Articles
Changing the conversation to focus on a standardized safety method
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Prevention by Design: Building School Safety Systems That Work
School safety is often evaluated by what a school has: cameras, locked doors, emergency plans, communication tools, resource officers, drills, and other safeguards intended to protect students and staff. Those measures matter, but an inventory of protections tells us...
Five Common Mistakes Schools MakeWhen Evaluating Safety Solutions
Schools face no shortage of security products, programs, and recommendations. Cameras, access-control systems, alert platforms, reinforced doors, training programs, and staffing options are all presented as ways to improve protection. The difficult part is determining...
How the Principled Safety® Framework Would Analyze Parkland and Uvalde
What if the most important school-safety questions are not only about what happened during a crisis, but about the conditions that allowed the crisis to progress? Every major school shooting generates investigations, after-action reports, and recommendations intended...
Why School Safety Needs a Framework, Not Another Checklist
Schools have never had more safety options available to them. District leaders can choose from new technologies, updated procedures, training programs, facility modifications, communication tools, access-control systems, and an expanding list of best-practice...
Building Safer Schools Through Principled Thinking
1. What If We've Been Asking the Wrong Question About School Safety? After every school tragedy, the same question dominates the conversation: "How do we reduce casualties if it happens again?" It's an understandable question. But I believe it's the wrong one. The...
Federalist Radio Hour Interview
School safety conversations often focus on response but what if we shifted the focus to prevention? I was recently interviewed on The Federalist Radio Hour podcast where I joined Matt Kittle to challenge conventional thinking and offer a more proactive approach to...
Why School Safety Fails — And How Can We Protect Kids Better
I was asked to submit an article titled, “Why School Safety Fails — And How Can We Protect Kids Better”, on Parenting Teens and Tweens (https://parentingteensandtweens.com/). The piece highlights key points from the book “Before the Next Tragedy,” focusing on ways...
Available Soon in Audiobook Format
Identifying real threats and then disrupting them will always be the primary preventive measure for targeted school violence. When these efforts fail to prevent a planned attack on a school, attention often turns to evaluating how firearms were accessed and renewing...
Before the Next Tragedy: Preventing Harm In School Shooting Scenarios – Know the Gaps
Before the Next Tragedy explores a principles-guided, standards-based approach to improving school safety against targeted school violence. It claims that schools need a consistent methodology to manage risk district-wide; otherwise, independent efforts may lead to...
Before the Next Tragedy: Preventing Harm In School Shooting Scenarios
I took a personal interest in school safety after the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, on February 14, 2018. This tragic loss of life, and how this event unfolded, deeply affected me. That year, my daughter started high...