Before putting armed security guards in Beaufort Co. elementary schools, let’s talk more | Opinion
Last October and during school hours, the Beaufort County School District’s coordinator of protective services, David Grissom, put on a dark blue hooded sweatshirt and entered a Beaufort County high school classroom through an open window.
The district called the unannounced active shooter drill “routine.”
But instead of effectively training students and staff on how to respond to a hypothetical intruder, Grissom sent a bunch of ninth-graders, teachers and parents into a very real panic.
Considering his role at the district — and by the very nature of zeitgeist and context clues — this reaction should not have come as a surprise.
In the 1990s, such a plan might have worked out fine and provided a mildly interesting story kids could share with their parents over dinner later. “This man came into our math class through a window today. We all freaked out! But it was just the security guy proving a point. Anyway, can I go to the movies tonight?”
However, our collective innocence ended April 20, 1999, when two heavily armed teens in Colorado forever changed the way we must think about potential school danger.
By now, every American student and parent know that the worst can and regularly does happen.
So when a strange man in a hoodie climbs through a classroom window in the middle of the day? Well, it means the end might actually be nigh and now might be the time to text some loved ones “good-bye.”
I remind you of this incident not to pick on Grissom but because it perfectly illustrates how good intentions and serious objectives can lead to reckless results when they exist in a vacuum where leaders have not been asking tough questions.
Which is to say, Beaufort County Board of Education needs to step it up when it comes to pressing district staff on security plans — particularly now as the district moves closer toward its goal of hiring 16 armed private security guards for elementary schools for the 2020-21 school year.
Protocols for keeping students safe — and, more importantly, alive — have become increasingly more technical, nuanced and sophisticated.
Also more frequently deployed.
The widespread use of social media and the ubiquity of smartphones in students’ hands have contributed to heightened fears and sensitivities, an apparent uptick in false alarms caused by flippant comments, rumors or jokes at Beaufort County schools and what seems like more lockdowns.
I say “apparent” and “seems like” because the district, at least as of December when I asked for data, has not been formally tracking these incidents.
Board members, key administrative leaders, parents and concerned citizens routinely cite school safety as a priority.
And yet, prior to Feb. 14, 2018 — the day a former student at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., shot and killed 17 kids — one-fourth of Beaufort County’s public schools had not even had a lockdown drill that school year, according to an investigation by The Island Packet and The Beaufort Gazette.
The investigation also found that the district’s central office hadn’t been keeping track of when individual schools were holding drills — even though we had had 19 years of report after report after report of school shootings nationwide at that point.
Since August 2018, state law has mandated one active shooter and intruder drill a semester at public schools, as well as security training for teachers.
However, Gov. Henry McMaster’s 2018 campaign pledge of putting an SRO in every public school in the state has yet to come to fruition because legislators have been slow in coming up with the necessary $46 million.
The good news is, Beaufort County School District is better off than many other districts with 17 school resource officers — that is, sworn, trained and experienced local law enforcement officers — at its high schools, middle schools and three of the elementary schools.
The addition of the 16 private guards would mean every school in the district would finally have a full-time, armed security presence.
This is a good thing.
The district plans to replace those guards with three SROs a year starting in 2021.
That is not a bad idea.
However, while the addition of the armed private security guards solves the immediate problem, it could very well open the district to other preventable problems if it doesn’t enter into this plan with eyes wide open.
I do not mean to insult security guards or their value to society. Last May, in fact, a private security guard was cited as “instrumental” in stopping a school shooting in Douglas County, Colo., according to a report on CNN.com.
I understand why Beaufort County School District considers guards a viable option.
Local law enforcement agencies are already facing challenges when it comes to recruiting and retaining officers.
Fort Mill, Rock Hill, Clover, Chester, Aiken County and Horry County are among those that have private security guards at their schools, so there’s some precedent.
And private guards are cheaper than sworn police officers.
Still, when our school board is contemplating arming 16 civilians — temporary workers who will earn about $11-$12 an hour — and allowing them around the county’s littlest of residents (and when the board unanimously approves the district’s request to seek bids for a security firm), there ought to be a few more cocked heads at that dais.
Some questions that come to mind:
What data does the district have about threats at Beaufort County schools? What are the actual and specific problems at elementary schools that we’re trying to solve?
What challenges have other districts had with their private security programs?
Do the district’s and county’s insurance policies allow for the use of private security guards?
Will we consider security firms that have no experience guarding schools?
Who will supervise the guards?
How much and what kind of training should we require — beyond the basic private security guard training required by state law? And how many years of experience do we want these guards to have before being placed in our elementary schools?
Sworn law enforcement officers are trained to run toward the bullets to neutralize the threat.
Is it realistic to believe a security guard will feel compelled to do the same?
The National Association of School Resource Officers strongly recommends that only “carefully selected, specially trained school resource officers, who are by definition active sworn law enforcement officers” be allowed to carry weapons on school campuses.
NASRO also recommends that SROs have three years’ patrol experience before working in schools.
Are we OK not subscribing to best security practices at half our schools?
In 2019, the Beaufort County School District budgeted nearly $2 million for something called “Other Objects.”
That same year, school security was budgeted at just under $1.3 million.
Does spending on school safety reflect our values?
