School shootings- think outside the box
JD Vance says that school shootings are a fact of life. To be fair, he “lamented” that school shootings are a fact of life.
So what was his solution? Certainly not to address the root cause.
Anyone in engineering or manufacturing (as well as other professions) know that when something goes wrong you have to fix it. In manufacturing, you quarantine product to ensure no more defects get released. You then look for root cause- the real reason for the problem. Manufacturing uses the 8D process which I will abbreviate to the main points. [1] You can look up the rest at the link.
D2: Describe the Problem: Specify the problem by identifying in quantifiable terms the who, what, where, when, why, how, and how many for the problem.
D3: Develop Interim Containment Plan: Define and implement containment actions to isolate the problem.
D4: Determine and Verify Root Causes and Escape Points: Identify all applicable causes that could explain why the problem has occurred. Also identify why the problem was not noticed at the time it occurred. All causes shall be verified or proved.
D5: Identify Permanent Corrections that will resolve the problem.
D6: Implement & validate the Corrective Action.
D7: Put in prevention to prevent it from occurring again.
“According to the K-12 School Shooting Database, a publication of the Naval Postgraduate School’s Center for Homeland Defense and Security (CHDS), a total of 118 active shooter incidents have been reported at K-12 schools in the U.S. since 1999. These shootings are defined by the CHDS as situations where the perpetrator killed or wounded targeted or random victims within the school campus during a continuous episode of violence.” [9] Graphs on the link below show the pace has only increased both in terms of the number of victims as well as incidents! Nothing makes for more victims than high capacity, easy reload weaponry.
While it is true that historically handguns have been used in more mass shootings since 1982, the use of AR-15 style weapons has increased rapidly since the Columbine high school shootings.
Vance’s solution to school shootings? “Harden our schools.” Remember that Sandy Hook was “hardened” with a security system. [7] The shooter literally shot his way through the locked security door!
Per one report, there are over 100,000 public school buildings in the USA [2]- This does not count private schools and likely not charter schools either. The Vance/GOP approach is to “harden” all the schools as well as put an armed police officer in every school. I am going to ask what they always ask when presented with an idea- How are you going to pay for it? Especially since the GOP has routinely cut funding to public schools across the nation.
The newest attack on Harris is that she advocated removing cops from schools. Why do we have them in schools now? We didn’t have cops in schools when I was a student (graduated in 1978). This started in 1950s, but really picked up in the 1990s. [3] There have been lots of documented incidents of police in schools (School Resource Officers or SROs) beating and slamming students. What led Harris to oppose the practice of SROs in schools is documented mistreatment of black and minority students.[4] The ACLU [5] and even the Cato Institute [6] (no hotbed of liberalism) question the use of SROs.
Anyway back to root cause- anyone listening to Vance or the GOP can clearly see they are NOT addressing root cause, but merely using an INTERIM CONTAINMENT. “Hardening” our schools doesn’t address root cause. We need to go back upstream. We also need to think outside the normal paradigms.
I attended a manufacturing technology event in 1998. I primarily went because the keynote speaker was George Gilder.[8] While I don’t agree with his attachment to supply-side economics, he is a futuristic thinker and advocate of technology. Anyway, one line in his speech has always stuck with me:
“Don’t fix problems. Change the landscape of the issue and the problem goes away.”
I believe this concept applies especially more to persistent problems! Mass shootings in schools are a persistent problem! Hardening schools doesn’t work. Putting cops in schools doesn’t work. We need to think outside the box.
[1]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eight_disciplines_problem_solving
[2]
[3]
[4]
[5]
https://www.aclu-wa.org/story/school-resource-officers-when-cure-worse-disease
[6]
https://www.cato.org/blog/school-resource-officers-police-presence-schools-doing-more-harm-good
[7]
https://www.cnn.com/interactive/2012/12/us/sandy-hook-timeline/index.html
[8]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Gilder
[9]
https://www.security.org/blog/a-timeline-of-school-shootings-since-columbine/
