There has not been a mass shooting at a school since Sandy Hook.

[Eleanors38]

The FBI's criteria for a mass shooting include 4 or more deaths at one site, not including the perpetrator. There have been school shootings, and attempts at shootings, but none has reached the mass level as defined. This should give us pause, not so much for a sense of relief, but rather to inquire "Why?" Have security procedures at schools fundamentally changed? Which procedure was in effect when an incident was thwarted? More armed security? Fewer points of campus ingress? School pack inspection? Cameras? Safe room lockdowns? More rapid response? Many who are concerned about school mass shootings have advocated for "hardening the target." Perhaps this is happening.

To each and all, have you seen stories, or have first-hand knowledge of new measures taken at schools? If so, let's talk about them.

[arcane1]

1. It's a shame that the bar is now that low :(

[Eleanors38]

3. Presumably, you mean the FBI's definition. I believe it has been with us

for some time. In a curious way the realpolitik of mass murder has some hoping in fairyland belief such events won't happen again; others in a dreaded fatal resignation they must.

Mass murderers are a repulsuve, yet pitifully weak lot. If they see any sort of disruption in their plan for a self-centered yet transient immortality, they could be thwarted or stopped early. It is those disruptions, those things -- a detection device, an extra police officer, the single entrance -- which may work to lessen attacks and reduce casualties. We need to see what, if anything, works.

[freeplessinseattle]

2. Kid with pepper spray at the front security desk thwarted what could have been

an even more tragic day at SPU last month.

[Eleanors38]

4. Interesting. When did pepper spray become a security measure,

or was this an independent action on the kid's part?

[Duckhunter935]

5. he was lucky the perp was not drugged up

lots of time pepper spray will not work then. He was also following the law as he was a CCW holder but was in a gun free zone.