Not Yet Bulletproof

So how do we bridge that gap and intervene before someone comes to school with a gun?
You begin with setting up a threat assessment team. These have been effective in the workplace, but they're not as prevalent in schools. A team would consist of school resource officers and administrative members of the school, working with a lawyer, a nurse and perhaps a clinical psychologist. This basically gives people the opportunity to see a warning sign and report it and have a broad enough perspective to include all areas to determine an appropriate response.

Doesn't that involve a breaking down of some areas of privacy law?
Yes, some privacy laws need to come down. The Virginia Tech review panel found a clear necessity to do that. But I'm not sure I would frame it exclusively as privacy laws needing to be limited. Certainly changes can be made so people in positions of responsibility are not prohibited from accessing information when a warning sign may justify it.

This then gets to the difficulty of striking a balance between security and civil liberties. Are you saying we should err on the side of security?
Well, the era of security over civil liberties is already here. It started, it seems to me, with the crackdown in the late '60s and early '70s in response to some of the riots taking place, where public places were starting to have a higher level of police presence and security. And now since 9/11 and terrorism, it's gone even further. But the education sector, especially the world of universities, has been the last bastion of this kind of freedom and the most resistant to undergoing change, and for good reason: because you need a free environment for the exchange of ideas. But, as evidenced particularly by the Virginia Tech shooting, universities aren't immune. In fact, they're more vulnerable.

How is the legal situation shaking out with school shootings? Are schools getting sued and being held liable?
Yes they are. I think we can see from Columbine that's so. Schools are going to have to start acting like the business world and adopt best-practices guidelines in order to defend themselves in a civil suit. It's a difficult way to learn, through an experience like this. And we've learned a great deal over the years. After Columbine we learned that schools have to take action on the elementary, middle and high school levels. But, as evidenced by Virginia Tech, much of that was lost on the universities.

Do you expect a civil suit to be filed against Virginia Tech?
I would surprised if one isn't, because that's basically the environment we live in.

© 2007