Jewish Schools Know a Thing or Two about Security

Our community can help guide the national conversation.

Every morning when I pull into my kids’ Jewish day school, I wave to teachers and friends, kiss my young children goodbye, and give a cheery hello the black-clad, armed security guard stationed near the front door.

As the first somewhat normal school year starts across the country, the possibility that a deranged person could crash into a school and mow down a room full of first graders lingers in the back of our minds. Jewish schools face double threat: could this be the year a deranged anti-Semite wants to get famous?

The idea that schools are places where students and visitors can come and go, where unsecured doors can be propped open for fresh air, is not a reality for the Jewish community. This sad state of affairs is beginning to catch up with the nation, which saw record levels of school shootings in 2020-21 as well as the worst school shooting in American history in Uvalde, Texas, in May. Going into this school year, a slew of programs and grants have become available nationally and to states for security hardening.

Jewish schools have been on it for some time now. Seattle Hebrew Academy, on Capitol Hill, employs a security service and follows a philosophy of deterrence and vigilance. “We want the kids and parents to feel safe, and not feel like a prison,” says Rabbi Benjy Owen, the new head of school. “We have a lot of security measures to guard the entrance and exit. Adults are watchful and pay attention.” The school provides drills for the older students along the philosophy of “run, hide, fight.”

The school, like many Jewish organizations, has benefitted from the National Nonprofit Security Grant Program through the Department of Homeland Security. “They’ve provided capital for hardening the facility and security,” he says. “We’ve been able to make major upgrades that I don’t know what we would do without. Thanks to the American government for that.”

When the Seattle Jewish Community School moved to the Green Lake neighborhood in 2019, leaders found it an opportune time to do a risk assessment. Like SHA, SJCS has been able to take advantage of grants to upgrade security, as well as hire a full-time security and facilities director. The guards at both schools are part of the landscape of adults the kids see every day, and they are respected, even admired. “[Officer Steve] has military experience, corporate security experience, event security experience, which for the kids is a great delight, because he also has the sensibilities of someone who is committed to kids,” says SJCS Head of School David Zimand. “For our kids to know that Officer Steve flew on Air Force One…is totally cool.”

Despite an undulating climate of anti-Semitism — school leaders were on high alert during last spring’s Israel-Gaza war — and the national fear around school shootings, the schools have not faced serious threats. Zimand mainly worries about property crime and graffiti. SHA has encountered a handful of property crime—including a break-in by a woman purportedly searching for ghosts—but nothing has been connected to anti-Semitism or caused irrepairable damage.

Nonetheless, Adaptive Threat Solutions, the company hired by SHA to protect the campus, resists the urge to become complacent. COO Shavae McKellips thinks that the general American population needs to change its mindset on active shooter threats.

“Most incidents do not make it on the news, and people have a false mindset that everything is sunshine and roses,” McKellips says. Shooters target unsecured places where they can tally the most victims, like malls, schools, and religious institutions — places where firearms usually are not permitted, she explains. “We need to start educating ourselves, adding ways to protect the community, our children, and continuing the survival mindset.”

ATS supports arming teachers, an idea that’s not too popular in the mainstream Jewish community, though more acceptable in some conservative circles (former President Trump floated this idea and many schools already train teachers and have weapons on the premises). “The only catch is they should be trained not only in the use of firearms, but have regular range and mindset training as well,” McKellips says. “We do understand that this is a sensitive subject. However, we have found when people start off with a bias against firearms, or the fear of the unknown, with training and education, they change their mind.” One poll from 2018 in fact found that parents are more likely to support armed teachers if the teachers receive comprehensive training.

“Unfortunately, humans have had a history of violence since the beginning,” McKellips says. “Cain killed Abel. Humans aren’t much different than the animal kingdom, and the prey gets hunted. It is our responsibility to protect those who can’t protect themselves. Kids in school are those who need protecting.”

Rabbi Owen is not enthusiastic about this idea. “A lay person who’s not professional law enforcement doesn’t have the kind of experience to put training into practice and actually separate friend from foe,” he says. “In my estimation, in talking with people who are leaders in the field of school safety, the likelihood of it leading to a mistake is much greater than the protection it’s going to offer.”

For Zimand, the issue is more complex than just ensuring the physical safety of the K-5 student body from anti-Semitic or general attacks. “The national conversation has become two dimensional, and it needs to be multi-dimensional,” he says. “There are lots and lots of factors that play into the wellbeing of children.” Securing children is not just about fending off active shooters. It’s also about managing an apparent growing mental health crisis and rising rates of anxiety, too. The 24-hour news cycle, full of violence, needs to be tempered with a healthy and age-appropriate understanding of threats and how to mitigate them. “The mental health of our children, anxiety, depression needs to be on our minds,” he says. “We are handing the world over to them.”

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