While school shootings and mass shootings continue to plague the U.S. at near-record levels, “campus vulnerability assessments” of Hawaii’s public schools have progressed at a slow pace, with only 140 of the state’s 258 regular public school campuses formally evaluated since 2017 for problems that could make them more vulnerable to a potential active shooter.
Based on the assessments conducted so far by the state Department of Education, officials say they know that outdated door locks and campus fencing, and inconsistent security staffing, announcement systems and threat-assessment initiatives are among the most common inadequacies that need critical attention at many public schools.
>> RELATED: Access to Hawaii public school campus assessments impeded
However, a new sense of urgency is being placed on campus vulnerability assessments, DOE officials say: While the evaluation visits were optional through the past school year, they recently were changed to mandatory and are being accelerated so that surveys of all remaining campuses should be completed by the end of the fiscal year in June, at the direction of state schools Superintendent Keith Hayashi, said Curt Otaguro, deputy superintendent of operations.
Remedies for problems found in the assessments will cost “in the hundreds of millions,” but they are crucial and will be sought at the next Legislature, said Otaguro, who previously was state comptroller and director of the state Department of Accounting and General Services.
“There are cameras to be upgraded. There are locks to be installed. There are some doors to be replaced that are not bulletproof,” among the issues, Otaguro said. “Every school will require a different approach for the unknown, because an active shooter could show up at any school.”
Hawaii’s 37 public charter schools, meanwhile, “have their own governance but should follow what DOE has established,” he said.
Threats of harm or violence received by the islands’ public schools have risen dramatically, and state lawmakers, the Hawaii State Teachers Association and other stakeholders have complained that it’s taken too long for all of Hawaii’s schools to undergo campus vulnerability assessments.
Some local and national experts at June’s Hawaii Threat Assessment Conference at the University of Hawaii West Oahu also said they think Hawaii public schools still lag severely in threat assessment, a system for spotting and stopping potential shooters, with only one out of the state’s 295 public and public charter schools so far operating a “behavioral intervention threat-assessment team” that meets national best practices.
Erica Yamauchi, co-lead for the Hawaii chapter of the nonprofit Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, which has more than 1,000 members on three islands, said Hawaii needs to push on multiple fronts, including campaigns to get parents to lock away guns from children’s access, the DOE campus vulnerability assessments and especially threat assessment.
“Once a shooter is on campus, it’s already too late,” she said.
Her Hawaii members, she said, “feel the trauma of it (violence) getting closer and closer.”
The Honolulu Star- Advertiser over the past year has made repeated requests to view or receive copies of the completed DOE campus vulnerability assessments and findings, which are not easily accessible to the general public. The DOE declined and directed the newspaper to file a formal request under the state Uniform Information Practices Act. (See related story at top.)
The DOE instead offered the Star-Advertiser a printed copy of a presentation created for DOE complex-area superintendents, released publicly for the first time, titled “Strategy Slides for Threat Assessment and the Top Ten Observations of HIDOE Vulnerability Assessments.” The copy given to the newspaper in May was dated Nov. 9, but Otaguro said the content is still relevant.
The unusually frank summary by DOE of the main findings of the vulnerability assessments conducted so far provides a glimpse into the challenges faced by the department in preparing the nation’s only statewide school system — the 12th-largest school district in the U.S., according to federal rankings — against the possibility of an active shooter.
The top 10 issues most commonly found during the DOE vulnerability assessments, listed in the document without ranking, were emergency action plans, security of school perimeter, perimeter fencing, safety and security signs, classroom and office doors, communication capabilities, establishment of “hard corners” for hiding, adult supervision during student transition periods, situational awareness and school climate.
Security shortfalls
The presentation, written by Maynard “Max” Mendoza, director of the DOE’s Safety, Security and Emergency Preparedness Branch, or SSEPB, opens with an update on threat assessment, which many in state and federal law enforcement consider the gold-standard method of spotting and evaluating threats and preventing targeted violence.
Threat assessment practices were introduced to the department in 2017, according to the DOE document, and at least half a dozen trainings have since been given, mostly to groups of upper-level DOE employees with the idea that they would train more employees at the school level.
“Confusion exists as to what office/branch is the lead” for threat assessment, the document says. It recommends that management and oversight remain with SSEPB and says that the office plans to produce more training as well as a comprehensive guidance document on threat assessment.
The DOE document details the following findings, and possible remedies, from the completed campus vulnerability assessments:
>> School perimeters. Hawaii schools typically have “multiple facilities and points of entry on campuses, making it a challenge to completely monitor and control who enters/exits the campus,” unlike mainland schools that typically have one or two facilities that are easier to monitor and lock down. Local schools also often have “multiple perimeter gates that are unsecured and unmonitored, allowing unauthorized access onto campuses,” but schools should “enforce one point of access and entry, or minimize points of access and entry.” As a chronic shortage of school security staff continues, the document recommends hiring more staff to monitor perimeter gates.
>> Perimeter fencing. Many Hawaii schools “lack perimeter fencing, enabling unauthorized personnel and homeless to easily trespass on HIDOE school property,” and many schools are adjacent to county parks. Fencing commonly is less than 6 feet high and easily cut chain-link. Possible remedies include shifting to galvanized steel fencing, “the best fencing option for school security” in that it offers protection and requires little maintenance, but it is expensive, the document notes.
>> Communication capabilities. “Several schools have inoperative fire alarm and bell systems. Many schools have intercom but no public address system, limiting emergency notifications inside classrooms and offices.” In addition, the document says emergency communication capabilities during recess and at athletic fields, gyms, locker rooms, basketball courts and cafeterias “are extremely limited.” Possible remedies include funding more portable radios or walkie-talkies; repairing broken alarm and bell systems; ensuring that all schools have reliable and effective intercom and public-address systems; and considering panic buttons, a crisis-response app and expanded use of digital platforms.
>> Classroom and office doors. During the DOE assessments, “classroom and office doors are often found opened and unlocked.” Classroom doors “lock from the outside, making it difficult and time consuming for teachers to quickly lock and secure doors when emergency actions (i.e., lockdown, shelter-in-place, etc.) are declared. Lack of air conditioning, and continuous COVID-19 concerns makes the closing and securing of classroom and office doors difficult due to warm temperatures and health concerns.” Possible remedies include installing door locks that lock from the inside and developing policies that rooms with air conditioning keep windows and doors locked when occupied, while rooms without air conditioning keep their open doors in the “lock” position so that they can be shut and secured faster in an emergency.
>> “Hard corners.” Places in a room to safely hide if a shooter aims through a window or door are among the principles taught in active-threat response training. Such training was sought voluntarily by 80 schools between 2018 and 2022, and provided in training last summer for more than 600 DOE personnel. Possible next steps include increasing the frequency of lockdown drills from once per school year to three times; ensuring use of “hard corners” is included in drills; and requiring schools to perform active-shooter drills during drop-off, lunch and recess periods. Active-threat response training was made mandatory in this year’s Legislature.
>> Situational awareness. The ability of school personnel to identify someone who is a possible threat is, according to many experts, “the most important element of active shooter response training,” the DOE document says. DOE measured situational awareness through so-called Red Team Intruder Drills in which an unknown person who was dressed casually, without a school or DOE badge, entered the campus; observed students, employees and the school; and attempted to enter the students’ recess area. “The average time that the school detects and challenges the trespasser is between 6 to 7 minutes; should try not to exceed 2 to 3 minutes. The pervasive perception that ‘it will never happen here’ and ineffective visitor management process contributes to a lackadaisical attitude towards school safety and security.” Possible remedies include training adult supervisors to improve their situational awareness, requiring all students and school employees to wear school or DOE badges, and continuing the intruder drills and related training.
>> Adult supervision during transition periods. Many schools “lack significant adult supervision” during transition periods such as when students are picked up and dropped off, and during recess and school meals, which are “considered the most vulnerable periods during a school day.” Possible solutions include providing schools with additional funding and personnel, requiring adult supervisors to wear identifying safety vests, and working with employee unions to enable existing school employees to more often work “yard duty” during transition periods.
>> School climate. Whether a school has an environment where “students trust the adults in their school and are willing to seek help” was examined via several tools during the DOE vulnerability assessments. SchoolSafety.gov says a positive school climate “can prevent school violence, crime, aggression and violent behavior.” Numerous studies suggest active shooters often are victims of bullying, and the DOE should continue to refine its anti-bullying efforts. It also says the DOE lacks and should consider establishing an anonymous reporting system for threats.
>> Emergency action plans. Documented emergency plans are required of each public school by federal rules and reviewed triennially by SSEPB. But emergency plans for complex-area district and state offices are in development, and SSEPB is proposing guidelines to standardize the responsibilities of the schools’ safety committees, the DOE document says.
>> Safety and security signs. Some signs were found to be old, faded, outdated or missing in the vulnerability assessments. Schools are required to have signs that say, “No Loitering,” and “No Trespassing,” with a reference to the relevant state law to facilitate charging of offenders with misdemeanor trespassing.
Otaguro said consistent, clear signs for names of buildings and classrooms also would be crucial in any emergency. Also required are signs that direct visitors to report to the office, and signs that advise of video surveillance, a ban on pets on campus, and locations of fire lanes and handicap access.
DOE’s campus vulnerability assessments are not being done during summer break; they will have to resume after the fall term begins Aug. 7 because they cannot be conducted effectively when a school lacks its full complement of students and school employees, Otaguro said.
“Otherwise, you’re looking at a blank campus and making some assumptions. The most accurate way to get a vulnerability assessment is with people around,” he said.
VIOLENCE AND GUN TRENDS AT A GLANCE
Hawaii has had only one mass-fatality shooting, in 1999, when a disgruntled employee fired a semi-automatic pistol in the Xerox corporate offices in Honolulu, killing seven people and wounding one. The only known school shootings in recent history in Hawaii occurred in 1988 when an Aiea High School teacher was injured by a student with a gun, and in 2014 when police shot at a Roosevelt High School student who wielded a knife.
Hawaii
>> 61 — people killed each year with guns, on average
>> 135 — people wounded with guns, on average
>> 30% — percentage of gun deaths that typically are homicides
>> 60% — percentage of gun deaths that typically are suicides
>> 50th — Hawaii’s ranking in gun violence among 50 states and Washington, D.C.
>> 103 — threats to public school students and/or staff in 2019
>> 152 — threats to public school students and/or staff in 2022
U.S.
>> 23 — school shootings so far this year
>> 51 — record level of school shootings, in 2022
>> 13 and 21 — people killed and hurt, respectively, so far in 2023 school shootings
>> 394 — mass shootings so far this year*
>> 690 — record number of mass shootings in a year, in 2021
* Note: The nonprofit Gun Violence Archive defines a mass shooting as minimum of four victims shot, either injured or killed, not including any shooter who may also have been killed or injured in the incident.
Sources: EveryStat, state Department of Education, Education Week, Gun Violence Archive
