But these no-nonsense measures are increasingly being twinned with subtler initiatives. What's emerging is an approach to safety in which educators put a premium on informal interaction between adults and children, and show greater sensitivity to incidents that might once have been shrugged off as innocuous. Perhaps most notably, kids themselves are developing a sense of responsibility for a safe environment, including being willing to talk more openly with adults about what they know. Most schools, of course, have had general safety policies in place for decades. But numerous multiple shootings have resulted in greater attention to details that run the spectrum from student taunting to the number of freely accessed doors in a school.
Experts note that the new emphasis on engaging everyone can make a real difference.
In Hoyt, Kan., where three teens were charged this month with planning a school attack, a tip on the school hotline led to a search of one boy's home. But teachers had already been monitoring his activities. We might have dismissed it before this. There's a big difference now in taking these matters seriously. When it began to address the issue three years ago, the Hoyt community had been firm about not turning the 900-student school into an armed camp.