School shootings are chaotic, dynamic and complex. Experts who study them concede that even when police arrive quickly and perform by the book, a gunman can still inflict tremendous damage.
against classroom doors as they’d been taught. Yet by the time the incident ended, eight students and two teachers were dead and 13 were wounded. The alleged shooter, another student, remains in a psychiatric facility.
Since then, however, experts said the tactical lessons police have learned from subsequent school tragedies have been more nuanced, nibbling around the edges of what officers realistically can accomplish once a shooter arrives. , which tracks incidents, there have been 27 in 2022 so far and 119 since 2018. The highest number ever, 34, was recorded last year.Godofredo A. Vasquez, Staff Photographer / Godofredo A. Vasquez
In other words, while police in Uvalde may have committed grave errors, in many cases once a shooting has begun even a perfect response is already too little too late.That hasn’t stopped the growth of school police. “People want to talk about preventative measures, but that’s not as important as assuming those measures will fail and putting someone in the school who can at least shoot back,” said
Some districts still use officers assigned from local police or sheriff’s agencies to provide security. Lynelle Sparks, president of the Texas Association of School Resource Officers, said the organization counts about 800 individual mostly sworn members. The schedule — some school police get summers and holidays off — and relatively slow pace has made district departments a common landing spot for retired officers, said Forward, who retired from Santa Fe last year. The shortened year also means campus police can earn less than officers at city and county departments.
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