Schools on Guard After Recent Shootings

Incidents in 3 States Lead to Renewed Vigilance, Added Security Nationwide

A gunman on Monday burst into this one-room schoolhouse in Nickel Mines, Pa., where he shot 10 girls. (By Michael Williamson -- The Washington Post)

CHICAGO, Oct. 4 -- After a spate of bloody schoolhouse attacks in the past month, school districts around the country are reviewing their emergency plans. Some are looking for ways to tighten security even as they acknowledge the limits on their ability to stop a determined killer.

"We want to harden the target," said William Lassiter, manager of North Carolina's Center for the Prevention of School Violence. Noting that two recent cases involved outsiders looking for a place to make a gruesome statement, he said administrators should do small things -- limiting access, making sure all doors are locked -- "to make it at least look like the school would be a less vulnerable target."

The Anne Arundel County superintendent of schools, Kevin M. Maxwell, asked county police to show a stronger presence at school. The school district also expects to hold four drills before the end of the semester to rehearse emergency responses.

Each Maryland school district and school is required to have a crisis plan to cope with events such as a school shooting or a large-scale disaster like the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

In Seattle, schools have installed telephones in classrooms so that in an emergency someone could call 911.

In Wyoming, even small schools are locking doors and channeling visitors through a single entrance.

In rural Pontiac, Ill., the superintendent issued a bulletin instructing teachers not to prop open any side doors.

A recent letter from Jefferson County, Colo., Superintendent Cynthia Stevenson reminded parents that children are far more likely to fall victim to a crime outside of school than inside. But she reported on recent security steps and urged parents to talk to their children about what kids should do if they spot a stranger at school. She said counselors would reinforce the message.

The stepped-up emphasis on security comes after four incidents that have shocked the country.

On Monday, a gunman in Nickel Mines, Pa., burst into a one-room schoolhouse, lined up 10 girls at a blackboard and shot them. Five have died.

On Sept. 27, a drifter near Bailey, Colo., took six teenage girls hostage, sexually assaulted them, then shot and killed one girl as police stormed into the school.

Last month, a plot to blow up Green Bay East High School in Wisconsin, spread napalm at the exits and shoot fleeing students was thwarted when an acquaintance of two 17-year-old conspirators told an assistant principal. Police said later that the two seniors, who each weighed 300 pounds, planned the attack in revenge for being harassed by other students.