The evil that showed up at the front door of Sandy Hook Elementary School was horrible, morally unbelievable and extremely scary.

Most everyone is wondering how this could happen? How could this 20 year old kid be so full of evil that he would murder young innocent children, innocent adults and his own mother?

We are hearing and seeing a lot of reactions – emotional reactions mostly – to this evil and horrible incident. Emotional reactions are clearly justified as we are all human, especially when young innocent children are murdered and threatened. We are hearing emotional reactions focused at guns. We are hearing emotional reactions towards school security and we are seeing and hearing from lots of experts offering their explanations and suggestions. Interestingly enough, most of the experts’ suggestions are ‘reactive’ as they call for better locks, automatic door locks, more cameras, better lockdown equipment, better visitor management systems, armed teachers, armed guards, etc.

The ‘reactive’ suggestions are understandable…but shouldn’t we be focusing as much or more on proactive prevention?

In President Obama’s speech at the memorial Sunday evening in Newtown, CT, he asked, “Can we honestly say that we’re doing enough to keep our children, all of them, safe from harm? He continued by answering his own question, “If we are honest with ourselves, the answer is no. We’re not doing enough, and we will have to change.”

Clearly it is time to change, and as President Obama said, we need to take “meaningful action”.

Now is the time to do the right things. We cannot keep doing the same things and expect different results. We have to ask different questions to achieve different results, for example:

Are we going to prevent Evil from getting to the front door or are we going to continue to react to Evil when the threats are already at the front door?

Evidence clearly reveals that Evil builds up in a person over time, so we have time to intervene, help and prevent. Evidence clearly shows concerning behaviors involving the attacker(s) were present in nearly every tragedy, so why aren’t we connecting the dots and preventing preventable incidents?

A lot of time, money and resources are spent on reactive security equipment, yet tragedies still occur. It is true, we have to change, but are ‘old school’ experts and leaders really open to ‘new school’ change?

We are hearing a lot of emotional reactions focused on gun controls, and while gun control discussions may be good for news shows and politicians, with all the guns already out there is it realistic to believe all these guns will just disappear? And is it realistic to believe political and special interest groups will work together to make any real changes in our life time?

Then 10 minutes later on the same news show, other emotional reactions suggest we arm teachers with guns. Are we really going to put guns inside schools and hope armed teachers can protect our children? (and protect the guns from unauthorized access too)

Other emotional reactions suggest placing an armed guard in every school, but how realistic are armed guards in every school with limited budgets, limited resources, potential liabilities and ongoing training challenges?

The sad thing is that all of these popular suggestions are still “reacting” to Evil at the front door…what about solutions for “preventing” Evil from ever getting to the front door?

Proactive prevention starts with empowering and equipping students, families, teachers, churches and other community members [like all the people coming forward now who observed ‘concerning behaviors’ with this disconnected young man in Newtown, CT] with the right tools to anonymously or non-anonymously report incidents, concerning behaviors and signs of evil BEFORE the evil builds and escalates into a tragedy. Prevention is possible and very affordable and when we equip everyone to do their part and connect all the right dots, we can proactively prevent preventable incidents.

Did you know there are proven prevention platforms in real-life? Did you know there are real-life success stories where proactive prevention is working in schools and colleges?

Evidence shows proactive prevention works and we are seeing it work in the real-world where early adopter schools and colleges are using Awareity’s innovative and multiple award-winning TIPS risk management and prevention platform. The TIPS platform is a safe haven for students and a safety net for adults and equips everyone to do the right things in proactively preventing preventable incidents.

Wouldn’t you like to know how other schools and colleges are changing from reacting to evil to preventing evil?

Then don’t wait for Evil to show up at your door…take action right now! All you have to do is contact Awareity at info@awareity.com and request an online demonstration for your school leaders, school board and your school safety team members. We cannot tolerate ‘old school reaction efforts’ any longer…it is time to change and the time to prevent Evil is right now.