Shooting in Nashville: the safety of private schools in the United States in question

A the alarm went off and the lights flashed as a heavily armed assailant prowled the halls of Nashville’s Covenant School.

Surveillance footage of Monday’s Nashville private Christian school shooting showed many known safety measures, such as double set of glass doors closed doors that the killer broke down before fatally wounding three children and three school employees.

“It’s nearly impossible to stop someone with an AR-17 coming through the door,” said George Grant, head of Nashville Presbytery, which is connected to the school. Grant added that the chancel it has no formal security program for their churches and schools, but that members worked together to adopt best practices and improve safety.

Throughout the United States, private schools they are usually not subjects to as many requirements as the public ones to develop security plans.

In Tennessee, laws requiring schools to develop and submit safety plans they do not apply to private schoolssaid an e-mailed statement from the state’s Department of Education.

Sometimes, even private schools do not have access to government programs to strengthen security, although in some states they may request state funds to strengthen security with personnel, equipment and technology. Private schools are also eligible for some federal grants to enhance safety.

In general, private schools they do not have access to police custody that many public schools have awarded to their facilities, said Mo Canady, executive director of the National Association of School Resource Officers. He said that some private schools have done so hire recently retired officers.

“I imagine that after this horrific situation in Nashville there will be more attempts by private schools to try not only to tighten up security, but also to have school resource agents“.

However, amid widespread concern over mass shootings, experts say private schools they invested similarly to the public in the prevention of violence.

A strong investment

Private schools were among the institutions that invested the most in security after the 2012 shooting that killed 26 people at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut.

Private schools today have some of the security specialists better paymentsincluding retired federal agents, said Michael Dorn, who has been involved in safety assessments of thousands of schools as executive director of Safe Havens International, a non-profit school safety center.

Private school safety protocols are similar to public ones, but are more tailored to each institution’s location and circumstances, said Myra McGovern of the National Association of Independent Schools.

security measures, e.g metal detectors, they may not be as visible in private schools, which also have to take care of boarding students and, in some cases, the children of heads of state, he explained.

“The safety focus is similar, but how it manifests itself is perhaps different,” McGovern said.

The quality of safety plans for private schools also varies widely, as do public ones, Dorn said.

“We see schools that are quite behind and others that are outstanding,” he added.

In Tennessee, an executive order issued last year by Gov. Bill Lee on school safety measures directed the state to prepare a report on the use of armed guards in non-public schools and evaluate their need for training to deal with active shooters .

Most U.S. school systems conduct active training exercises for shooters and blockades, and the Nashville school had actually received active training for shooters in 2022, preventing further loss of life during Monday’s shooting, the spokeswoman said. city ​​police Brooke Reese.

Whether it’s private or public schools, shootings are more common in middle and high schools than in primaries like the Covenant, which are less likely to have security officers assigned to them. Also, teachers are afraid of inconveniencing younger students with stricter safety measures.

The Covenant School has approximately 200 students in kindergarten through sixth grade. The school and Covenant Presbyterian Church are affiliated with Nashville Presbytery, which includes congregations of the Presbyterian Church throughout the United States, Middle Tennessee, and Southwest Kentucky.

“In recent years, most of our churches have received training and they’ve scrutinized their security measures,” said Grant, former immediate past moderator at Nashville Presbytery. “It’s not an official Presbytery-wide initiative, it just grew out of relationships.”

“A Broken and Fallen World”

Grant said Franklin Classical School, a school under the spiritual supervision of his church, the Parish Presbyterian Church of Franklin, Tennessee, has with lockout procedures and security codes.

The school always has a former police officer on site when the school is in operation. It is unknown if the Covenant School had a security officer.

Grant noted that his church’s security team has asked for security protocols to be reviewed and that I had a workout scheduled for the week after Easter.

“This is just a good reminder where we live a broken and fallen world“he said. “And we must be vigilant to take care of each other in the best possible way.”

Translation: Elisa Carnelli