10 ways schools can curb violent threats, according to security expert

Recognizing warning signs of premeditation, having policies for handling concerning behavior, and developing a culture that enables reporting are critical to preventing violence at schools, a safety expert said at a school security conference in Raleigh Wednesday.

Timothy Enos, a retired chief of the Sarasota County School District Police Department, spoke at the National Conference on Active School Threats, just two days after a fatal stabbing at Southeast Raleigh High School.

Enos said he knew that incident was on attendees’ minds Wednesday. His presentation focused mostly on examples of responding to shooter threats, but he said his advice to heed warning signs and form clear and robust policies applied to more types of concerning behavior.

A major commonality in school shootings is that the shooter told people of their plan and either no one reported it to authorities or authorities failed to follow up quickly, he said.

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Enos cautioned against prioritizing metal or weapons detectors. While the technology for weapons detection is improving, it doesn’t catch many weapons and opens schools up to liability issues if the technology fails. To catch everything, he said, they need to be sensitive enough they’d also catch watches and other non-weapons, requiring personnel to conduct student searches every time a detector went off, he said.

There's also a personnel issue: detectors often require many people to monitor lines to help them move quickly — a staffing luxury many schools may not have.

"I hope one day the technology is there to [detect weapons], because that would make life a lot easier," he said. "But until then, it's still all about forming relationships and community to be able to drive towards that keeping kids safe."

Shootings often happen because warning signs weren’t reported, no policies existed to follow up on reports or policies to respond weren’t followed, he said.

Schools need to create a culture that invites people to report their concerns and follows through on vetting them, he said. That leads people to believe in the system, too.

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There's no profile of what a school shooter will look like or where they come from or where the violence may occur, he said. But warning signs can include an obsession with firearms and violence. As far as their backgrounds go, most face social stressors, have behavioral issues or experience negative life events.

And most, Enos said, tell someone beforehand that they plan to do something.

Enos made a list of several things he says are essential for schools to have:

• A school resource officer at every school.
• Just one entry into the school that's reinforced with safety measures.
• An anonymous reporting system to handle tips about concerning behavior.
• Threat assessments performed on all students who show signs of violence.
• Threat assessments of school facilities.
• Panic or alert systems that directly connect to local law enforcement.
• Real-time camera access for law enforcement.
• Bleeding control kits at every school.
• Shooter response training for if a single officer responds first.
• Policies to respond to and assess threats posted on social media.

Collaboration with law enforcement agencies is critical toward ensuring threats are evaluated, he said. Schools are overwhelmed with all kinds of tasks and regulations, he said, and reporting and vetting threats needs to be a team effort.

Law enforcement can also train staff or ensure schools are prepared to respond in emergency situations, he said.

Training for emergencies

On the second day of the conference, speakers touched on safety training for extracurricular and after-school activities and detecting abnormal behavior.

Schools should include all staff in safety training, including teachers, administrative assistants and athletic directors.

All could notice abnormalities and need to report them, said Curt Lavarello, executive director of the School Safety Advocacy Council. The council has been advising Wake County on security measures since 2019.

Having safety technology, like an instant background search of visitors, is only as useful as staff know what to do with it, he said.

Relying on security technology can cause people to be too lax on their training and adherence to policies and best practices, said Sean Burke, the School Safety Advocacy Council's president.

"The human element is the weakness in all school emergency plans," he said.

People can prepare to spot abnormalities by taking notes of their environment regularly, Burke said. What is normally happening when a person gets to work? Who is usually there? What does it usually sound like? Then, he said, they can make a baseline of normal activity and more notice when something is different.

Emergency training should consider more than just active shooters, experts said. Threats can arise from other weapons and behaviors, they said, and focusing only on shooters leaves staff unprepared for other emergencies.

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