School Security Remains Relaxed, Seven Years Post-Columbine

Sept. 28, 2006 — -- Just a short drive away from the Littleton, Colo., the location of the 1999 Columbine massacre, Platte Canyon High School in Bailey -- the scene of a hostage situation-turned-murder-suicide on Wednesday -- had an architectural design that authorities said helped them corner the gunman.

"It (the school's design) allowed us to keep it to one room,"Sheriff Fred Wegener said at a press conference Thursday. "It lessened angles he could see out."

"Basically, the tragedy of Columbine taught law enforcement andeducators how to avoid future tragedies," added Colorado Gov. Bill Owens. "In a couple of significant ways, the tragedy of Columbine may have helped prevent an evenworse tragedy (here)."

But Platte Canyon High School, which was designed in 2000 and completed in 2002, was not able to keep Duane Morrison, the homeless man who took six students hostage and killed one before shooting himself in the head, outside. Any many schools nationwide do not have the best security to keep out intruders.

At Homestead High School in Fort Wayne, Ind., the doors are always locked and a security guard screens everyone who enters the building. The facility also houses a state-of-the-art security system which maps the school's layout and would give police an edge in case the unthinkable were to happen.

But security analysts say most schools around the country have nowhere near this level of security.

"Very often we find that schools have crisis plans on paper. But many of those plans are outdated, have questionable content, and staff have not adequately trained," said school safety consultant Kenneth Trump.

Funding an Issue

Seven years after the Columbine massacre, 77 percent of schools do not have security cameras and less than half have security personnel on campus. Seventy percent of schools lock some, but not all of their doors, and nearly all leave their front doors unlocked.

But funding security is an issue, as school districts across the country complain of tight budgets and limited resources. Many schools simply have other priorites.

"School safety is competing with academics for time and money," Trump said. "Oftentimes school safety loses out on both counts. "

And federal money for school safety recently declined. One safety program that was given more than $400 million last year would get zero dollars under a new administration proposal.

"The program was ineffective," according to William Modzeleski of the U.S. Dept. of Education's office of safe and drug free schools. "There does not look to be a correlation between funding, at least from our program, and overall school crime."

The Columbine tragedy did lead the federal government and many communities in working more closely with police on how to respond to attacks. And, authorities say even the most basic security and a plan may avert an attack and save lives.