The school board in my (small, semi-rural) school district proposed spending a ton of money on military-grade security cameras equipped with facial recognition. I doubt anyone thought of using the cameras the way they're used in China. Voters in the district defeated the proposal, which came with a hefty price tag. Way too many privacy issues for my comfort and the technology isn't always necessarily accurate.

Such radical measures are a waste of money. If the shooter is already inside the perimeter it's too late.

Simply controlling access to student areas by outsiders. not authorized to be on the school grounds will cure much of the problem.

Nothing is fool-proof.

Arming teachers is insane. Even well trained, experienced law enforcement officers MISS THEIR INTENDED TARGET 70% of the time in a firefight.

Some folks believe in using an atomic bomb to kill a fly.

The complete ridiculousness of those cameras for my school district didn't faze as many people as I'd expected. The measure was defeated by something like 30 votes (out of about 900 total). This school system has an elementary school and a high school, both on the same piece of land, in a quiet village. Everybody knows everybody and everybody would instantly recognize a stranger. As you said, lyn, controlling access and staying observant is enough. Being observant is a good idea anywhere and anytime.

After the Florida shootings, I visited our grade school and junior high, where we have students, and discovered that anyone who comes into their admin. offices has unfettered access to student areas. There is perimeter fencing, but the office is open to anyone.

I contacted the school district superintendent and their security chief, and after visiting both schools (I checked) they promised that, at least, these office doors would be locked and secured during the school day.

In my capacity as a Doorman I have consulted with many school administrators regarding the safety and security of their facilities. Early in all of the conversations is this question to them, "Have you compared your specific wishes, needs, and desires with the guidelines of the Safe School Initiative?" In every case, there was an ignorance of the existence of such a thing.

A few of the consultations went along the line of "Where can I get this info?", but most were more like "Just tell me what to do, I don't have time to learn a bunch of new stuff."

A disturbing fact, not one of the schools I consulted with (several dozens over the years) implemented ANY threat level mitigations as a result of my consultation.

Two primary reasons for their resistance to adopt:
MONEY - "We don't have any."
INCONVENIENCE - "Too much hassle, gonna get blowback from staff, I don't wanna..."

I'll grant that Facial Recognition technology is yet another arrow in the quiver, but there already exist a number of likely effective shafts - useless all, unless someone has the balls to nock them, flex the bow, and loose the shafts.

This is a problem that won't go away by itself, the schools are simply waiting for Big Government to make it go away. This can't be legislated into satisfaction (it's already against the law to shoot people, that doesn't seem to be working), it needs to BE stopped. ACTION! Do SOMETHING! Action plans have been in place, are in place today, and are being disregarded or ignored.

The Secret Service Safe School Initiative has many, many publications and applications. For starters:

THE FINAL REPORT AND FINDINGS OF THE SAFE SCHOOL INITIATIVE:
IMPLICATIONS FOR THE PREVENTION OF SCHOOL ATTACKS IN THE UNITED STATES - May, 2002 (63 page .pdf)

Project Appleseed Homepage

Thanks,

I just forwarded this to our schools administration, and will follow up later this summer.

You bet, hopefully there is something they can use.

This entire school attack thing is absolutely heartwrenching. It has to be stopped.

This seems appropriate:

Once again a thread on a subject has been thwarted into another realm. There is no direct connection with facial recognition and school shootings. School shootings only have a direct connection with mass media.

School shootings have a direct relationship with student on student bullying. Years past a student was bullied by another student and only a very small group ( 1-3 ) students would be involved, thus it was much easier for a school counselor to intervene and create a resolution. Because the amount of agitation was a smaller group, it was easier to remove those forces from the potential conflict.

Now, with the advent of social media, hundreds if not thousands of students are " involved " . In this context you have several courses in play : a. The individual, b. The or those directly involved, c. The agitators ( those not involved in the context ) but subscribe to the mob mentality.

The individual undergoing bullying is under a limited yet controlled amount of psychological pressure in the first group whereas in the second group, the individual is under an unlimited amount of pressure as he/she is assaulted by an untold number of " participants " .

What has changed is the dynamics of the interactions, and this has / is being fueled by social media platforms like Facebook.

Well stated. I too feel the social media and parenting skills (lack of) has a lot to do with the current state of school shootings. China, on the other hand, is using the facial recognition technology to weed out the dyslexic population.

School shootings only started to raise after social media and the internet of things became the norm for bullying fellow peers.

This technology has put "Darwin's Theory" in Fast Forward.

I'm sure most everyone has heard of the "Tide Pod" challenge or the "Cinnamon" challenge, which both have killed people, but yet both are still on the market.

The Internet is like a double edge sword, a lot of good comes with it, but also a lot of bad (social media) comes with it too. Kids now days don't seem to differentiate what's right and wrong or their hell-bent to be a copycat to make headlines.

As a kid growing up in school, I used to get picked on for having freckles and or the last name of Jackson. But I never went to the point bringing my guns to school to deal with my tormentors, I'd just beat the hell out them and be done with it.

It is a screwed society we've created and disarming the American public isn't going to solve it.

As a kid growing up, I never had a cop question me about why I was walking our country roads with my guns, in fact, I've had cops offer me rides to the next field I was going to hunt. And all this is lost in today's society.

Jeez,

Tony, you criticize BestInShow for reaffirming the lack of need of cameras in the classroom, while adding nothing to the subject of cameras to distinguish which students are under performing. You go off on a rant about social media which is totally off topic.

dj95401, do you have a relevant source for anyone who has EVER advocated, "disarming the American public" to solve the issue of school shootings? I've never heard any such from any credible source. Now the current administration may be telling their flock that this will happen if the "other side" gets elected, but really you DO have some idea of what it would take to revoke the Second Amendment, right. It ain't gonna happen.

Repealing the Second Amendment – is it even possible? - CBS News

Now, this https://boingboing.net/2018/05/21/kafka-high.html

Jeeze.

Lyn, can you point out in my post where I critisized Anyone by name. By the way, Off Topic, On Topic, Good Answer, Bad Answer mean little to nothing. A good answer stands on it's own, it needs no propping up. I contribute in the way I feel best.

As for camera's in the classroom, they have been there for quite some time, every kid has a cell phone. As for facial recognition, we can pigeon hole kids for not having a 27/7 bright eyed and bushy tailed glean. Going one step further we can arrest people for the crimes they are about to commit.

Tony,

Take a deep breath, count to 10, compose yourself and think about what you are about to type, before trying to respond next time.

Cheers.