School Security in the Post-Columbine Era: Trends, Consequences, and Future Directions

• Author: Nicole L. Bracy,Sanna King
• DOI: 10.1177/1043986219840188
• Published date: 01 August 2019
• Date: 01 August 2019
• Subject Matter: Articles

https://doi.org/10.1177/1043986219840188

Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice

2019, Vol. 35(3) 274 –295

© The Author(s) 2019

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DOI: 10.1177/1043986219840188

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Article

School Security in the

Post-Columbine Era:

Trends, Consequences,

and Future Directions

Sanna King1 and Nicole L. Bracy2

Abstract

Harsh and reactionary school security measures, including policing, surveillance

technology, and emergency preparedness strategies increased substantially in the

two decades following the mass shooting at Columbine High School in 1999. These

strategies have limited empirical support for preventing violence in general and mass

shootings, in particular. Instead, they have proven to be problematic, often doing

more harm than good by criminalizing student misbehavior, contributing to negative

school climate, and having psychological impacts on students’ perceptions of safety. In

recent years, many schools have started to explore promising alternative approaches,

including threat assessment, positive behavioral interventions, restorative practices,

and improving relationships between students and adults. This article reviews the

trends in school security from the 1990s through the present, drawing on national

data from the U.S. Department of Education and scholarly research on school

security. Our specific focus will be on the changes in school security that have been

made to prevent or minimize the impact of potential school shooters. We also

discuss the consequences of the school security boom and the future directions to

ensure school safety.

Keywords

School security, school police, surveillance, school shootings

1Mississippi State University, Mississippi State, MS, USA

2Harder+Company Community Research, San Diego, CA, USA

Corresponding Author:

Sanna King, Department of Sociology, Mississippi State University, 456 Hardy Rd., 201 Bowen Hall,

Mississippi State, MS 39762, USA.

Email: stking@sdsu.edu

840188CCJXXX10.1177/1043986219840188Journal of Contemporary Criminal JusticeKing and Bracy

research-article2019

King and Bracy 275

The expansion of security measures in American public schools happened in the

context of many events and trends of the last four decades. In the mid-1980s, urban

public schools in cities with long-standing crime problems, like New York City and

Chicago, used police officers, metal detectors, and drug dogs to keep the crime and

violence occurring in the surrounding neighborhoods from spilling into the schools

(Addington, 2009; Crews & Counts, 1997; Hirschfield, 2009). The implementation

of security in urban schools at the time mirrored the policing of urban communities:

harsh and preoccupied with drugs. In 1989, school districts in several states includ-

ing California and New York mandated expulsion for violent offenses and drug

activity (Skiba, 2000). This legislation marked the beginning of zero tolerance in

schools, which expanded more broadly a few years later with the passage of the

Gun-Free Schools Act of 1994. The 1990s in the United States saw historically high

crime rates, tough on crime policies, and fear of youth crime and the juvenile “super-

predator,” in particular. These trends helped set the stage for a broader implementa-

tion of security measures beyond urban schools. The mass shooting at Columbine

High School in Littleton, Colorado, on April 20, 1999, solidified this change.

The shootings at Columbine High School left 12 students and a teacher dead as

well as the two student shooters. This event was, in many ways, a game changer—not

because it was the first school shooting in the United States (it wasn’t), nor because

it was the deadliest (it also was not), but because it garnered national visibility and

significant mass media attention for days, weeks, and years to follow (Kupchik &

Bracy, 2009). The mark that Columbine left did not quickly fade. The word

“Columbine” soon became the brand name for school violence—the tragedy against

which all other school tragedies were compared, and it fueled an emerging moral

panic over school shootings (Altheide, 2009; Schildkraut & Hernandez, 2014). Now

that violence had touched suburban schools in a very significant and highly publi-

cized way, American public schools were viewed by the general public, and certainly

by parents with school-aged children, as vulnerable and in need of securing

(Addington, 2009). In the two decades that followed, the school securitization move-

ment continued to expand in public schools across the country, regardless of urbanic-

ity, demography, or crime level. In this way, the Columbine shootings did not initiate

the school securitization boom, but instead gave it purpose and moral authority.

This article will discuss the trends in school security from the 1990s through the

present, drawing on national data from the U.S. Department of Education’s National

Center for Education Statistics (NCES), Crime and Safety Surveys (1996-2016), and

scholarly research on school security. Our specific focus is on the changes in school

security that have been made to prevent or minimize the impact of potential school

shooters. We also discuss the consequences, both intended and unintended, of the

school security boom and identify promising alternative practices for accomplishing

the goal of ensuring safe schools.

The Goals of School Security

Contemporary public schools use a variety of measures to promote safety and security.

In defining the scope of the issue and trends over time, scholars often make distinctions