The hottest School Safety Substack posts right now

And their main takeaways
Category
Top U.S. Politics Topics

Exclusive: The First Antisemitism Lawsuit Against a U.S. State

Common Sense with Bari Weiss • 1340 implied HN points • 26 Feb 26
🚌 Education School Safety
  1. Jewish parents and civil-rights groups have filed the first antisemitism lawsuit against a U.S. state, saying California agencies failed to protect Jewish students from harassment, violence, and propaganda in public schools.
  2. The complaint alleges Jewish children are bullied by peers, targeted by teachers, and taught curricula that portray them as oppressors, while the state’s responses are slow and ineffective.
  3. Plaintiffs invoke California’s constitutional guarantee of equal education and point to a surge in antisemitic incidents since Oct. 7, 2023 (with 2024 reaching record highs), and groups like the Brandeis Center and StandWithUs are representing the families.

A failure of courage in Uvalde

Lucian Truscott Newsletter • 4697 implied HN points • 18 Jan 24
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics School Safety
  1. At a shooting incident in Uvalde, Texas, 370 police officers hesitated to confront an 18-year-old shooter with an AR-15 style rifle, citing fear.
  2. The incident highlighted a failure of leadership, training, planning, and execution in law enforcement.
  3. The case raises questions about open carry laws and the ability to protect schools from potential threats.

Grants to Combat School Violence Redirected to Defray Costs of Illegal Immigration

OpenTheBooks Substack • 194 implied HN points • 21 Jan 26
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics School Safety
  1. Some federal school-violence grants are being used to pay for services for immigrant and English-language-learner students instead of just physical security upgrades.
  2. School districts report that recent influxes of migrant families have strained resources and coincided with higher juvenile arrests and disciplinary issues, so they’re hiring counselors, translators, and running cultural-competency programs.
  3. Critics argue this diverts money from the program’s original goal of funding locks, alarms, and proven safety measures, noting about $13.5 million across 15 grants explicitly serve foreign students.

School Shootings Rise Along with ADHD Diagnoses, While Public Officials Continue to Ignore Mental Health Treatment

The DisInformation Chronicle • 290 implied HN points • 17 Dec 25
🏥 Health Politics School Safety
  1. School shootings and student exposure to gun violence have increased, and schools often respond with security tech like metal detectors instead of tackling underlying issues.
  2. Many children are being diagnosed and medicated for ADHD at high rates, and stimulant medications can sometimes increase aggression or trigger a cascade of more drugs to treat side effects.
  3. What’s missing are real behavioral and mental-health interventions and accountability for educators and clinicians who neglect non-drug treatments or mismanage diagnoses.

Antisemitism Investigations Hit Three Big Public School Districts

Common Sense with Bari Weiss • 445 implied HN points • 24 Nov 25
🚌 Education School Safety
  1. A House committee opened investigations into Fairfax County, Berkeley, and Philadelphia public school districts over allegations they failed to address antisemitism.
  2. The committee has asked each district for anonymized charts of antisemitic complaints and any documents or communications related to antisemitism, Judaism, or Israel.
  3. The probe, led by Republicans on the House Education Committee, warns the districts they could lose federal funding if found to have violated federal law.
Get a weekly roundup of the best Substack posts, by hacker news affinity:

Discord Platform: What schools and parents need to know to prevent a school shooting

School Shooting Data Analysis and Reports • 159 implied HN points • 11 Jan 24
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics School Safety
  1. School shooters have used Discord to plan attacks, demonstrating how important it is for schools and parents to be aware of potential threats online.
  2. Discord is a platform with a history of being used by extremist groups for planning violence, highlighting the need for vigilance and monitoring for inappropriate content.
  3. The encrypted nature of direct messages on Discord can make it challenging for authorities to access information, emphasizing the importance of early reporting and proactive intervention.

Ohio is buying mobile shoot houses to train armed teachers

School Shooting Data Analysis and Reports • 39 implied HN points • 29 May 24
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics School Safety
  1. Ohio is purchasing mobile shoot houses to train armed teachers. These structures don't align with real-world school shooting scenarios.
  2. The mobile shoot houses may not effectively train teachers for school shooting situations. The cost and logistics of training teachers to use these facilities can add up to millions of dollars.
  3. The purchase of shoot houses raises questions about budget priorities and effectiveness in enhancing school safety. Prioritizing such equipment over addressing budget deficits may be considered 'security theater.'

Learning from KC Chiefs Parade: Free virtual exercise for shootings at school events

School Shooting Data Analysis and Reports • 99 implied HN points • 16 Feb 24
🏥 Health & Wellness School Safety
  1. Emergency management exercises help test preparedness for various emergencies, like shootings at school events.
  2. Most school shootings stem from escalated disputes, not deliberate attacks targeting students.
  3. School officials need comprehensive planning beyond 'active shooter' strategies to effectively respond to emergencies.

575-page DOJ report on Uvalde is a roadmap to make every school safer

School Shooting Data Analysis and Reports • 119 implied HN points • 19 Jan 24
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics School Safety
  1. The 575-page DOJ report on Uvalde provides a roadmap for improving school safety by highlighting systemic failures and offering recommendations that need to be accessible to busy school administrators.
  2. The report emphasizes failures in public safety during a school shooting, including issues like communication breakdowns, lack of training, and poor incident management.
  3. Top recommendations from the DOJ report include active shooter training for police, establishing onsite incident commanders, and ensuring emergency radios are interoperable, pointing to systemic failures that need urgent attention.

New Grand Jury evidence from Richneck Elementary school shooting

School Shooting Data Analysis and Reports • 59 implied HN points • 11 Apr 24
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics School Safety
  1. A 6-year-old student attempted to shoot his teacher a second time, highlighting the importance of considering elementary school students in school security measures.
  2. School shooting incident revealed lapses in security procedures, such as doors being locked hindering police response and potential prevention of further harm.
  3. School staff need proper training and systems in place to handle emergencies effectively, like searching for weapons or sending timely alerts to parents.

Should I stay or should I go? Combined shooting and bombing threats at schools.

School Shooting Data Analysis and Reports • 39 implied HN points • 17 May 24
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics School Safety
  1. Assessing threats in schools, especially when faced with combined shooting and bombing threats, can be challenging and lead to inconsistent responses by authorities.
  2. When dealing with bomb threats, schools should assess credibility before action, evacuate in case of high threat, which can conflict with lockdown procedures during shooting threats.
  3. Dealing with swatting calls poses significant challenges, but improved police response and tracking can help mitigate the disruptive effects of these hoaxes.

Ten shootings in 2023 that every school official should know about

School Shooting Data Analysis and Reports • 119 implied HN points • 29 Dec 23
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics School Safety
  1. Shootings at schools happen in various places and involve diverse individuals, from students to parents and former students.
  2. School officials should question the effectiveness of existing security measures, lockdown procedures, and the involvement of armed staff members during a shooting incident.
  3. Learning from past incidents is crucial, but many official reports remain undisclosed, hindering the opportunity to improve school safety measures and responses.

Wild fight between teacher and school security has implications for arming staff

School Shooting Data Analysis and Reports • 59 implied HN points • 18 Mar 24
🚌 Education School Safety
  1. When school staff are armed, simple disputes could lead to dangerous outcomes like shootings.
  2. Lockdown procedures in schools may not effectively keep students safe in real-world shooting scenarios.
  3. Implementing policies allowing school staff to carry firearms requires thorough risk assessment and clear guidelines for the use of force.

Impact of 'noise' on assessing school shooting threats

School Shooting Data Analysis and Reports • 39 implied HN points • 15 Apr 24
🚌 Education School Safety
  1. Noise is the unwanted variability in decisions made by different experts looking at the same information.
  2. Variability in assessing threats leads to inconsistency and high costs, such as locking down schools and deploying officers.
  3. Conducting noise audits can reveal inconsistencies in decision-making, highlighting the importance of understanding and reducing noise in evaluating school shooting threats.

Why school shooting prevention efforts fail

School Shooting Data Analysis and Reports • 59 implied HN points • 14 Feb 24
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics School Safety
  1. In school shooting cases, people often fail to take the situation seriously, leading to tragic consequences.
  2. Authorities should pay attention to clues provided by individuals involved in potential school shooting incidents, such as changes in behavior or conflicting stories.
  3. Efforts to prevent school shootings should involve thorough investigations, use of best practices in interviewing, and always treating the threat seriously.

Guns vs. Knives: Five times (5x) more shootings at schools in 2023

School Shooting Data Analysis and Reports • 79 implied HN points • 02 Jan 24
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics School Safety
  1. Despite knives being easily accessible, schools experienced 5 times more shootings than stabbings in 2023.
  2. Shootings at schools had a higher fatality rate and more victims compared to stabbings.
  3. Security measures in schools face challenges detecting knives, which are small and easily concealable, potentially impacting the prevalence of gun violence.

Shooting on the last day of school, another graduation shooting, and teacher planned to be the next school shooter

School Shooting Data Analysis and Reports • 19 implied HN points • 24 May 24
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics School Safety
  1. Shootings at schools, including graduations, continue to be a concerning issue with multiple incidents reported.
  2. Shooting trends include incidents happening during dismissal, fights escalating into shootings, and most commonly in parking lots.
  3. Emergency plans and efforts to prevent attendees from bringing guns to school events are crucial for school safety.

Richmond, VA Graduation Shooting Report Released

School Shooting Data Analysis and Reports • 59 implied HN points • 18 Jan 24
🚌 Education School Safety
  1. Lack of planning, 'siloed' information, and not following mandatory threat reporting procedures contributed to the fatal shooting in Richmond, VA.
  2. Security planning needs to include off-campus events and communication of on-campus threats to event staff and security contractors.
  3. Staff should strictly adhere to mandatory reporting procedures, share threat assessments with all team members, and prioritize safety in school events.

Parental responsibility and five more school safety issues this week

School Shooting Data Analysis and Reports • 39 implied HN points • 08 Feb 24
📰 News School Safety
  1. Parents can be held criminally liable if their child uses a gun purchased by them in a school shooting.
  2. Some states lack laws penalizing gun owners if a child accesses their firearms, leading to legal challenges in holding parents accountable.
  3. School safety issues extend beyond shootings to include threats, fake alarms, and data breaches, highlighting the need for comprehensive security measures and transparency in tech used by educational institutions.

This school shooting data was featured by The Economist

School Shooting Data Analysis and Reports • 19 implied HN points • 15 Nov 23
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics School Safety
  1. School shootings go beyond high profile incidents like Parkland, impacting hundreds of schools with lockdowns and swatting hoaxes, creating a broader emotional and social toll on students.
  2. Swatting, false 911 calls to trigger police response, poses a real danger to schools and has become a widespread issue, including multi-state serial swattings.
  3. Collaboration between The Economist and the K-12 School Shooting Database sheds light on the increasing security spending in schools, revealing the mismatch between rising security measures and the continued occurrences of shootings.

By every measure, 2022 was the worst year ever for school shootings

School Shooting Data Analysis and Reports • 0 implied HN points • 30 Dec 22
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics School Safety
  1. In 2022, there were 302 school shootings, making it the worst year for school shootings ever, with more victims than ever before.
  2. Many school shootings in 2022 involved planned attacks, showing a concerning level of premeditation and violence.
  3. Increased security during school hours led to more shootings after school and during sporting events, indicating a need for further research on school safety measures.

Part 3: Results from 'noise audit' when assessing school shooting threats

School Shooting Data Analysis and Reports • 0 implied HN points • 07 May 24
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics School Safety
  1. Noise in decisions made by experts can lead to significant variability in assessing school shooting threats.
  2. Police officers displayed a wide range of responses and inconsistencies when rating severity of different fictional scenarios.
  3. There is a need for more evidence-based training for law enforcement on assessing threats as many current beliefs by officers were found to be incorrect.

Faulty Active Shooter Alarms Cause Real Harm to Students and Staff

School Shooting Data Analysis and Reports • 0 implied HN points • 18 Dec 23
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics School Safety
  1. There are no national standards for active shooter alarms, unlike fire alarms that have strict regulations to follow.
  2. False alarms from faulty active shooter alarms cause confusion and harm students and staff.
  3. Procedures for fire alarms versus active shooter alarms are confusing and can lead to uncertainty during emergencies.

Every shooting at a school in March 2024

School Shooting Data Analysis and Reports • 0 implied HN points • 01 Apr 24
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics School Safety
  1. Shootings at schools in March 2024 were more common during arrival/dismissal times, complicating security measures.
  2. There was a decrease in the number of school shooting incidents and victims in 2024 compared to previous years.
  3. Handguns were the most commonly used firearm type in school shootings, emphasizing the need to address teens carrying concealed handguns.