Berkeley Review of Education

From Colorado and Connecticut to Florida and Texas, school shootings have struck the U.S. education system. In response, the fortification of schools has accelerated and deepened. Fortification entails prioritizing and instituting multiple types of infrastructure, technology, and routines that militarize schools while defining 'safety' as a function of the building and framing educators as responders to gun violence. Fortification asks educational administrators, teachers, and staff to work in new and different ways. It is vital to comprehend the structures, policies, conceptualizations, resources, and activities associated with fortification, as a taken for granted and costly response to gun violence in schools. We apply structure-agency theory to advance arguments on the fortification of schools. This article explicitly portrays how fortification occurs in racialized organizations. Our discussion of fortification sheds light on racist dimensions of school safety, operationalizes facets of structure-agency theory, and provides recommendations for research and practice.