On Feb. 20, 2018 the Bowling Green City School Board was presented with a proposal for armed security in the schools using a mix of methods. The goal is for the school to have a dedicated security team that belongs to the school. The ideal method is a school resource officer, employed by and under direct control of the school district, supplemented with some armed, plain clothes personnel who are properly screened, trained, and their identities are unknown to the public.
The supplementary personnel could come from off-duty police, retired police/military, or school employees (surely some ex-military have been hired as employees) who are willing, legally permitted and properly tested for fitness to carry a weapon, and trained on responding to an active threat. These supplementary personnel could instead be the primary security should a school resource officer not become a reality.
This form of security could also be implemented sooner rather than later by approaching the community and looking for help. For those who work in the schools and want to help in those situations but are not willing/able to carry a weapon, they could be trained on how to tend to the injured until professional medical attention arrives. Proper application of tourniquets and bandages greatly increase the chances of surviving being injured in such an attack.
The public should be made aware the schools have armed security in an effort to discourage anyone from attempting to harm our children. The combination and proper application of these factors along with secured buildings will help protect our most vulnerable and greatly reduce the loss of life, possibly even stopping the attack before anyone is harmed, should an active threat event occur at our schools.
On Jan. 21, 2020, three examples of threatening incidents that affected our schools were shared with the school board.
One involved a nearby agency investigating an armed subject who threatened to kill a family member and commit suicide, was tracked by cell phone to City Park during school hours, and local police were notified about the situation fifteen minutes after the subject’s location was first discovered by the investigating agency. A family member of the subject arrived at City Park shortly after the police (who responded using lights and sirens).
A second incident involved a Bowling Green City Schools alum who made statements on social media indicating a desire to commit an act comparable to one of the high profile school mass murders.
The third involved the discovery of a list that, when combined with conversations about it, caused such concern among the school staff they immediately took action and got police involved.
While none of these resulted in harm to our students, they did impact Bowling Green City Schools. One ended tragically, one ended with a hospitalization, and one was diligently investigated with the conclusion it was not a credible threat at the time. The purpose of sharing these with the school board is to show it happens here. The belief that “it won’t happen to me” is deadly and seems to be prevalent here. Complacency destroys lives. It kills the victim. It destroys the family. It destroys the survivors. It destroys those who were in position to prevent it but did not. It destroys the community. And complacency is exactly the type of attitude these attackers take advantage of.
The people who wish to commit these atrocities are looking to kill the most people in the least amount of time. They obey no laws so attempts to restrict their ability to get weapons are utterly useless. If the attacker wants to get in the building, he will get in. Locked doors do not concern them and are easily overcome. They look for a target that cannot fight back, they study the target, they meticulously construct their plan, and they strike at the time most likely to result in a high number of deaths using a method they believe to be the most effective. They are very unwilling to attack a target with armed security. I have seen this written by these people in their own hand.
Years ago your police arrested an armed subject driving a stolen vehicle in Bowling Green. The subject fled from officers, officers pursued, and the subject was apprehended after crashing in a ditch. There have been other illegally armed people arrested in Bowling Green, other stolen vehicles recovered, other pursuits; however this one was very different. In this vehicle was a journal hand-written by that subject. A journal no one knew about prior to this arrest. The journal was a chronicle of the subject’s desire to inflict mass casualties at a nearby school. That school had its own armed security team, employed by and answering to the school district. The author could not figure out how to circumvent the armed personnel at that school. The author started looking elsewhere. The author showed up in Bowling Green one evening in a stolen vehicle with loaded weapons. And the journal. Fortunately an alert had been broadcast about the stolen vehicle and officers were paying attention for it. The journal showed the presence of armed personnel at that school prevented an attack and saved lives of students and employees.
Your school board knows about this incident in its entirety. A hardened target is a strong deterrent. Living, thinking opponents who are capable of taking the initiative and fighting back are what active threats seek to avoid. Instead of the schools worrying about what the bad guy will do to them, the bad guy needs to worry about what the schools with armed security will do to him.
I did make one mistake when I spoke with the school board on the 21st. I initially said I approached them for the first time a little less than a year ago. I was surprised when I saw it was almost two years ago. I apologize for that error. Shame on me for taking so long to address them again. And shame on those board members who continue to complacently believe it’s not going to happen in Bowling Green.
Paul Tyson
Bowling Green
