The authors examine school safety and violence prevention among school superintendents in Georgia's rural public schools spanning three decades. Survey data from 1995, 2005, and 2015 provide points of comparison and contrast regarding efforts by school superintendents to keep schools safe. School superintendents are in positions with the best vantage point to know the strategies and techniques being used to protect students, faculty, staff, administrators, and visitors from crime and violence on school grounds. The longitudinal research design provides a means to sort out changes in school security technologies and shifts in policies and procedures implemented to keep students safe from harm. The authors find that rural public schools have been safe and remain so. The impact of globalization and social media present new challenges for rural school superintendents who recognize that schools are soft targets for those motivated to bring violence to school.
Efficiency of blast walls for protection of soft targets
