Schools' aim: Stop guns but stay cool

O'Callaghan Middle School Principal Roberta Holton used to be proud that no student had ever brought a gun to the seven-year-old school.

But this year two students brought firearms into the building.

"I was hurt, then I was angry," Holton said, pausing to reflect on the job of taking guns from kids.

"I was concerned about the reputation of the school and about the students coming here and feeling comfortable on campus. They get scared over fights, they get scared over violence around them just as much as adults do. I don't think we should ever underestimate their understanding of this city the way it really is."

The issue of guns in schools was hotter than ever this academic year as school shootings in towns across the country shocked the nation. Closer to home, officials collected about 50 guns from students, Clark County School Police said.

But local school officials say they want to cut through the hysteria and deliver a message to parents: School shootings can happen anywhere, but that's no reason to panic.

"Despite the intense focus on schools with respect to violence, schools are one of society's safest places to be," schools spokesman Ray Willis said.

Local school officials suggest that the media and the shocking nature of school shootings in faraway burgs such as Pearl, Miss., Fayetteville, Tenn., and Richmond, Va., have blown the issue out of proportion.

They urge people to consider the statistics:

* Only about 50 guns were found among nearly 200,000 Clark County students.

* Of 20 million middle and high school students nationwide, fewer than 12 fired a gun at school this year.

"The loss of even one student to violence is deplorable," Willis said. "Yet when considered in relationship to killings outside of the school environment nationwide, school shootings are rare."

But statistics can paint different pictures. These make the problem seem more ominous: The U.S. Department of Education reports that in the 1996-97 school year (the last year for which figures are available) 6,093 guns were found in U.S. schools.

And a 1994 study by the Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control revealed the United States leads the world's 36 wealthiest nations in gun-related deaths -- 14.24 per 100,000 people. Brazil was second and Mexico third. Japan had the lowest rate, just .05 per 100,000.

This year's school shootings, according to President Clinton in a weekly radio address, were "not isolated incidents" but "symptoms of a changing culture that desensitizes our children to violence."

So how bad is the problem of guns in schools and what do parents need to understand about it?

Clark County school officials say they have been trying to stem the flow of firearms into classrooms for as long as guns have trickled in.

The issue last came to a head in August 1990, when Eldorado High School junior Donnie Bolden was shot and killed on the first day of school. He is the only student to die by a bullet in a Clark County school.

That incident mobilized the School Board to prevent another fatal shooting. The board threw renewed support behind its school police officers, who had just become a full-fledged, gun-carrying force.

The board also developed a policy that stands today -- if a student brings a weapon to school, that student will not return to that school, ever.

"We took it very seriously," county assessor Mark Schofield said. He was School Board president when Donnie Bolden was killed.

"We had to. We still have to. It's a violent world."

Other changes have been made.

Since 1988, the school police force has swelled from 38 officers to 105. Two officers patrol each high school campus.

In the last decade, high schools and some middle and elementary schools also began using security cameras in common areas such as cafeterias. Now cameras capture an occasional fight -- and their presence may deter students from bringing guns into school, several high school principals said.

Also, hand-held and walk-through metal detectors are now used at many sporting events, but not at schools' front doors. Many officials and school psychologists say they want to keep metal detectors out of schools as long as possible.

"It is really a balancing act between not having schools becoming a virtual fortress and, on the other hand, making very sure that kids are as safe as you can make it," Superintendent Brian Cram said.

The issue of metal detectors is not new. County Commissioner Yvonne Atkinson Gates, who was a member of the School Board when Donnie Bolden was shot, called at the time for metal detectors in high schools. She still believes in that, she said.

"You have to look at the children's overall welfare," Gates said. "Can you imagine if just one gun got through and if one incident happened? It's better to be safe than sorry."

Nationwide interest in metal detectors was renewed in mid-April when the 45,000-student Indianapolis school district, about one-fourth the student population of Clark County, became what is believed to be the only district in the nation to screen pupils at elementary schools with metal detectors. The detectors were used at two or three of the city's 62 schools each week.

Experts nationwide said they were surprised that a mid-sized Midwestern city had adopted a tactic typically reserved for big-city middle and high schools. Indianapolis starting using the units after three arrests of children who brought guns to elementary schools.

School psychologists said metal detectors and other security measures can ultimately make students more fearful of schools.

"You want schools to feel like safe havens for kids," Clark County district psychologist Rosemary Virtuoso said.

School officials also point to a variety of programs that they hope will prevent kids from turning to guns.

Clark County School Police have a page-long list of programs aimed at decreasing violence and drug use in schools. Among them is Operation Crime Free Schools, which operates a hotline number -- 799-0228 -- for students to make anonymous reports of guns on campus.

Some principals say that students don't always tell adults when they see a gun. But students are still their most likely tipsters, school police said.

"This arms kids with a telephone number," School Police Chief Dan Reyes said.

Another program, peer mediation, is now used in 42 schools after its launch in two schools in 1992. Run by the county's Neighborhood Justice Center, the program teaches students how to mediate disputes that develop among their classmates.

Statistics indicate that the program may work. Between July 1997 and February 1998 there were 782 mediations, with 713 disputes solved.

"If we give them a viable option, before the conflict becomes a volatile situation when no one can turn back, it can really work," Dani Dozier, mediation specialist for the Neighborhood Justice Center, said.

Many school officials have difficulty discussing the matter of guns in schools. Some refuse to talk about it with reporters.

Several administrators have suggested that the greater the media focus on the issue, the more acceptable guns in schools will seem.

Those principals who will talk about guns in their schools sound a common refrain: Despite a few isolated incidents, schools are safe.

Orr Middle School Principal Barbara Rosenberg said she feels safer in her building than she does in her car. No guns were found at Orr this year.

"It's always been a problem and it always will be a problem," Rosenberg said. "We do have an at-risk school. We do have gangs. But our activity is no better or worse than anyplace else."

Kim Elementary Principal Mark Christensen said he hoped his school would not be known for a pupil who had a gun at school this spring.

"I would hate to see us come to the point where we need to use metal detectors in elementary schools," Christensen said. "Schools are about learning. They are about reading, writing and arithmetic and cooperating with each other. I want our school to be known for the positive things that we do here."

Bonanza High School Principal Sue DeFrancesco said neither of the two guns brought onto her campus this year were brought by Bonanza students. The trespassers were found with guns on campus looking to settle arguments they had with students.

"You can pretty much find who you are looking for at school," DeFrancesco said. "Students are here six hours a day. So schools get caught in the middle. It becomes a collection point for students who want to do harm."

DeFrancesco said Bonanza staffers keep their eyes and ears open for signs of guns. She said they take rumors seriously and try to spot trouble brewing long before students turn to guns.

"I don't see the problem of guns in schools getting any worse," she said. "I see us in the field trying to be more proactive and preventive so it doesn't get out of control and become a free-for-all."

Police as well as school officials are now at work trying to develop new ways to deal with guns in schools.

The newly formed Guns Out of The Hands of Children At School, tentatively shortened to GOTCHA, is a 15-member committee made up mostly of members of Clark County law-enforcement agencies that began meeting last month. Among other initiatives, the group is planning an advertising campaign that targets parents who keep guns in their homes.

"We want to prevent the Arkansas or Oregon (shooting from) happening here," Metro Police Capt. Terry Lesney, a GOTCHA organizer, said.

Lesney said students who bring guns to school often get them from their parents. Among some of the weapons found: Smith and Wessons, Glocks, even a shotgun. One student this year found a gun that a parent had thrown in a trash bin, Lesney said.

"One gun on campus could mean one child being killed," Lesney said. "One gun on campus is too many."

Other solutions to the gun problem may be simple ones, according to a national expert on school security.

For instance, a Missouri school district recently set up an e-mail address for students who want to send emergency messages to school police, Kenneth Trump said. He is president and CEO of the Cleveland-based National School Safety and Security Services.

Other solutions may lie in a return to the "basics," Trump said. Those include regular security assessments of schools, testing crisis plans and training all school personnel, including bus drivers, custodians and secretaries, in how to deal with weapons.

"More equipment, dogs, metal detectors are all supplements, but not substitutes, for comprehensive security measures," Trump said. "We need to have the basics in place first."

As schools continue to deal with guns, officials are likely to keep urging people to keep perspective.

School spokesman Willis points to the statistic that 2,000 to 3,000 parents and guardians kill their children each year, compared to just a few students who were killed at schools.

"It's unfortunate that, when isolated school shooting incidents become so topical, they are reported almost thematically as though they are happening with much greater frequency than they actually are," Willis said. At times, he said, he is bombarded by the media with queries about guns in schools.

Other school observers agree.

Don Burger, a former principal who also led a panel of parents and officials in an in-depth study of school security following Donnie Bolden's death, said there always have been outstanding kids who are overshadowed by the ones toting guns.

"Unfortunately, today's youth, that small percentage of them, are scarier," Burger said. "They have more access to weapons. But in my heart, I truly believe that the majority of kids are as great today as they have ever been."

Lisa Soldano, who will be a junior at Durango High School, said she doesn't fear guns at school but said she understands the threat of them is very real.

"We have enough problems to worry about at school -- drugs, peer pressure, getting good grades -- we shouldn't have to worry about guns," Soldano said. "It's sad."

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