With at least 14 school shootings in the United States since the start of 2018, there is a growing movement and sense of urgency to develop more effective strategies for ensuring school security. Dr. Erroll Southers spoke with US News & World Report about the challenges and potential solutions to improving school security. The article reads in part:
“There is a no template for school security,” says Erroll Southers, professor at the University of Southern California and director of the school’s Safe Communities Institute. “Every school is different. Every school has its own vulnerabilities, it has its own assets and it has its own cultures.”
He similarly says there is no single security weakness that shooters exploit when they attack a school.
“I’m really reluctant to suggest that there is some commonality other than there was a vulnerability that these individuals took advantage of,” says Southers, a former FBI special agent who has served in counterterrorism and public safety positions at every level of government and who currently helps perform risk assessments for schools across the country. “And I wouldn’t necessarily say the schools were inadequately protected.”
Read the full article.