The challenges confronting teachers and school administrators in America today are greater than ever before. Schools can no longer focus primarily on academics but need to work closely with law enforcement personnel to ensure a safe and secure environment in a fragmented and immoral society that can easily lead to acts of violence.
The days of just having school fire drills are over. Response drills for threats ranging from active shooters to bombs are necessary in every school.
This was the message that acclaimed security educator Vincent Bove delivered to over 300 teachers and administrators at an afternoon meeting of the Bergen County Education Association at the Marriott at Glenpointe on Oct. 22.
Bove, the author of three books and a certified protection professional, has worked with the FBI, the U.S. Secret Service and a clientele ranging from New York Yankees to the families of the victims of Columbine and Virginia Tech.
He noted that although the New Jersey Department of Education approved regulations last year requiring each of the state’s public school districts set up a security plan within 45 days, few have done so.
"Schools must be safe havens," Bove said. "Teachers have a transforming power greater than the world’s most magnificent artists because only teachers can mold and transform the heart of a child."
But pervasive corruption in government and commerce creates the breeding ground for violence in and out of schools, Bove said. He noted that in other parts of the country, New Jersey is known as the "Soprano state."
"There is an attitude of greed, arrogance and a false sense of entitlement that is massive and pervasive throughout American society," said Bove, noting that a large number of public officials and leaders in private industry are serving prison sentences. The former chief of staff of the Vice President of the United States is a convicted felon, he said.
"The accoutrements of the American corporate world have changed from plush board rooms and rental cars to handcuffs and shackles," Bove said. He noted that the chief executive officer of Lehman Brothers was receiving more than half billion dollars in income while knowing that his company was failing and that his employees would soon lose their jobs and that AIG, one of the major recipients of the government’s $700 billion bailout, sent its executives to a retreat in California at a cost of more than a half million dollars after the legislation was approved.
Bove also spoke about the scandal of pedophiles in the Roman Catholic clergy.
"The epicenter was the archdiocese of Boston," he said. "It was unconscionable that this was committed by leaders. It was a crisis of leadership and our young people are suffering from it."
It was a failure in leadership that brought about to the massacre at Virginia Tech, he said. The president and top administrators of the university knew for almost two hours that two murders had had been committed on campus but made no effort to lock down the campus or communicate with the members of the community.
In any violent incident, said Bove, it is necessary to look at pre-crisis, crisis and the post-crisis. The pre-crisis is critical, he said, noting that the shooter at Virginia Tech had been stalking other students and had given indications of mental illness.
"He kept falling through the cracks. The warning signs were not heeded nor were they heeded at Columbine," he said.
Bove noted that he had described pre-crisis warning signs in a 1998 book, published before either wither massacre.
Children turn to gangs for acceptance and recognition, he said.
"Gang is another word for family," Bove explained. "If young people in American schools do not find affirmation and recognition in their families and at their schools, they will find it any way they can."
Bove urged teachers and administrators to work with law enforcement to set up response plans and for schools to conduct frequent evacuation and lock down drills.
"If we work together and cooperate, it all becomes natural," he said.
