After the mass shooting of 19 students and 2 teachers in Uvalde, Texas, there is renewed attention in Ohio to making sure schools are as fortified as possible.
Most school districts looking to enhance their safety features have to retrofit existing, often outdated buildings, but at one Northeast Ohio middle school built a few years ago, had top-of-the-line safety features built in right from the start.
Ideastream Public Media has chosen not to name the school or the superintendent at his request; he worries that identifying his school may make them a target.
At this particular middle school, you have to enter through a vestibule. Once you鈥檙e between two sets of shatterproof glass doors, you have to log in at a machine that runs an automatic background check. If you pass that, someone will buzz you in.
From there, you can enter the school. Little black security cameras follow your nearly every move - a security feed that鈥檚 available in real time not only to the administration but also to the local police.
There are bleeding control kits tacked onto the walls, the kind of first-aid kit specifically intended to treat the victims of gunshot wounds, not just your typical schoolyard scraped knees.
There is only one way into the building, but lots of strategically placed exits. Even the classroom doors were custom made here: that little strip of glass that allows you to peek in has been moved to the side, away from the door handle. The idea is that if a gunman were able to shoot through the glass they at least wouldn鈥檛 be able to reach in and open the door from the inside.
鈥淚 am not for a minute suggesting that we are immune or are perfectly safe from a horrible event happening in this building, and we didn鈥檛 want to create a prison here,鈥� the superintendent told Ideastream. 鈥淏ut we did want to be smart about that idea of secure exterior and then interior design that would slow an intruder and then also enable a smart response from us.鈥�
This superintendent said he visited the new Sandy Hook Elementary, rebuilt four years after the mass shooting that killed 20 children and six staff members there. He studied the new school鈥檚 security features and tried to incorporate them into his own district鈥檚 buildings, but what struck him the most, he said, were the signs all over town that read 鈥淪andy Hook chooses love.鈥�
鈥淚 think about what causes people to do the type of things that have happened at these school shootings and school tragedies and obviously they didn鈥檛 feel loved, they didn鈥檛 feel cared for for whatever reason,鈥� he said. 鈥淪o that鈥檚 a big part of what we鈥檙e doing day-to-day, too, is how do we make our kids and our families feel that we care for them.鈥�
Much like the new Sandy Hook school, this Ohio middle school is surprisingly bright and welcoming in appearance.
According to Tim Del Vecchio, a security consultant for the Ohio Schools Council, that鈥檚 important.
鈥淲e gotta remember that we鈥檙e running schools, these are educational institutions. This isn't the U.S. embassy in Beirut,鈥� he said. 鈥淵ou kinda have to strike a balance that, how are we gonna design these schools to where we can educate children and they鈥檙e pleasant places to be in where a child doesn鈥檛 think, 鈥楪osh I go to prison every day,鈥� you know?鈥�
It should be noted that these security measures are pretty pricey and require regular maintenance. As Del Vecchio pointed out, those automatically locking doors wear out, and 鈥測ou don鈥檛 just go down to Home Depot and buy a new door for your school.鈥�
Ohio schools pay for these security features through a mix of local levies, federal and state grants. The around the state to beef up their building security measures just last month.
Since 2019, the in grant money to more than 4,000 schools for things like school resource officers and mental health training programs.
Some critics argue that 鈥渉ard鈥� security features have not proven to work, and that social and emotional support systems are more effective. Del Vecchio disagrees.
鈥淚 don鈥檛 think you would ever know how many shootings or serious events we have warded off just because we鈥檙e doing security because how do you prove the unknown?鈥�
It is hard to get a sense of how many attacks may have been thwarted by security features. According to Robin Hattersley-Gray, editor-in-chief of Campus Safety Magazine, they do help.
Still, she points out one obvious problem vestibules can鈥檛 solve.
鈥淢ost school shooters are actually, they attend the school themselves, usually as a student,鈥� she said.
School buildings are an important piece of the overall security puzzle, Hattersley-Gray said. Still, she believes all of these efforts will continue to fall short until one final issue is addressed.
鈥淭hey鈥檙e basically expecting us to prevent gun violence with one hand tied behind our back,鈥� she said. 鈥滻 mean, it鈥檚 great that we鈥檝e got mental health and social emotional learning and improved access control and video surveillance and improved emergency communications and better lighting and metal detectors. All those things work great, but, you know, if you still are selling AR-15s to 18-year-olds, we have a problem.鈥�
Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine has one more way to harden schools. On Monday, he signed into law a bill that makes it easier for teachers to conceal carry firearms in classrooms.
Copyright 2022 WKSU. To see more, visit .
