An ultimate goal of American universities is to provide a safe and secure environment for all who attend and operate there, but what safety looks and feels like to the individual can vary to a great degree. There are many factors that campus safety departments consider when designing their campus safety policies and regulations. One way…

This 50-state comparison assesses the K-12 school safety policies in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. The information presented in this interactive resource gives an overview of relevant laws in each state and does not reflect how these laws may interact with other state or federal policies. The interactive resource does not include…

One of the most pressing concerns on college campuses today is student safety. To date, nine states have passed Campus Carry legislation and more states may follow. Texas was the eighth state to pass Campus Carry legislation. Specifically, in the 2015 Legislative session, the Texas Legislature voted to allow License to Carry (LTC) holders to carry…

School Resource Officers (SROs) have become increasingly commonplace in schools across the nation. The role and purpose of SROs in the educational setting have evolved over time, often without formalized policies or guidelines. Increasingly, SROs have been called upon to deal with school discipline issues, which has inadvertently increased the…

Discussions have recently intensified regarding how to curtail the disturbingly high amount of sexual assaults that occur each year on U.S. College and university campuses. One suggestion to assist in the reduction of these crimes would be to allow students to carry concealed weapons as a means of self-protection. Considering the current culture…

Bullying is prevalent in our culture and can be recognizable through a competitive, capitalistic economy and a dominance hierarchy. Based on dominance, bullying continues to be a problem in our public schools as witnessed through nationally televised stories in Colorado (Columbine), Vermont (Ryan Halligan), and Missouri (Megan Meier), to name a…

Hundreds of U.S. schools will supplement fire drills and tornado training next fall with simulations of school shootings. In response to the December shootings by an intruder at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, several states have enacted or are considering laws that require more and new types of school safety drills, more…

As a result of House Bill 1215, introduced and passed during the 2011 North Dakota legislative session, every school building in North Dakota must conduct a lockdown drill. While no timeframe, tracking or penalty was identified in the state law, the North Dakota Department of Public Instruction (DPI) advocates annual drills, at a minimum, which…

In this testimony before the House Committee on Homeland Security, the Director of the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) discusses the status of school districts' planning and preparedness for emergencies. According to the testimony, federal and state governments support emergency management in school districts with a range of resources…

The 2001 Florida Legislature passed Ch. 2001-125, Laws of Florida, Section 40, which is often referred to as the Safe Passage Act. It requires all school districts to conduct a self-assessment of their school safety and security using best practices developed by the Office of Program Policy Analysis and Government Accountability (OPPAGA). It also…

National polls of public attitudes toward public education consistently rank school safety and drug abuse at the top of the problem list. This paper describes some federal and state legislative responses to the problems and offers a preventative approach. Federal legislation has taken the form of two major statutes--the Comprehensive Drug Abuse…

Virtually no school is safe from violence. FBI statistics, which show that juvenile crimes actually peaked during the mid-1970s, are at odds with the public perception that crime rates among young people are at an all-time high. The FBI acknowledges, however, that the crimes committed by young people tend to be more serious than in the past, and…

Despite all its efforts to crack down on the bomb scares that disrupted classes again and again in 2003, North Carolina's Orange County district fell victim to yet another false alarm this school year, 2004. For some schools, bomb threats have become more routine than fire drills, with each incident ringing up multi-thousand-dollar tabs for…

This handbook was designed to serve as a resource guide for Washington State school employees. It provides a beginning framework for addressing violence in schools, districts, and communities. It outlines Washington State laws regarding school violence, suggests curriculum resources for preventing violent acts and dealing constructively with…

This volume focuses on school crime and programs to fight it. The book begins by relating serious incidents of school crime that involve students, teachers, administrators, facilities, and equipment. It also describes a school security program that the author maintains can be emulated by any school district regardless of size. It informs school…