotype of «school shooter», as well as some unique personality traits inherent only to them, and they have more differences than common. Therefore, all attempts to identify them at an early stage and predict their emergence are «Sisyphean labor» that wastes a lot of resources, but is of no practical use.  

However, let's return to the main question - Why exactly «Columbine» has become a nominal name for crimes of this kind? I have long been involved in applied criminology, in terms of ensuring the safety of schools, other educational institutions and places where children are present in large numbers. This is the main topic of my research. Often in discussions with my colleagues, the question has been raised that, if we put aside the moral and ethical component and consider this crime from a purely formal point of view, at first glance there is nothing particularly outstanding in it. Both before and after it there were tragedies, more bloody in their scale and consequences (those who are interested in the statistics of such crimes can see here), and yet why «Columbine»?

Probably, because at detailed study of the facts, it becomes clear that if the plan (and the crime was carefully planned) of the criminals was executed by them in the original scenario, it would have been a terrorist attack on a scale comparable to the tragedy in the school of Beslan in 2004 or «September 11». In Chapter 8 of «Maximum Human Concentration» - Dave Cullen's book – «Columbine. An Exhaustive Report from the Field.» (supplemented 2016 edition) describes in detail the plan of the criminals, the number of bombs, their charge, striking elements, their purpose (to hit large crowds of people, to distract attention, to hit the emergency workers and journalists who arrived on the scene, to collapse the building and ignite it). The following are indicated: prepared sectors for firing, main and reserve firing points formed taking into account the direction of movement of people during evacuation.

In total, the plan had three stages of realization of the criminals' plan, and if they had managed to realize not all of it, but at least most of it, the number of victims, with a high degree of probability, would have been four-digit. According to experts (including myself, I personally asked people who served in anti-terrorist and intelligence-sabotage units), this plan was drawn up at a good professional level. It takes into account many important factors and conditions, and there are, of course, shortcomings, but not critical. The most important conclusion of their experts was that this plan was quite suitable for real implementation. The fact that this plan was not realized in practice, happened rather by accident, first - the technique failed, most of the detonators installed on the most destructive bombs did not work, the second - the lack of the killers of the backup scenario for such a case and as a result of the lack of coordination of their actions. In fact, what happened as a result was an unplanned improvisation on the part of the perpetrators, but even with this development of events - 27 victims (13 killed, 14 wounded).

My opinion is that the events at Columbine High School have clearly demonstrated that the threat level of the School Shooters is underestimated. Two ordinary teenagers, spent a year hatching a plan for large scale mass murder, procuring weapons, ammunition, bomb parts, planning, discussing, practicing. They didn't just talk, they acted.

This begs the questions: did no one see anything, or understand? Or did they see, but didn't want to understand? Or maybe they saw understood, and even with these thoughts came to their superiors, but heard: «Do not exaggerate, it's just teenagers, what can they do at all, at most write an obscene phrase on the door of the director's office. Go and do something serious, and forget about your fantasies and do not tell anyone...».

However, as it turned out - they can, and can much more than what is expected of them. Cold-bloodedly and calculatingly make a plan to deprive hundreds, and maybe thousands, of the lives and health of their classmates, teachers, friends, neighbors or just acquaintances, and then try to carry it out. If they hadn't been let down by homemade detonators, they would have done it. Simple teenagers from the backwoods, were ready to kill hundreds and thousands of innocent people, if their plan had succeeded, the terrorists from «Al-Qaeda», against their background would look like a bunch of petty hooligans.

The events at Columbine High School showed the main thing: children, in their desire to kill their own kind, are able to show great analytical abilities in planning, and in the implementation of their plans, the level of cruelty and danger, far surpass adults. Outwardly normal teenagers are capable of killing without the slightest reason or compassion. Except that we still don't want to recognize this. That is why every year in schools, kindergartens, colleges and universities shots and explosions rumble, knives and axes take a deadly swing, incendiary devices and atomizers detonate, children and adults die.

And someone continues to say that «There is no need to exaggerate and exaggerate, these are just teenagers, what can they do...».

Author - Roman Grishin

photo from the website: Chalkbeat

#Columbine #School #facts #thoughts #questions #tragedy #murder #crime #shooter #threat

Safety of schools and other educational institutions

This section will post articles, research, reviews and other materials of the project participants on the topic – «Issues of safety of educational institutions and other places with mass attendance of children, from threats of criminal, terrorist and other nature».

A promising area for research:

Currently, quite relevant and of real practical interest to specialists are studies on effective measures to ensure the security of educational and other children's institutions.

Situations in which high-profile crimes with large numbers of victims are committed in kindergartens, schools, colleges, universities, and other places with large concentrations of children and adolescents are no longer uncommon. Educational facilities have often become targets for terrorist attacks, and the «Columbine» movement, «Skulshooting», «School Shooters», «M.C.M.», and the like are also spreading around the world.

An equally urgent threat today is the commission of crimes against the sexual inviolability of underage pupils and students, as well as crimes of an ordinary criminal nature.

Another important area for research is the development of effective methods to counteract the growing activity of «school gangs» and other informal associations of teenagers, who pursue illegal purposes, including the spreading of criminal or extremist ideology.  

It is important to remember that when working on materials on these issues, the authors should not make assessments and judgments about the causes of these phenomena. Social, political, religious or other motives that served as the basis for mass murders, terrorist acts or other crimes should not be discussed. This should be handled by subject matter specialists such as psychologists, educators, sociologists and journalists. The purpose of our project is to review the situation from the professional perspective, as specialists in law enforcement, public order and safety, and combating terrorism and extremism.

You can send your articles, reviews, essays and other materials to be placed in this section of the site by any convenient way to the editorial office of the project. Requirements for the content and design of publications, the order of their placement and recommendations for copyright protection can be found in the section Contacts. 

Regards.

Project Editorial Board.

#safety #school #children #university #Columbine #threat #schoolshooting #security