This article describes how colleges are seeking the best ways to respond to dangerous incidents like the shootings that occurred at Virginia Tech, and how best to alert people on their campuses to various threats to public safety and emergencies.

People can bring guns most places in Arizona, but the state's Board of Regents has long banned all weapons from public college campuses. Now some lawmakers are trying to change that. State Senator Karen S. Johnson, a Republican, proposed a bill in January that would trump the regents' ban, allowing anyone with a concealed-weapons permit to carry a…

The day after a Virginia Tech student gunned down 32 people last April, a young alumnus named Johnson Wagner donned a baseball cap with the VT logo. Then a rookie golfer on the PGA Tour, Mr. Wagner wore the hat while competing in a tournament in South Carolina. There, he voiced a concern shared by many people in Blacksburg, Virginia: "I simply…

In 2007, 48% of U.S. students of grades 9 to 12 had experienced sexual debut, 7% before the age of 13 years. Preventing early intercourse, sexually transmitted diseases, adolescent pregnancy, and the loss of educational opportunity are important concerns for nurses and educators. A secondary data analysis of the Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS)…

Targeted school violence continues to pose a threat to school safety. The challenge for schools is to provide a safe environment while continuing to meet higher academic standards. Reported here are results of a study of 15 cases of targeted school shooters from 1996 to 2005. Environmental variables are examined in three areas: school culture,…

This action research project report was conducted at a middle school from August 30, 2010 to December 17, 2010. The purpose of this research project was to decrease bullying behaviors through discussing literature, role-playing, and establishing a definition of bullying in accordance with a common set of rules. There were four teacher researchers…

The significance of the study was to examine intentional strategies to improve school climate relative to student school success as measured by academic achievement, attendance, and student behavior. It was important to understand how student school success was affected by factors related to school climate improvement such as leadership and change…

Numerous researchers discuss the solidarity-producing effects of crime, natural disasters and mass tragedies; however, there is much we do not understand about the processes involved in the phenomena. We specify the social relationships that "generate" and "sustain" solidarity by building on Hunter's descriptions of the…

Our educational system is in a continuous state of reform, yet outcomes are nowhere near what we can accept. Though the search for answers is perpetual, many efforts over the past decade have homed in on one feature of high schools--their size. If we simply reduce school size, the argument goes, students will gain a safer environment that can…

Designing any product or environment involves the consideration of many factors, including aesthetics, engineering options, environmental issues, safety concerns, industry standards, and cost. Typically, designers focus their attention on the average user. In contrast, universal design (UD), according to the Center for Universal Design, "is…

Designing any product or environment involves the consideration of many factors, including aesthetics, engineering options, environmental issues, safety concerns, industry standards, and cost. Typically, designers focus their attention on the average user. In contrast, universal design (UD), according to the Center for Universal Design," is…

The purpose of this study was to examine how institutions of higher education were responding to unprecedented state involvement in campus safety planning and policymaking in the aftermath of the Virginia Tech tragedy. Focused on Ohio, a state in which a state-level task force was convened and charged to promulgate campus safety recommendations…

Most Monday mornings are noisy affairs where students and staff members are catching up on the events of the weekend. Sometimes these events are disputes that have festered over the weekend and are now ready to get settled. When a confrontation between students occurs, noise levels accelerate, students begin running, and an unnerving combination…

Theories often assume that schools in communities with high violence also have high rates of school violence, yet there are schools with very low violence in high violence communities. Organizational variables within these schools may buffer community influences. Nine "atypical" schools are selected from a national database in Israel.…

This article presents summaries of two recent crisis management publications: (1) "Social Validity of the CISM Model for School Crisis Intervention," summarized by Jack R. Dempsey; and (2) "School Violence: Associations With Control, Security/Enforcement, Educational/Therapeutic Approaches, and Demographic Factors," summarized by Ashlee Barton.…