Sandy Hook shooting’s impact on school security
MID-MICHIGAN (WNEM) – On Dec. 14, 2012, 20 first-grade students and six educators were killed by a shooter at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut.
As we remember the victims of the Sandy Hook School shooting more than a decade later, we also remember that Michigan is no stranger to these tragedies.
Two years ago, 11 people were shot and four killed at Oxford High School.
The shooter was sentenced to life in prison last week.
Read next: Oxford school shooter sentenced to life without parole
This past February, eight students were shot and three of them were killed at Michigan State University.
Both shootings were among hundreds of others since the massacre at Sandy Hook, but few bear the number of innocent lives stolen like that shooting.
TV5′s Elisse Ramey spoke with a local school security expert the learn how security methods have changed and the way Sandy Hook has impacted the work he does.
“That was a catalyst for everybody to once again check their programs, see how their responses were, and to start working through the incidents,” said Tom Mynsberge with Critical Incident Management. “So, the drills went better. They were a little bit smoother, and I was doing a lot more training and getting people up to speed.”
According to the non-profit Gun Violence Archive, there have been more than 630 mass shootings so far this year alone.
The K-12 School Shooting Database reported more than 300 incidents of gun violence on school grounds.
Mynsberge has spent nearly 24 years helping schools in mid-Michigan become more secure. He said each shooting incident is a reminder to stay on top of things consistently -- not only when an incident arises.
He is able to assess school buildings -- and whether he recommends protective film for glass, devices to strengthen locks, or additional security, there’s simply not a lot of time to react when someone is approaching to cause harm.
Mynsberge said he prefers the securing-in-place method to “run, hide, fight.”
“One incident nationwide where a door’s been compromised, and if you looked at Sandy Hook, he went to the third-grade classroom. He went to the second-grade classroom. Both of them were secured. He couldn’t gain access. If you look at Oxford, the young man there went to one of the classrooms, the kids didn’t let him in,” Mynsberge said. “Everybody behind the bricks and mortar goes home. That’s why I don’t like the fleeing on the outside.”
On Thursday, the non-profit Sandy Hook Promise said in a statement, “Despite the decade-long efforts since the tragedy at Sandy Hook, the toll the gun violence epidemic has taken on American youth remains distressingly persistent.”
The non-profit added gun violence is the leading cause of death for children.
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