LANSING, Mich. (WLNS) – Heartbreak and grief struck yet another school in the United States. On Tuesday, 19 children and 2 teachers were shot and killed at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas.
It’s a tragedy Jason Russell has been trying to stop for years. In 2013, he founded an organization in Michigan called Secure Education Consultants.
“We work with schools on assessing their security… Safety and security programs,” Russell said.
Russell said he was actually assessing a school’s safety program when he got the news about Texas.
“We need to continue to work and try to prevent these incidents from happening in the first place rather than just accepting that they’re going to happen and be really good at responding,” Russell said.
When it comes to school safety, Russell said there are several things that need to be addressed.
One of them is monitoring social media.
“Research has shown that most of the people that commit some type of violence like this usually share it prior to doing it. So, to be able to pick up on that in real-time and to be able to provide some insight or some warning is really important,” Russell said.
He said safety has to be a layered approach.
“Physical security, training is a layer, equipment is a layer,” Russell said.
As a father, Russell said he wants to know kids are safe in their schools.
But after yesterday’s massacre, he and other families aren’t as sure about that.
“For me, it was just another unfortunate reality that we just need to continue to focus on prevention and try to identify these people prior to them actually going and committing an act,” Russell said.