Two of the families of 6 year old Sandy Hook victims are suing the Newtown school board for wrongful death, alleging that security measure at the school weren’t adequate. Tragically the main allegations of the suit are most likely true for many American schools. They include:
- That teachers were unable to follow the security policies and procedures in place because classroom doors could only be locked from the outside using keys.
- That the entry of the school did not have security glass to protect against gunshots
- That a substitute in one of the classrooms where students were killed didn’t have a key and had not been training on what to do in a crisis event.
The larger question is – what are we currently doing to ensure that ALL teachers have been trained in, and have the means to follow crisis response protocols? How vulnerable are all school districts to the threat of a violent intruder, and the potential liability that follows if we are unwilling to allocate the time and financial resources to train our teachers?
I challenge you to critically examine how your school would fare on the three major points of the lawsuit. I’m sure at some point in the past, the Newtown School Board thought that a school shooting could never happen there. Don’t make the same mistake in your district.