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Eye on violence

Schools beef up security, find new ways to curb problems

By Richard S. Clayton and Susan Gordon
The Columbian and The News Tribune

Fort Vancouver High School is beginning to resemble its namesake.

The school that was named for a 19th century frontier outpost has become a modern-day fortress of electronic surveillance, mandatory I.D. tags and ever-present security guards.

Like most schools in Washington, Fort Vancouver has never seen the deadly violence that killed two students and a teacher three years ago at Frontier Junior High School in Moses Lake or two students in last year's shootings in Springfield, Ore.

But Fort Vancouver and schools large and small around the state now prepare for the worst. Some are adding high-tech tools such as surveillance cameras, changing the architectural design of new schools and hiring their own police force to patrol campus.

Violence prevention isn't just a matter of gadgets and gimmicks. It involves school training programs that help teachers keep kids in line, DARE-like instruction to keep gangs from flourishing and parent training sessions to bring the message home.

Administrators are focusing on the little things before they grow into major problems.

"Bullying and putting people down are one of the biggest sources of violence in our schools," said Jerry Painter, general counsel of the 67,000-member Washington Education Association.

"It starts out small, but unfortunately, too often it ends up big and tragic."

In the state's urban districts, violence prevention has been a focus for years. In addition to weaving the topic into curriculum, schools provide peer mediation, anger management and other instruction.

Whether Washington's schools are any safer as a result is unclear. Evidence is scarce. Schools offer anecdotal proof of improvements.

But studies and observers have found popular anti-violence programs and security improvements sometimes are ineffective.

Jesus Villahermosa is a Pierce County sheriff's deputy who runs a private safety consulting business. For years, he noticed schools were reluctant to admit or prepare for potential violence on campus. They often feared it might prompt parents to withdraw students or vote against funding levies, he said.

But increased discipline problems, the media spotlight on recent school shootings and the growing potential for legal liability have prompted a new approach. Even schools where discipline and violence are minimal have begun looking at prevention, Villahermosa said.

His 10-year-old consulting business has doubled its clients in the past year.

More than 100 of Washington's 296 districts have hired Villahermosa to offer safety training courses to teachers, parents and students.

"They are getting beyond the politics," he said. "They are realizing safety is something we need to address."

No lockers, fewer doors

Physical changes occurring on campuses across Washington are the most visible sign of growing concern about school safety.

Last year, Fort Vancouver High School completed a $17.3 million facelift. Along with adding and upgrading classrooms, the school district removed student lockers, added 24 security cameras and reconfigured the building's entrances.

The lockers were ditched to reduce problems in the halls, eliminate hefty repair bills and reduce places where students can store weapons or drugs.

"It seems any time there was a confrontation, it was around lockers," said Pat Friauf, principal of Columbia River High School, another Vancouver campus that recently removed most of its lockers.

The remodeling at Fort Vancouver added a more prominent front entrance and moved the main office next to the entrance. The changes make it easier for staff to watch people as they enter the building.

Security cameras are among the most common additions at new schools and old ones.

Eastmont Junior High in East Wenatchee installed six cameras two years ago. Discipline and vandalism weren't on the rise. Rather, expansions to the school created a maze of hard-to-patrol hallways.

With one camera in each hallway, an assistant principal can watch much of the school on monitors in his office. Administrators still patrol between classes.

The cameras "mean we don't have a lot of trouble," said Joel Thaut, assistant superintendent.

The state's fastest-growing school district, Evergreen in Vancouver, has installed cameras in all of its high schools and junior highs. Some of the cameras are so small, they can be hidden in clocks or smoke detectors.

The most notorious school security tool, metal detectors, is rare in Washington schools. The state's largest and most urban district, Seattle, uses hand-held detectors and larger stationary ones that are moved between schools following reports of weapons.

"We are not trying to intimidate students," said security manager Larry Farrar. "We are trying to make this safe and secure" for students.

Raising discipline standards

While few schools can afford design changes to enhance security, virtually all schools are stressing violence prevention through staff and student training.

The Washington Association of School Administrators has begun conducting safety audits. Spokane, first up, scored well: The panel recommended additional staff training but found principals had control of their schools and counselors were sensitive to the warning signs of troubled students.

In Moses Lake, where the school shootings touched off a statewide debate on safety, the district has introduced a combination of external safety measures and preventive programs.

Two security officers work at the middle school now; an alternative middle school program opened a year ago; and all the elementary schools teach peer mediation. An after-school program sponsored by the Youth Partnership Task Force targets at-risk high school students.

Niki Greenwalt is a junior who was in Barry Loukaitis' math class the day he started shooting. For Greenwalt, the best thing that's happened since the tragedy is this: "People realize they can go and talk to a counselor now."

Schools also are toughening their discipline standards. Threats and disrespect that might have been overlooked in the past now are taken seriously.

Harry Amend, superintendent of tiny Freeman School District near Spokane, had a stack of suspension forms three-quarters of an inch thick on his desk in mid-December. That's a lot for a district with fewer than 900 students.

First-time verbal threats or intimidation against a student or teacher usually earn a suspension of one to ten days.

"We are trying to make them say we are in charge and they are going to comply," said Amend, a past president of the Washington Association of School Administrators. "We just want them to say 'Uncle.' "

Spokane School District plans to start a pilot program this spring for dangerous and chronically disruptive elementary students. The idea of pulling those students together into one classroom causes officials some concern. But they hope to give those students both reading and writing, as well as the basics of recreation and culture which they may have missed out on.

"This is habilitating. It's not rehabilitating because they never learned in the first place," said Mary Brown, head of student services in Spokane. Community resources will be needed to do all she envisions with this program, she added.

Some schools have implemented zero-tolerance policies for fights, which means both parties are punished, no matter who started it. It works, say administrators, who claim the policies have reduced the number of campus scuffles.

"The important thing is clarity and consistency, not severity," said Denise Gottfredson, a University of Maryland professor doing a national study of school-based crime prevention programs.

"Some schools are expelling kids for carrying pocketknives and things like that," she said. That's going too far, she said, because kicking children out undermines the school's ability to control behavior.

At Firgrove Elementary School in the Tacoma suburb of Puyallup, efforts to prevent violence start young.

The essence of the school's upbeat campaign for peace is captured in the lyrics of songs like Hands, which are sung at every grade level.

Hands are not for pushing and shoving.

Wave your hands, Say hello or goodbye,

Don't use your hands to make someone cry."

The ideals promoted by the songs are reinforced at periodic school assemblies. In the classrooms, students learn conflict resolution and problem solving skills. On the playgrounds, peer mediators intervene. Classrooms feature "peace tables" where children meet and work out disputes.

Successful "peacemakers" are rewarded with colorful badges. Their pictures line a bulletin board in the school foyer.

Parents love it.

"You can't teach the academics if kids are afraid of being beat up or being teased or laughed at," said Sue Fuhlman, whose son Trevor is a kindergartner.

"Kids want to do the right thing. Kids want to be safe," said counselor Donna Egge, who started Firgrove's anti-violence initiative about two years ago.

"Violence is a problem in our culture, and we need to start young," she said.

"I love it when I hear from parents, 'My kid said we should talk about it, not fight about it.' "

The comprehensive approach at Firgrove isn't typical of most Washington elementary schools, but it mirrors the kind of behavior modification efforts that violence prevention experts applaud. The goal is to change the school culture to one in which students reject violence, take responsibility for their actions and treat each other with respect.

But is it working?

Many of the kinds of school violence prevention activities used nationwide haven't proved effective. In most cases, it's because no one has bothered to conduct a scientific study.

Even so, Gottfredson, the Maryland professor, said instructional programs that teach children to resolve conflicts and control aggressive impulses offer promise.

She's more enthusiastic about parent training programs, which she calls "one of the most effective ways to prevent delinquency."

But no scientific research has been done on peer mediation, which is popular at a number of Washington high schools. Administrators say it cuts down on fights, but they offer only anecdotal evidence.

"We don't know whether it works or not," Gottfredson said.

She's also skeptical about the worth of campus security measures. Nothing proves high security reduces campus violence. The only studies done simply show the schools using such measures typically are those where high levels of violence have been reported, she said.

A 1996 report by Emory University's Center for Injury Control determined $20 million in security equipment purchased by Georgia schools had little effect on school safety. Despite dozens of metal detectors, no guns were discovered by the machines. Security cameras often were placed in areas where teachers already patrolled.

"They were much more public relations type tools, as opposed to truly a violence-prevention mechanism," said Dr. Knox Todd, an emergency room and public health physician who worked on the report.

Schools can't depend on security systems alone, other experts say.

"If children have a mental set that violence is an OK behavior, I don't care what type of weapon detectors you have in your school," said Trevor Gardner, a Michigan expert who specializes in school discipline and violence.

"The check you really have to get to is their mind. Nothing physical is going to stop them."

Carlos Sundermann, director of the National Safe Schools Center in Portland, added a caution: Schools have a tendency to overreact to isolated incidents of violence.

They need to determine their community's needs before adopting one-size-fits-all safety strategies or purchasing expensive equipment because it worked at other schools.

Even schools that are proactive don't often get much peace of mind.

No matter how ready you think you are, said David Halstead, Vancouver School District's security administrator, "until the actual event occurs, you don't know how well you are prepared."

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