The plague of gun violence in the United States knows no boundaries. From churches to shopping malls to schools and even school sports venues, no place in the public sphere seems safe.
On Aug. 21, three shootings took place at prep football games in different parts of the country. In Bakersfield, Calif., a 15-year-old was arrested on murder and gang-participation charges in the fatal shooting of a 17-year-old during an Independence High School game. In Nashville, Tenn., a 16-year-old was killed in a drive-by shooting after a Pearl-Cohn High School game had ended. In Jacksonville, Fla., a 19-year-old woman and a 20-year-old football player were shot during a game between Young Kids in Motion Academy and Joshua Christian Academy.
Administrators everywhere are left to ponder the way forward.
Patrick Fiel has spent more than 40 years in security and law enforcement, including a stint as executive director of school security for District of Columbia Public Schools, where he oversaw 163 buildings. His answer starts with leadership, not equipment. “It’s escalation of existing issues,” he says of the conflicts that turn into shootings. “What I would do is have a gameday plan — put in place more resources before, during and after the event.”
Too often, Fiel says, accountability for a preventable tragedy traces straight back to whoever was supposed to have a plan in place. “If you look at the last three shootings, if I was a lawyer, I would jump on every one of them, because somebody’s going to pay a lot of money. But it all stems from leadership.”
Egress is the blind spot
Fiel’s first fix is a matter of geography. “When I go out to a school, I look at the whole campus, not just the building,” he says. “Parking lots are very critical in a stadium environment, because the majority of our shootings are occurring after the game is over, when people are walking to or from their cars.” He counted more than 25 shootings connected to high school sporting events last year, most in that same after-the-final-whistle window, driven less by anything on the field than by outside conflicts that follow fans into the lot.
His gameday checklist is straightforward: lock every entrance except the ones needed for direct access, ban re-entry once a guest has left the facility, fence off any part of campus that has nothing to do with the event, and trim back trees and foliage that could hide a weapon — or a person. Lighting matters just as much. “Bright lighting on dark winter afternoons or at night can function as a deterrent to criminals and assist security staff and first responders in monitoring situations,” Fiel says. “Schools need to be sure to light all areas of the parking lots, streets and walkways.”
People over hardware
Cameras, metal detectors and wand scanners all help, but Fiel is adamant that none of it substitutes for staffing and buy-in from the community. “A lot of this is really not about budget. It’s more about manpower,” he says. “Technology is great to have, but it’s the basic fundamentals I’ve been practicing for the last 40-plus years that have made a difference. If you have a great leader, you don’t need all this money. You can’t make budget an excuse.”
He’s also seen what happens when a district buys the hardware but skips the fundamentals. “Technology is very effective if you can afford it,” he says. “But a lot of schools are buying all these bells and whistles, and then the back door is wide open, or it’s ineffective because the camera is in the wrong place.”
Metal detectors, in particular, are only as good as their coverage. “I’ve seen kids beat metal detectors,” Fiel says. “Either they go around them, or they get the attention of somebody else and distract them, and they get in, or throw the weapon across the fence.”
What actually worked during his six years running D.C. schools’ security, Fiel says, was an open tip line and a campus full of people who knew the students well enough to notice when something was wrong. “The main key for my success was having an active line where people could call. Very effective,” he says.
He also credits teachers who doubled as extra eyes at the gates: “We had teachers who knew the students, standing out front monitoring with us. Before the kids even approached, one of them said, ‘There’s a problem here,’ and she was right, the kid had a weapon on him.” Over six years, Fiel says, that combination of vigilance and trust helped cut crime in the district by 90%.
Closing the response gap
Where there might be an opening for assistive technology is in the seconds after a plan has already failed. The gap between a shot fired and a response arriving is critical. That’s the case Billy Borho, director of sales at Shooter Detection Systems (SDS), makes for gunshot detection, a category of tech long deployed at professional venues that’s increasingly being priced for colleges and high schools.
Citing FBI data, Borho says it can take five to 10 minutes for someone to call police during an active shooting. SDS’s system, by contrast, issues an alert within a second of a weapon being fired. “Immediately upon a weapon being discharged, you’re going to get an alert within a second,” he says. “At the same time, under three seconds, we’re getting in contact with police.” Speed matters, he adds, because just 28% of venues have an integrated way to connect security staff and first responders in real time.
Detection technology isn’t meant to replace screening, Borho says, but to cover what screening can’t. “They can’t address every scenario across a large stadium or campus,” he says. “Threats aren’t stopping at the turnstile, and the security strategy shouldn’t either.”
With most venues reporting ongoing staffing shortages, Borho frames the technology as a force multiplier rather than a substitute for people. “We’re not replacing people,” Borho says. “We’re helping them make faster, better-informed decisions, without requiring someone to be standing in exactly the right place at the right time.”
Plan, then review
For Fiel, technology is only one layer of protection, and the way forward starts with an honest look in the mirror. He recommends every school and district complete a formal risk assessment of its campus before investing in new equipment. “You’ve got to have an evaluation of your campus,” he says. “It identifies your strengths, your weaknesses, and how you move forward to find funding for the technology that’s needed.”
Just as important is what happens after the final whistle, whether the home team wins, loses or something far worse unfolds. Fiel holds what he calls a post-brief after every event. It’s a debrief with law enforcement, security staff and community members on what worked and what didn’t. “Nothing is 100% foolproof,” he says. “You’re always going to have areas of concern. It’s all about communication. Sit down, don’t blame anybody and figure out a strategy that will work.”
Whatever a district’s budget for cameras or detectors, Fiel says, that regular routine — plan, execute, review, repeat — is the one piece of security infrastructure every school can ill afford to ignore.
