How Israel protects its schools
How does Israel protect against school shootings?:
Israel could not prevent attacks if its efforts were based solely on armed security guards at each school, he said. Israel “invests heavily in monitoring profiles of people,” Hazony continued.
It has a “complex, multi-layered approach” to security that uses intelligence networks to examine the acquisition of weapons and social media activity, he said.
Yigal Arbiv, who was in charge of security at Tchernichovsky Junior High School in the Israeli coastal city of Netanya for 16 years, told Fox News Digital it is important that the “head of security [for a school] be given authorization to do everything” to provide safety for the children and staff.
Arbiv, who has 27 years of military and security experience, said his system employed a “spotter 50 meters from school” who patrolled the area and kept an eye out. Visitors to the school “could only come from one direction,” he said.
A fence surrounds the school and cameras are in place all over the facility. “Hot spots” can be manually activated when a problem arises, sending a message to the head of security and staff, said Arbiv, who now runs the Israeli Krav Maga & Security Training company (I.K.M.A).
“Everyone who goes into the school needs to go through a metal detector, like at an airport, and sign his name,” the security expert said, adding that the “school has one exit and one entrance… nobody comes to the school without the head of security knowing about it. We do not allow people not connected to school to come inside.”
There are also “barricades around the school, so people can’t drive into it,” he said. Palestinian terrorists have used vehicles to carry out ramming attacks in Israel.
Arbiv, who said he has trained police in the U.S., added that a large school compound also requires a guard on a motorcycle…
They also have a network of volunteers to help.
There are a lot of differences between the Israeli situation and the American one. Israel is a tiny country; the US is huge. Israel is comparatively homogeneous in population (although certainly not entirely homogeneous) compared to the US, and the threats to Israeli schools are almost certainly of the Palestinian or Islamic terrorist variety. In the US, they could be political but are more likely to be the result of teens who are either psychopathic or troubled in various other ways. The possibilities in the US have so much more variety.
The article contains a photo of the security fence at one Israeli school (copyright issues make it impossible to post here, so you’ll have to go to the link to see it). It’s formidable in strength and very high, much higher and stronger than the 8-foot chain link fence the Uvalde shooter is said to have scaled. I don’t think there’s a school in the US with a fence like that Israeli one, which gives a fortress and prison-like atmosphere but is probably very difficult for a lone teenager to breach without special equipment.
Are we ready for schools to be surrounded by something like that? I don’t know.
https://www.algemeiner.com/2022/05/27/toronto-man-arrested-after-disturbing-threats-to-kill-jewish-yeshiva-students/
Democrats run Chicago and other hotbeds of murder and violent crime. How could anyone be stupid enough to think that they have a clue how to address these crimes?
(Of course, Mitch McConnell could, but he has consistently demonstrated that he has absolutely no sense at all for what voters in America want.)
“(Of course, Mitch McConnell… [has] no sense at all for what voters in America want.)”
Mitch McConnell doesn’t need to know or care for “what voters in America want”. He’s a senator from Kentucky. All he needs to do is win there. He keeps getting reelected because the alternative is always another left-wing, socialist, communist, Democrat.
Full disclosure: I’m from KY and I voted for him last time. If he runs again in 2026, I’ll try again to primary him, but if it comes down to him or yet another Democrat, I’ll just have to grit my teeth and vote for him again.
PS: It’s the same for people like Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi. They don’t need to satisfy “American” voters, only those from New York and San Francisco respectively.
Remember, except for the presidency, all politics are local.
What about larger rural and suburban schools where they have several buildings and a sports field where the band also practices. There is no way you can fence them in or restrict them to a single doorway. I bet that such schools also have kids interacting more with one another and working on different projects together, possibly countering the loner phenomenon. It seems like too many kids are connected only over devices.
No neo, as we all here know, the answer is not higher fences.
Roy,
McConnell “keeps getting reelected because the alternative is always another left-wing, socialist, communist, Democrat.
I presume that’s the case in the general election. What is preventing voters from having a real conservative to vote for in the primary? Could it be that too many primary voters value the pork McConnell’s position allows him to bring home, over principle?
One thing I have not heard… when the shooter shot his grandmother, the neighbor called the police. Every school in town should have gone into lockdown as soon as police dispatch heard this. A shooter is active and on the loose. Close the doors, shut the windows, and draw the blinds.
I voted for Matt Bevins when he primaried McConnell. Little did I know he would later become such a terrible Governor he lost reelection to Democrat Andy Beshear.
Milwaukee:
The shooting of the grandmother was a domestic violence incident. At that point I don’t think it’s common protocol to lock down schools, although I am no expert on that subject. Perhaps someone else here can say if that’s common practice.
In high-crime areas, if they locked down all schools every time a family member shot or knifed another family member, the schools would never be in session. Uvalde wasn’t a high-crime area, though – but still, would schools all ordinarily be locked down because an 18-year-old shot his grandmother and stole her truck to run away?
Somewhere else today there was a comment posted that homeschooled children are pretty safe from mass murderers.
Yet another reason the Leftists hate home schooling.
If they can’t kill children in the womb the Left wants every possible opportunity to liquidate them later.
Dwaz,
Another RINO, i.e. democRat collaborator. Its how the GOPe maintains its grip on power. They back quisling RINOs by getting big donors and useful idiots to donate to the quisling and bring in professional campaign managers to ‘massage’ (lie) the message for the unknowing public.
The elephant in the room is that “ juveniles” records are sealed from the general public, and you can be almost certain that unless a juvenile is tried as an adult, actions that would have been felonies and kept them from buying a gun, will magically not show up on their 18 th birthday. Does a 16 year old carjacker , tried in the juvenile system, appear to be clean as the driven snow on his 18th birthday when he tries to buy a gun????
Seriously, this is the elephant in the room, and I hear no one, right or left, talking about it!!!??
Move 14 year olds into the adult legal system, still with separate jails and maybe adjustments to the length of their sentences, but make the records public. There should be no secret trials in the country anyway.
On the other end of the spectrum, 30 years after any person completes all sentences, including parole time, if they have been a good citizen, restore voting rights and gun rights.
Jon Baker;
The other elephant in the room is if he was ever prescribed behavior modifying drugs, e.g. Ritalin, Adderall.
Why is no one talking about this?
At least Alex Berenson brought up marijuana use.
BTW, boys are usually started on the Ritalin, etc., track by school counselors.
Ironic, isn’t it?
jon baker:
I’ve certainly heard people talking about it.
Protective measures ought to be commensurate with the threat. Simply restricting access to the school interior by locking all entranceways and having security personnel inside to regularly patrol to assure the doors remain locked would have likely prevented this incident. There are videos posted that clearly show the shooter approaching the school on foot with a highly visible long gun at the ready. Surely, having the security cameras monitored by one of the many (useless and redundant) administrative personnel would be easily accomplished. What does the school nurse do all day long when not attending to complaints of tummy aches? Put him/her in the same room as the security monitors to keep an eye out for security threats. The only reason lefty democrats oppose armed security on site is to enable them to scream and point their bony fingers while demanding further restricting 2d Amendment rights for the rest of us.
Move 14 year olds into the adult legal system, still with separate jails and maybe adjustments to the length of their sentences, but make the records public. There should be no secret trials in the country anyway.
Agreed. Have fact finding in regard to all criminal offenses undertaken in municipal courts (for misdemeanor and submisdemeanor violations) or in superior penal courts (for felony violations). Once the fact finding is complete, and If the perpetrator is under the age of 9 at the time of the crime, transfer the case to the family court where a different set of counsel can argue over optimal custodial arrangements for a troublesome youth. If the perp is over the age of 9, impose a penalty which is a function of the penalty applicable to a perp over the age of 25; the function in question would convert prescribed incarceration time to prescribed time on probation in direct proportion to the number of years between the day of the crime and the defendant’s 25th birthday. Any incarceration would be served in strongly age-graded institutions (9-11, 11-14, 14-17, 17-21, 21-25). For defendants under 18, there would be supplementary hearings in family court on custodial arrangements apart from time incarcerated.
I think we can have court proceedings for juvenile offenders in camera if the prosecutor, defense counsel, and judge are in accord. No point in sealing records in perpetuity, at least for defendants over nine years of age.
Ideally, judges would have very little discretion over sentencing.
Yes the mechanisms are inconsistent to say the least
https://www.westernjournal.com/teen-knew-shooter-drops-bomb-dont-see-covered-going-put/
On the other end of the spectrum, 30 years after any person completes all sentences, including parole time, if they have been a good citizen, restore voting rights and gun rights.
IMO, we can restore suffrage after a defendant has completed his parole. Supplementary civic disabilities should be specific to the offense.
1. For any kind of offense committed by a foreign resident, parole should be denied and their right of residency suspended for a term which is a function of the severity of the offense; out of the clink, deported for a time, re-admitted if you can pass a cursory background check by the consular authorities. For a low-grade misdemeanor, perhaps 3-4 months of deportation. For a low grade felony, 14 months. For a high-grade felony, perhaps 14 years.
2. For vehicle and traffic offenses, drivers license would be debarred for a term.
3. For theft, fraud, and tax offenses, an accounting license would be debarred, as would public employment in any sort of treasury operation.
4. For violent crimes, it would be debarred to possess firearms for a term.
5. For sex offenses, employment which incorporates the supervision of youth or clinical counseling services would be debarred.
6. For drug crimes, ditto.
Schools should be surrounded with the same fencing that Nanny installed around the capital. All doors remained closed and locked all day only to be opened by the officer inside. If there is a fight inside …so what, do not need the officer to respond, they are for protecting the ENTIRE school body at that entry door. Build the entry door like a prison entry. Dual doors or fencing big enough for many people placed outside the entry door to clear the entrants before entering the school proper. It just takes the will and the MONEY ( $40 BILLION American DOLLARS ) to do it.
IMPedie is totally correct.
We are long, long past Columbine, piss away billions to the teachers’ unions, but we cannot, have not, secured our schools from outside entry. Only fools ignore Columbine, and schools are run by fools who have not secured their premises. My grandkids are all home-schooled.
Public schools were an essential in the 1800s, but they are now filled only with human Dreck in our major cities, not the Uvaldes. But the primacy of safety must be universally honored.
A decade ago they spent a 6 figure sum at one of the local high schools to move a security building and put up a fancy black metal fence with expensive tall brick columns every few feet.
They said it was for security.
I drove by that fence for years on the main loop around town noting that there was space in a couple of places underneath the fence large enough for a skinny person to squeeze thru.
A couple of years ago they passed another local bond to rebuild that school.
Part of the rebuild involved tearing down part of that decade old, fancy , expensive fence , and putting up taller fence for tennis courts .
What is taxpayer money for anyway but to build stuff for looks and pay 6 figure salaries to administrators?
They recently passed a third bond within less than 20 years to build more schools in our area for our exploding Texas population.
I suppose it was about 2010 they built that fence. About 2021 they were tearing part of it down…
Cicero:
Robb Elementary was secured against outside entry. It just wasn’t secured enough, in part because of human noncompliance. The 8-foot chainlink fence was climable – as the perp demonstrated. The last line of defense, the locked outer door, was propped open by a teacher at just the right moment for the perp to enter.
And in Columbine and many of the other school shootings, the perps were students there and security against outside entry from strangers wouldn’t have done a thing to stop them. Metal detectors might have, and I believe quite a few schools have them now. However, a perp could still attack children or teens arriving at school or in the schoolyard or on a school bus.
I live in a settlement on the West Bank.
The entire community (600-plus families) is fenced and gated. The fence is patrolled. Palis who enter to work (mostly construction workers) must have passes issued by the Israeli civil administration after security screening, and be accompanied by an armed guard.
The school has a guard at the gate. No metal detector – maybe that’s just in the city. I never counted the entry points.
More importantly:
-There is a large contingent of male teaching staff, who have almost all been in the army. Many are carrying. A significant number of female staff also had basic arms training during national service, and are encouraged by the Education Ministry and the local council to carry. My understanding is that the Uvalde school declined to participate in preparedness training.
-There are regular refresher drills – both in the community and the school… Remember that “well formed militia” stuff? The response team includes residents who are army reservists, and people who work from home (we are basically a bedroom community of Tel Aviv) are drilled to respond to school incidents.
-Army, police, and civilian layers *actually respond* – instead of “cowering in place” as American and European police have done in several incidents.
……and now the part you may not want to hear:
*Very very little of this translates to American school shootings.*
We do all this to protect against known *adult* attackers with known adult motives. Not to protect students from other students…
Students are *supposed* to be in school. It is not inconceivable that a student could get a weapon past security here.
But they don’t – or more precisely, it doesn’t occur to them to try, even if they are troubled… because of cultural issues, traditional values, and *a society that still has mostly intact families and communities.*
This is a mental health issue stemming from the breakup of the American family.
It’s not going to be solved with fences or internet monitoring.
The breakup of the American family, as Ben David says, is a major contributing cause to lots of American problems.
Ben David:
It wouldn’t be solved but it could be reduced. For example, the Uvalde killer would not have been able to do what he did if the fence had been unscalable, if the armed guard had been there and had been alerted (probably, anyway), or if all the doors were secure and locked.
neo,
I’m not sure I think our grade schools should have unscalable fences. They are not prisons and constructing them like prisons has an effect on the children. Plus they have to have some public access so I’m not sure what a super duper secure fence is going to accomplish unless you want electric gate with a guard in front of every school.
Now securing the building is entirely different.
Griffin:
I’m not advocating the fences. I really am not sure what I think about that. I’d have to study the problem in much greater depth, and all the possible solutions.
I’m thinking about my high school, which was a series of buildings with outside entrances to each classroom, sort of like a motel. My grade school was the same. The only way to have a chance of securing the campus would be a high fence with controlled access points.
Neo
“The shooting of the grandmother was a domestic violence incident. At that point I don’t think it’s common protocol to lock down schools, although I am no expert on that subject. ”
I’m not an expert, but I have taught in some pretty tough places. Shooting another is a Rubicon. Domestic violence episodes involve greater emotions than simply robbing a convenience store. So yes, when dispatch knows there is a suspected, emotionally unstable shooter loose, a soft lockdown, closing all doors and windows, is reasonable.
Schools in high crime areas should always have all doors and windows closed and locked. Entrance requires screening by a responsible adult.
“Uvalde wasn’t a high-crime area, though – but still, would schools all ordinarily be locked down because an 18-year-old shot his grandmother and stole her truck to run away?”
Clearly, yes. This situation, shooting the grandmother, can only go two ways- calming down or acceleration to something worse. The perpetrator has flipped out, and worse is to come. Just because we’re not a high crime area so bad things are not going to happen, is not a good plan.
Milwaukee:
I’m not talking about whether it would be reasonable or whether I think it should have happened. I’m talking about what the policy is.
By the way, the Uvalde school went into lockdown – meaning the internal doors to classrooms were locked – very early on. I forget the exact time but it was pretty early in the game, and the lockdown was announced on Facebook at 11:43. And the outer doors of the school were ALWAYS supposed to be locked – the propping of the door that day was in violation of that rule. There is no indication that the windows weren’t closed, either (in fact, the shooter shot at some windows before he entered the school). “Lockdown” in this case refers to the internal classroom doors, I believe. At least, that’s what I’ve gleaned from reports.
Neo,
This issue has obviously stuck a deep emotional chord within you as evidenced by the number and content of your posts. I am deeply appreciative of your effort to remain calm and carefully weigh the facts – or supposed facts – as they are revealed. I think I can speak for all you readers when I say that we are very lucky to have the benefit of your determined search for truth.
Thank you very much, and may the peace that passeth all understanding guard your heart and mind.