While previous studies have assessed public opinions for arming teachers in K-12 schools in the United States, comparatively less research has focused on understanding teachers' opinions for such policies and assessed whether and to what extent school- and individual-level factors are associated with differences in support. The current study aims…

School shooting prevention has become a priority for educational leadership for nearly twenty years. The brutality and significant loss of life distinguish the attacks at Columbine High School and Sandy Hook Elementary School (Jonson, 2017). However, lawmakers encounter difficulty with the wide range of behaviors, program initiatives, and risk…

Active shooter incidents are increasing across the United States. School leaders are faced with continued challenges in the classroom with growing concerns of school safety for students and teachers. Active shooter training is mandated in Texas. Yet, unknown are perceptions of teachers in Texas about active shooter training. The purpose of this…

Responding to an identified need for more research around the effectiveness or consequences of school safety plans (Croft et al., 2019) and the finding that parents and children often felt unsafe on school campuses (Jones, 2018), the central purpose of this study was to determine the perceptions of school district stakeholders regarding one…

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…

The 2020 Texas Educators' Needs Assessment Regarding School Safety and Victims Services included responses from educators across the state of Texas regarding school safety. This needs assessment generated data that provided researchers with the unique opportunity to analyze the school safety issues in Texas (Fuller et al, 2020). The purpose of the…

This is the second in a series of five briefs published by the U.S. Department of Education Office of Educational Technology on the key considerations facing educational leaders as they work to build and sustain core digital infrastructure for learning. These briefs offer recommendations to complement the fundamental infrastructure considerations…

The decision on how to protect the children and youth while at schools is a serious conversation with varying agreements on the best practices. Some feel that school personnel should not be trained nor expected to be able to react to an armed person while others believe that training of school personnel and allowing them to be armed will deter…

This qualitative phenomenological research study used narrative inquiry to explore the perceptions of safety of rural Texas high school teachers as it related to a campus intruder or active shooter. The investigator utilized Creswell's (2012) six steps in analyzing and interpreting the qualitative data. The results of the study showed that…

Emergency response systems can be improved by investigating the motives and manner in which people share information during an active shooter crisis. This article analyzed survey data collected from undergraduate participants at The University of Texas at Austin who were enrolled during the fall of 2010 when an active shooter event occurred on…

The importance of communication during a school crisis has not changed in the 21st century. What has changed--and quite dramatically since 1999--is the way people communicate. Social media tools are now used in some form by 100 percent of all four-year universities in the United States as a way to reach students, according to a 2011 University of…

Student and parent use of cell phones, text messaging and social networking through Facebook and Twitter can quickly become the enemies of a superintendent and principal. Rumors and misinformation about threats and other student safety issues that used to take hours and days to spread now goes viral in seconds. This rapid dissemination of…

Districts are finding that alert notification systems that deliver automated phone messages are an effective way to reach parents and employees. Implementing the technology is one thing and getting the most out of it is another. This article presents the Districts' goal to get in touch with parents and employees in emergency situations. Andy…

Numerous events, such as hurricanes, floods, and tornadoes, constitute a natural disaster for public schools. Human-caused disasters include hazardous-material emergencies, civil riots, fires, and nuclear accidents. This document contains emergency-management planning guidelines, developed by the Texas Education Agency, to help local school…