I must opine once again. Public schools, including the one involved in this case, most often have quite extensive counseling departments, offering services beyond what many might imagine, including referral for outside counseling, access to local resources, suicide and bullying prevention initiatives, dedicated teams that meet regularly and discuss student concerns, crisis response plans, coordinated training and drills with local law enforcement, I mean, this list goes on and on. These school professionals go through years of education, and hours and hours of ongoing training, every year, all focused on school safety.
More likely than not, local psychologists, psychiatrists, and counselors in the community have close relationships with school counselors, Local social agencies, local police, probation, probably even other community organizations, for food/housing/job placement, chamber of commerce, fire company, boards and committees at the local hospital, all these resources interact with the school at some level. The scope of initiatives dedicated to school safety is HUGE.
This student who did this, I opine that he was well known to the school counseling department, with a thicker file than the average student. I'll wager this young man and his family likely had every possible counseling alternative presented and offered to him, probably more than once, and likely over the course of years.
Two things. One, a family must approve of the counseling process for most students, and more importantly, the student themselves must approve, and be willing to engage...barring an involuntary commitment to an inpatient facility.
The final thought I have is this. And yes, these events do anger me, because I've actually worked this field, it was my career. I've taken weapons off of students, was involved in searches, had relationships with all the aforementioned community folks in this post as a result of my position in a public school. I've trained, and been trained, drills, lockdowns, sweeps, codes, theories on how to react, threat assessments, teams, committees, the whole gamut. I've dealt with guns, knives, drugs, fights, suicide....the whole mess. Now retired, and off duty
So, if a person wants a secure building, here's my opinion...go to one, enter, see what occurs when you enter, and put those procedures in place at the school. Try the local courthouse, or go through TSA at the airport....being certain to notice the armed persons standing about, those are secure procedures. Otherwise, any student, any time, any day, can bring any thing, to school.