Page 50 - Security Today, November/December 2022

TOhe Importance of Mental Health n Monday, October 24, 2022, a school shooting at Central Visual and Performing Arts High School in St. Louis, Mo., claimed the lives of two people. In direct contrast to the massacre at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, earlier this year, it sounds like all proper precautions were in place. The doors were locked. The school had a proper security checkpoint and school resource officers on duty. The principal used a code phrase over the PA system—“Miles Davis is in the building”—to announce to faculty that an active shooter was in the building. Law enforcement arrived within four minutes and engaged the shooter eleven minutes after the inci- dent’s beginning, according to national news. And still, despite all the planning and preparation, two people died. The victims were student Alexandria Bell, 15, and health & physical education teacher Jean Kuczka, 61. Against the backdrop of the recent rash of school shootings in the U.S., two victims is a pretty low number in terms of raw data. But from the human standpoint, a set of parents lost their daughter. A daughter lost her mother. Jean’s daughter Abigail told local news that her mother was looking forward to retiring in a few years. Two victims is still two too many. CNN reports that the St. Louis shooter, Orlando Harris, left a handwritten note in his car detailing his motivation for the attack. “I don’t have any friends. I don’t have any family. I’ve never had a girlfriend. I’ve never had a social life. I’ve been an isolated loner my entire life,” read the note, according to St. Louis police commissioner Michael Sack. I recently participated in a panel discussion on the topic of active shooters for the Cam- pus Security & Life Safety Virtual Summit. The tail end of the conversation turned to role of mental health and related resources in preventing further incidents from occurring. Being a teenager is tough enough as it is—we’ve all been there. But coming of age during a pandemic, spending your high-school years learning remotely from your bedroom, scroll- ing through social media instead of sitting with peers in the cafeteria, has probably had a distinct psychological effect whose depths we’re just beginning to uncover. This might be an odd segue, but my dad is an airline pilot, and I watched the post-9/11 airport security revolution unfold in real time. Gone were the days of dropping your bags on a conveyor belt and stepping through a metal detector without breaking stride. Almost overnight, we were unpacking half our belongings, stripping off shoes and belts and sweat- shirts, subjecting ourselves to TSA pat-downs, and so on. The intent was to prevent any- thing even remotely suspicious from making it onto the airplane—and rightfully so. I was 13 at the time and spent a lot of my leisure time in shopping malls. I remember sitting in the food court on a particularly busy Saturday, watching masses of people streaming from store to store, up and down escalators, waiting in 15-minute lines to get into a movie or place an order at Auntie Anne’s pretzels. And I remember thinking how odd it was that airports were suddenly in full lockdown mode but that this bustling center of commerce was com- pletely unprotected. Anybody could wander in with a gun or a bomb and just start killing. I suppose my point is that it’s almost impossible to stop one single determined individ- ual from doing what he or she wants to do. All the security precautions and policies and procedures and technology in the world can’t keep one person, somewhere, from slipping through the cracks. Instead of seeking to fill every possible hole, we should be focused on preventing students from getting to that mental place where they feel they need to act out in the first place. That means mental health resources. Reaching out to students who don’t look like they’re doing well. Being receptive to students who ask for help. Recognizing and curing early symptoms of the disease instead of just focusing on the aftermath. Matt Jones Senior Editor 6 campuslifesecurity.com | NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2022 Campus Commentary NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2022 EDITORIAL STAFF Editor-in-Chief Senior Editor E-news Editor ART STAFF Senior Art Director PRODUCTION STAFF Production Coordinator EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD Ralph C. Jensen Matt Jones Brent Dirks Laurie Layman Teresa Antonio Jeff Karpovich, CPP, CHPA, CSSP, Chief/Director, Security & Transportation, High Point University, High Point, NC Alison Kiss, Executive Director at Clery Center, Strafford, PA Mark Kissel, K-12 Chief of Police (Retired); Principle Kissel Consulting LLC, Bethlehem, GA Greg Klaiber, Director of Emergency Management, Northwestern University, Evanston IL Joseph Souza, Director of Security and Technology at University of Florida, Gainesville, FL Chief Tom Weitzel, Riverside Police Department, Riverside IL Jennifer Ziffle, Director of Campus Safety, Technical College System of Georgia, Atlanta, GA SALES Sam Baird +44 1883 715 697 Brian Rendine 972-687-6761 INFRASTRUCTURE SOLUTIONS GROUP President Editor-in-Chief/ Associate Publisher, Security Group Circulation Director Group Marketing Director Group Website Manager Group Webinar Administrator Chief Executive Officer Chief Financial Officer Chief Technology Officer Executive Vice President REACHING THE STAFF Staff may be reached via email, telephone, fax or mail. A list of editors and contact information also is available online at www.campuslifesecurity.com. E-mail: To e-mail any member of the staff, please use the following form: FirstinitialLastname@1105media.com Dallas Office (weekdays, 8:30 a.m. – 5:30 p.m. CT) Telephone (972) 687-6700; Fax (972) 687-6799 14901 Quorum Dr., Suite 425, Dallas, TX 75254 Corporate Office (weekdays, 8:30 a.m. – 5:30 p.m. PT) Telephone (818) 814-5200; Fax (818) 734-1522 6300 Canoga Avenue, Suite 1150, Woodland Hills, CA 91367 Dan LaBianca Ralph C. Jensen Irene Fincher Susan May Scott Newhouse Tammy Renne Rajeev Kapur Sanjay Tanwani Erik A. Lindgren Michael J. Valenti