John Winfrey

American Colleges and Universities Are Wide Open to Violence John Winfrey

With the number of Public School shootings we have just had in 2017, I am waiting for the other shoe to drop: colleges and universities. Higher Education facilities are much larger in size, open to the public, unlikely to be set up for lock down, and difficult to manage and control. The typical crisis plans of colleges and universities are more faulty than for public schools, and totally miss who the violent persons will be as well as how to spot them. Campus-wide alarm systems are in place, but "who" pushes the button and "how soon" is nebulous. In my experience, campus police are slow to respond (if there are enough of them to respond at all) and don't have any real authority to act preemptively. Usually, a student or staff member or faculty member knows who is likely to lose control, but an effective tip-line is an underutilized tool. One mainstay of these plans is mental health professionals, who can do little to prevent violence (and are mostly ineffective in treating violent people after the fact). See why in this book.