The Department of Homeland Security on Monday announced the creation of a steering committee that will be tasked with finding ways to improve security in schools around the country.
DHS is already providing training on a range of topics, like security awareness, emergency planning, active shooter awareness, mass casualty incident response, and how to spot suspicious behavior. DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen said the steering committee would make sure all relevant national security agencies are working with state and local officials to ensure school safety.
“While state and local partners have primary responsibility for the physical security at schools, through trainings, best practices guides, workshops, and tabletop exercises, we hope to improve awareness and foster a culture of preparedness. We are working with partners around the country to harden these vulnerable targets,” DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen said in a statement Monday morning. “By ensuring administrators and stakeholders in the K-12 and higher education communities, teachers, parents, law enforcement, and first responders are part of this effort, we can better educate the entire community on threats to school safety.”
The department is currently working with Secret Service on a School Attack Research study that looks at specific incidents in which a current or former student attacked his or her school. The study’s findings will be turned into a guide for school personnel, law enforcement, and other community officials that will help officials flag concerning behavior before the person can carry out an attack.
DHS will continue to offer “capacity” training, or courses that educate school officials on how to plan for emergencies, respond to mass casualty incidents, and handle suspicious behavior. The programs are available online, on-site at the Emergency Management Institute, and by select local officials.
In addition, DHS said local community leaders should take advantage of federal grant money that can go toward pre-attack planning and initial response efforts to incidents.
DHS touted a handful of sub-organizations that are available to work with local and state officials during this process, including the Hometown Security Program, Youth Preparedness Council, Protective Security Advisors, Homeland Security Academic Advisory Council, and Campus Resilience Program.
The department is also preparing to roll out a national public awareness campaign similar to the “See Something, Say Something” strategy. The new campaign is aimed at educating students, school staff, and other community members on how to warn law enforcement and intelligence officials of suspicious individuals.
“The public is often our greatest partner in identifying suspicious activity, and we are strengthening public awareness campaigns to encourage everyone—students, teachers, and their communities—to report suspicious school-related activity to local law enforcement,” Nielsen said.
Correction: Due to an error in information provided to the Examiner, an earlier version of this story stated DHS was working with the FBI on a School Attack Research Study. That has been corrected to reflect the Secret Service is involved, not the FBI.
