Getting tough on school shootings.

The murder of a Tennessee high school assistant principal in November points to an alarming trend in school safety.

Thirty-nine school-associated violent deaths covered the 2004-05 school year, and 14 more students and teachers were murdered in the first three months of 2005-06 year, says Kenneth Trump, president of National School Safety and Security Services. "Every school shooting was preventable," states Dale Yeager, president of Seraph Inc., a school safety training firm.

Metal detectors and cameras don't prevent school shootings, experts say. The Columbine students who entered school in April 1999 with loaded guns did so on the same day the school installed $1 million in security equipment.

Schools need systems for identifying violent children and proactively intervening in their lives, Yeager says. Trained educators can prevent future school shootings.

Yeager trains school staff about the basis of violent behavior and provides a practical tool kit including showing teachers how to tell and what to do when a student is carrying a gun. Calling a suspected gun-bearing student to the office is a mistake, Trump says. Instead educators need to secure the student or escort him or her out of the building.

"Most school safety problems can be managed away," Yeager adds, "and management doesn't cost a dime."