A paradigm shift is about to occur for protecting America’s school children in the classroom. And virtually no one has seen it yet.
The paradigm shift will occur because of the confluence of three events.
Paradigm Influencing Event #1
The Indiana Sheriff’s Association has adopted “best practices” for school security. The best practices are:
- Instantaneous threat notification to law enforcement of a shooting or a threat
- Make the classroom a “protected space” with hardened doors and other protections
- Enable law enforcement visually to locate and track a shooter inside the school and see the shooter’s weapons platform – officers arrive on scene with “up to the second” situational intel
- Enable law enforcement to launch countermeasures against the attack while officers are en-route
- Enable classrooms to report their status (safe, injured, under threat, etc.) to law enforcement
- Provide law enforcement full command and control of an incident by providing 100% actionable intelligence of the situation in the school.
The Indiana Sheriff’s Association video at this link shows how implementing these best practices will save children’s lives.
An attacker can kill and wound children within minutes of entering the school — well before any law enforcement officer arrives on scene. This reality is addressed by the Indiana Sheriffs’ Best Practices:
- Hardened classroom doors and countermeasures slow the attack and limit casualties while officers are en-route
- Instantaneous threat notification to law enforcement and providing law enforcement real-time intel as to where the shooter is within the school reduce officer response times
Reduced response times = fewer casualties.
The Indiana Sheriffs’ Best Practices reduce law enforcement response times from the 9 – 10 minute conventional response time to a 4 – 5 minute best practice response time, as illuminated in the graphs below.
Paradigm Influencing Event #2
The Indiana Sheriffs’ Best Practices are not the typical dry and obtuse ideas buried on page 95 of a 300 page study commissioned by the government, often read and rarely acted on. Rather, they are actionable practices already being implemented at the “Safest School in America” located in Shelbyville, Indiana as shown in this “NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt” episode here.
These best practices already being implemented at the “Safest School in America” are at the heart of the raging national debate regarding school security. They came into national view through the testimony of Max Schacter, whose son Alex was killed in the 2018 Parkland, Florida shooting.
Mr. Schacter has emerged as a leader of the Parkland families and has committed himself to establishing national standards for school safety through the “Safe Schools for Alex Foundation.”
Mr. Schacter testified in August 2018 before the Federal School Safety Commission, where he spoke of visiting Indiana’s “Safest School in America.” He stated that our “soft target” schools need to be “hardened,” like airports and federal buildings, with the protections implemented in the “Safest School in America,” in conformance with the Indiana Sheriffs’ Best Practices. Excerpts of his testimony appear below:
“If the door to Alex’s classroom had ballistic-hardened glass, he would still be alive today,” Schacter said during the meeting. After the shooting, he said, he traveled the country to see what other schools were doing to protect students, and the Indiana school stood out. “In the 19 years since the Columbine tragedy, we have focused most of our efforts on mental health and prevention. School hardening has been at the bottom of the list. Visiting that school in Indiana convinced me that it is time to bring hardening up to the top.”
More of Mr. Schacter’s testimony can be found here.
Paradigm Influencing Event #3
Event #3 is perhaps the most important paradigm influencing event because it reveals how school security systems can be paid for, i.e., where’s the money coming from for school security? Most school district budgets simply do not have the capacity to pay for school security systems. In fact, many teachers routinely use personal funds to purchase school supplies for the children in their classrooms. Finding substantial monies in state legislative budgets for annually-recurring expenses for school security measures is equally problematic as well.
To solve the funding issue, the State of Indiana has conceived and is acting on an idea that can provide ample funds for school districts to implement the Indiana Sheriffs’ Best Practices.
Legislation has been introduced in the Indiana State Senate that will give Indiana school districts the authority to conduct a referendum whereby the voters in the school district can vote to impose a dedicated property tax to fund school security systems in their school district. The legislation, SB 127, introduced by Senator Travis Holdman, is expected to be approved and become law this year. If approved, the legislation would enable Indiana voters to allocate up to $150M annually to provide safer schools for Indiana public school children.
By looking to property tax revenues, SB 127 recognizes and acknowledges that school “hardening” security measures should be viewed and funded as a school infrastructure cost similar to the cost of fire suppression equipment.
In sum, the paradigm shift will result from the confluence of the following three events:
- The Indiana Sheriffs have adopted best practices for school security systems.
- These best practices are already implemented in the “Safest School in America.”
- Following enactment of the Indiana legislation, Indiana parents will vote a tax to pay for school security systems to protect their children in conformance with the Indiana Sheriffs’ best practices for school security systems.
Other states will follow once Indiana moves forward, This paradigm shift is about to occur. Wait and see.
© Ronald A. Woessner
January 19, 2019
Mr. Woessner has worked in the smaller-cap company ecosphere for 25+ years in the capacity of General Counsel to two NASDAQ-listed companies and CEO of an OTC-traded company that he up-listed to NASDAQ. He currently mentors and advises companies in the start-up and smaller-cap company ecosphere and helps them raise capital through Regulation CF crowdfunding and otherwise. He also advocates in Washington DC for policies that create a more hospitable public company environment for smaller-cap companies, enhance capital formation, support small business, promote entrepreneurship, and increase upward mobility for all Americans, particularly minorities. Mr. Woessner, a certified Toastmaster, speaks and writes about US public and private capital markets topics and his articles are published at equities.com and elsewhere. For more information on Mr. Woessner’s background or to contact him about a speaking engagement, see https://www.linkedin.com/in/ronald-woessner-3645041a/.