School shootings are extremely rare. And that someone would go to a school to exercise deadly violence was unthinkable when most of Sweden's schools were built.
After the school attack in Trollhättan in 2015, more and more schools have started to review their security. But in many schools, the measures proposed may be impossible to implement.
In newly built schools, you can build in a security mindset, but large parts of our school stock are actually much older. We have schools from several different time periods that are still in use and were built based on pedagogical models of the time, says Charlotta Thodelius, associate professor of criminology at the University of Borås.
Inventoring the building
She emphasizes the importance of working systematically with security work and inventorying the school building. Before you start practicing for a potential violent act, you need to look at what the conditions are.
Schools look incredibly different. You can wonder if you can lock in. Can you evacuate? How would we solve it if something happens?
One example is which way doors open. A door that opens outward cannot be barricaded.
I also think about glass doors and the like, to get good natural light, which was extremely popular in the early 2000s and until 2015 or so. Can you cover the glass if needed? In what ways can you barricade yourself in that type of room?
Numbered rooms
Another reflection Charlotta Thodelius has made is that classrooms and other school premises are often numbered on the outside.
You would need to put them on the inside as well, because if you need to alert and tell where you are, you won't remember. I teach myself and wouldn't be able to say what the room is called in an extremely stressful situation.
A large school also means that there are many more places that need to be locked in. It creates a different kind of movement, which you may need to take into account.
A perpetrator with knowledge of the school can also know where people can be when they are not in classrooms. Charlotta Thodelius takes the school shooting in Finnish Jokela in 2007 as an example.
There, it was one of the stairwells where young people used to gather and where the perpetrator later stayed during parts of the attack.
The challenge is to create a school environment that is both aesthetically pleasing and functionally secure.
I know it will be extremely many goal conflicts. It's the daily use of the premises and the pedagogical activities that should be at the center. But maybe there are solutions that benefit both.
