The purpose of this hermeneutic phenomenological case study was to investigate how school safety protocols have changed in a suburban county since the Sandy Hook Elementary 2012 school shooting. Through interviews of district safety directors and school resource officers and analyzing district school safety documents, this study showed how…

As the 2021-22 academic year came to a close, the United States was rocked by the news of another school mass shooting, this time at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas. Nineteen fourth-grade students and two of their teachers were killed when an 18-year-old former student entered the school through an unlocked door, made his way to his former…

Using data from the School Survey on Crime and Safety (SSOCS), this report presents findings both on crime and violence in U.S. public schools and on the practices and programs schools have used to promote school safety. SSOCS is managed by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) within the U.S. Department of Education's Institute of…

This updated and expanded new edition continues the theme of the second edition that presents a framework by which the reader can gain a broader and deeper understanding of the issues involved with campus violence incidents. In order to understand the current state of campus violence, two sources of information must be considered--the factual and…

Post-secondary institutions across North America have noticed a concerning trend in terms of increased student mental health crises on campuses. Consequently, many colleges and universities have been working to develop responsive and comprehensive mental health frameworks. While broad studies have illuminated the high rates of student mental…

Active shooter is a term used by law enforcement to describe a situation in which a shooting is in progress and an aspect of the crime may affect the protocols used in responding to and reacting at the scene of the incident. Unlike a defined crime, such as a murder or mass killing, the active aspect inherently implies that both law enforcement…

Positive academic performance is a strong indicator of subsequent positive life course outcomes (e.g., employment) as well as underrepresentation in psychiatric populations, drug use, school dropout, and subsequent legal trouble (A. Farn & J. Adams, 2016). As such, helping all children to be successful in school is a top priority for parents,…

Planning ahead, practicing your response for various scenarios, being open and honest, showing empathy and respect for other peoples' perspectives and assuring stakeholders that you have the situation covered are the foundations of communicating successfully during a crisis, experts say. This article provides strategies for Community College…

At the Public Policy General Session held June 30 during IACLEA's 50th Anniversary Annual Conference, FBI Director Robert S. Mueller told the audience that through its partnerships with IACLEA and other law enforcement organizations and agencies, the FBI has made great strides in combating both crime and terrorism in the communities and on…

The purpose of this book is to examine violence on college campuses and prepare campus practitioners to both prevent and respond to violence. Since the first edition was published, major violence has redefined the landscape, most notably the experiences of 9/11 and the tragedy of the Virginia Tech massacre. On the positive side, however, great…

This study examined the extent to which three approaches to violence prevention and response were associated with the incidence of school crime and disruption after accounting for the influence of demographic variables. Secondary data analyses were conducted with four subsets of the sample of principals who completed the National Center for…

This report presents findings on crime and violence in U.S. public schools, using data from the 2007-08 School Survey on Crime and Safety (SSOCS:2008). SSOCS provides information about school crime-related topics from the perspective of schools by asking school principals about the frequency of incidents, such as physical attacks, robberies, and…

On February 14, a former graduate student at Northern Illinois University (NIU) entered a campus building and shot 21 people, wounding five fatally, before he shot and killed himself. This article presents an interview with Cherilyn G. Murer, the Chair of the Northern Illinois University Board of Trustees, on the actions taken by the board and the…

This article offers suggestions to school boards for conducting school-security assessments and for developing a policy on school safety. It first describes the five major threats to safety: an increase in general youth violence, gangs, drugs, weapons, and outside offenders. School boards should establish policy that recognizes school safety as a…

The possibility of an armed intruder, serious bomb threat, or suicide cluster may seem remote, but even without a major crisis, schools are subjected to a number of other potentially disruptive events. Each year three million crimes are committed on school grounds, and on any given day an estimated 100,000 students carry a gun to school. Being…