“The need for a new approach came after an incident in March 2001. We took a hard look at what caused the incident and how physical security could evolve,” said Williams.
The incident he referred to could seem like a distant nightmare to most school districts. Over a two-week period, two separate school shootings wracked the 11-school, 24,000-student district in northeast San Diego County. On March 5, 2001, an 15-year-old freshman killed two students and injured another 13. Later that month, an 18-year-old student opened fire on an administration building, wounding three students and two teachers.