SECURITY/LIFE SAFETY

Severai well-established security principles provide o strong foundation tor mitigating and avoiding active shooter situations in schools.

Active Security
Going beyond "deter, detect and delay" strategies
may help prevent active shooter situations on campus.
BY LAWRENCE FITZGERALD, CPP, PSP

he horrific shooting of children

and staff at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown,
Conn,, is one of the latest examples of an "active shooter" tragedy.
Active shooter is a term used by law
enforcement to describe both the
armed offender and the incident itself.
The 2008 Department of Homeland
Security document, "Active Shooter:
How to Respond," provides the following definition of an offender: "An

Active Shooter is an individual actively

engaged in killing or attempting to kill
people in a confined and populated
area; in most cases, active shooters use
firearms(s), and there is no pattern or
method to their selection of victims,"
How can we prevent these events?
Although no single method is foolproof, several well-established security
principles provide a strong foundation
for mitigating active-shooter situations.

22 AMERICAN SCHOOL UNIVERSITY ASUMAG.COM MAY 2013

Security measures often are classified along the five steps of the
security continuum: deter, detect,
delay, respond and recover. With an
active shooter, if schools wait until
the response step (typically when
law enforcement responds to a 911
call), loss of life is likely. Often, a first
responder is a few minutes away when
seconds count.
Greater focus needs to be placed on
the first three steps: deter, detect and

SECURITY/LIFE SAFETY

Routine patrols by plainclothes and uniformed officers inside and outside a schooi may
heip deter a potentiai attack.

delay; the goal is preventing the inci- what those are. Nevertheless, schools
dent in the first place and eliminating should recognize that attackers will go
to great lengths to ensure their objecthe need for a response.
tives are achieved.
COMMON THREAT ELEMENTS
Attackers almost always conduct
To understand how a school can pre-attack planning, which may incarry out these steps, one should clude observing school operations
understand the nature of an active- and facilities, making inquiries about
shooter threat. The New York Pohce employees and events, and other
Department has chronicled 230 active- information-gathering techniques.
shooter cases over four decades. In a This planning frequently takes days
report on those cases (www.nyc.gov/ and weeks to complete. Attacks often
html/nypd/downloads/pdf/counter- follow a pattern of these steps:
terrorism/ActiveShooter2012EdiTarget selection.
tion.pdf), the department determined
Surveillance and information
that 97 percent of the attackers were gathering.
men or boys. The attackers' ages
Test and evaluate security.
range from 10 to 89, but with regard
Potential reconsideration and reto schools, the vast majority fall into confirmation of the target and goals
three age groups: 10 to 14; 15 to 19; and objectives.
and 20 to 24 years old.
Acquire supplies.
Frequently, these attackers have
Gain access and conduct attack.
mental or emotional issues, and they
Plan an escapein some cases this
often have a grievance (real or imag- occurs, but frequently not.
ined) toward the school or staff. Most
shootings are planned days and weeks APPLYING EFFECTIVE
in advance and are not reactionary or SECURITY STEPS
the result of a "mental snap." Attackers
Data and profiles can be used to
have objectives they want to achieve, help formulate effective "deter, detect
although it is not always known and delay" security steps at schools.
24 AMERiCAN SCHOOL & UNiVERSiTY ASUMAG.COM MAY 2013

These three steps offer the best chance

of averting a catastrophe.
Step 1: Deterrence is a powerful step. Fundamental to successful
deterrence is creating uncertainty in
the mind of an attacker so he doubts
his ability to succeed. Creating an
aura of robust security may cause
a potential attacker to doubt the
success of an attack. For example,
posting signage at each entrance to
notify the public that uniformed and
plain-clothed police conduct routine
patrols inside and outside the school
may help deter a potential attack. To
be effective, police need to actually
perform these patrols.
School administration and staff
can be issued defensive devices, such
as bear or pepper spray or a stun
gun, and they should be trained in
the proper use of these devices. Signage noting that the staff has been
issued stun guns or similar devices
should be placed in visible places.
If properly trained and qualified
staff members are allowed to carry
concealed weapons, this fact should
not be advertised so that the attacker
has doubts about the strength of
potential resistance.
Other deterrent features can enhance the perception that a space is
secure. These include having multiple
adults to observe every person as they
enter the school and engaging them
in conversation at the entry point.
The objective of this step is to make
it difficult for a person to enter with
a firearm or other weapon, and to
make a personal connection with each
person. The vast majority of active
shooter incidents involve handguns,
which are easier to conceal than rifles
or shotguns. Using a metal detector
,even if only randomly, can help create
an obstacle in the mind of a would-be
attacker.
Step 2: Detection builds upon
deterrence. Observant monitoring
of building entrances helps detect
anybody who is agitated, disturbed or
out of place (a common attribute seen
in attackers). Reliable access controls
on a building perimeter helps detect

unauthorized entry. In addition, expanding the secure space outside a school helps enhance the aura of
security and provides early detection of people acting
suspiciously. Closed-circuit television monitoring of
parking areas and public access points combined with
random walking patrols around building exteriors also
are effective.
In addition to those physical and operational
security measures, an efficient and effective security
program also will use information available within the
schoolreports, observations and similar data sources
about students (and staff) who are at risk of aggressive
behavior and violent acts. Young male students who
have been victims of physical, social or verbal bullying,
or other social ostracizing often become perpetrators.
BuUying-prevention programs may not succeed, and
bullying can be insidious and undetected, resulting in
deep and festering emotional damage.
A keenly aware and astute staff should recognize
that a victim of bullying may become an active shooter
in the future. This knowledge may help staff and administrators take steps to assist bullying victims.
Step 3: Delay involves the use of physical and virtual characteristics to harden the facility with a goal
of frustrating or impeding an attacker in the planning
and execution of an attack. Control of who enters and
exits a building, and where and how that occurs can
significantly affect the ability of an attacker to move
unimpeded through a building.
At Sandy Hook Elementary School, the attacker
reportedly could not open a locked door, so he shot the
lock to gain entry. To thwart similar action, physical
hardening is a useful technique. Substituting electromagnetic locks for common mechanical-type key locks
is one method to delay entry. "Mag locks" typically
require a force of 1,000 pounds or more to overcome
the lock. By adding some small sections of steel plate
around the mag locks, they frequently can be modified or installed to withstand ballistic impact from a
number of weapons.
Glass (glazing) at entry doors and emergency exits
and in accessible ground floor areas can be enhanced
with ballistic film or replaced with bulletproof glass.
Although it often is not practical to provide these exterior hardening measures for all potential entry points
and windows, a vulnerability assessment to determine
the most probable points of entry can help a school
prioritize where to add hardening measures as well as
access controls. Keeping a would-be attacker out of a
school, or delaying his attempt at entry, is important to
interrupt the attack cycle as well as to enable students
and staff to shelter in place (lockdown) or evacuate to
a safe location.
Another delay tactic is to deny access to information that would assist in planning and attack. Sharing

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SECURITY/UFE SAFETY

information about students, teachers, door(s) and hardened entry area(s).

Bypass or defeat a person assigned
schools and activities needs to be
balanced between the need to know to perform screening at the entry
for parents, staff and students and area(s).
the security need to protect the facilOvercome or avoid staff armed
ity and its occupants. For example, with defensive device (bear spray, stun
if a potential attacker learns that gun or firearm).
police will attend an after-school
Avoid armed law enforcement

the school has significant tactical

advantages, but this must be weighed
with political, economic and social
concerns as well.
WEIGHING COSTS

In an ideal world, all of the steps

in the security continuum would be
enacted to the fullest extent possible.
However, schools typically struggle to
maintain adequate funding.
The more layers In place, the more difficult it becomes
To help determine the priority
for attackers to succeed or for them to have confidence
of security, those seeking increased
in the outcome of their attacks.
security measures must provide the
rationale and cost for the upgrades.
Locks, bulletproof glass, stun guns
and security patrols all have initial and
long-term price tags.
event and search all backpacks, this personnel in the school.
Completing a full assessment and
Enter locked and barricaded classmay prompt him to place a weapon
cost analysis will help school systems
inside the school prior to the event, room.
enabling him to pass through the
Counter teachers or students who understand what they can afford.
screening area unarmed. Posting get- have been trained in storming and Some grant funding sources are available, but these are competitive and
well wishes on a school website for a immobilizing an aggressor.
receptionist may signal to a potential
Each of these layers requires differ- require a well-developed approach
attacker that there will be a substitute ent skills or tools to be applied by the and rationale for security.
Putting the three steps of deter,
person in the office whose inexperi- attacker. The more layers in place, the
ence may be exploited.
more difficult it becomes for attackers detect and delay in place also may
to succeed or for them to have confi- help prevent child abductions, enforce
dence in the outcome of their attacks. restraining orders against estranged
LAYERED SECURITY
If an attacker is not confident or parents or family members, and miniAnother security concept that is
feels
that he is less likely to achieve mize general theft.
relevant to active-shooter situations:
A professional security consultant
his
goals,
then the application of the
protection-in-depth, sometimes
may
help a school determine its needs.
protection-in-depth
approach
has
called layered security. This concept
Choose
an expert who is a certified
succeeded
in
deterring
an
attack.
Or,
is based upon a security approach
protection
professionalone who
if
the
attack
still
takes
place
and
the
that requires an aggressor to employ
has
earned
the ASIS International
protection-in-depth
approach
has
different skills and tools to penetrate
designation
that
certifies the abilities
been
used,
the
attacker
may
be
delayed
multiple layers of different types of
of
security
professionals.

or
denied
full
access
to
the
school.
security measures.
Other security principles such
When this principle is used at a
school to protect the students and staff as crime prevention through envifrom an active shooter, an intruder ronmental design (CPTED), drills
would have to get past the following and exercises, and threat and vul"layers" of security to conduct an at- nerability assessments also can help
address and mitigate active-shooter
tack:
Avoid being noticed by teachers situations.
Bullying-prevention programs,
looking for visitors or odd behavior
(this level may be enhanced when behavior modification and crisis- FiTZGERALD, CPP, PSP, is a senior security
teachers have received training to look team interventions all play a role in professional with TRC Corporation, Lowell,
Moss.
for an estranged student with violent reducing potential threats. Having LFITZGERALD@TRCSOLUTIONS.COM
an armed-response capability within (207)620-3881
intent).
Avoid random patrols (either by
law enforcement, staff or security
ON THE WEB
personnel) through the parking lot
For more articles on all aspects of security, visit the extensive security
and grounds.
article archives at ASUmaq.com.
Defeat controlled-access entry
26

AMERICAN SCHOOL & UNiVERSITY A S U M A G . C O M MAY 2013

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