The Dunblane massacre ten years ago rocked the world and thrust the issue of school security into the spotlight. Gavin Aitchison looks at how schools in York and North Yorkshire have changed in the decade since the atrocity.

MARCH 13, 1996. 9.35am. Dunblane Primary School. Thomas Hamilton, armed with four handguns and 743 rounds of ammunition, walks into the gym hall and opens fire on a class of five and six-year-olds.

Within four minutes, he has murdered 15 children and their teacher. Another pupil dies on the way to hospital and a further 13 pupils and two teachers are wounded. The carnage ends only when Hamilton, 43, shoots himself.

The unthinkable atrocity sent shockwaves around the world and left a permanent scar on society. Britain's gun laws were put under the spotlight and school security was propelled to the top of the political agenda.

Within months, concerns were heightened closer to home. In June 1996, an Easingwold teacher was threatened at knifepoint by a teenager he caught trespassing on school grounds.

Five months later, Phillip Bargh, then 19, indecently assaulted a young girl at a school in Acomb, forcing her into a school toilet and making her take off her trousers. Parents everywhere feared for their children's safety.

Ten years on, what has changed?

Quite a lot, according to Kevin Hall, City of York Council's assistant director of education.

Schools throughout the city have become noticeably more secure, Mr Hall says - both in terms of practical safety measures, and improved attitudes.

A significant proportion of the city's primary schools now have intercom entry systems, and about one in three schools has CCTV. School reception areas have also been redesigned so receptionists can ideally see anyone entering the building, and visitors are frequently forced to sign in and wear an identity badge.

Mr Hall says staff and pupils are also more alert to the risks they face, while safety is now considered at the design stage for new schools, which was previously not the case.

He identifies the new Hob Moor Children's Centre, due to open in April, as the prime example of security-conscious design.

The centre will replace Hob Moor Primary School and Hob Moor Oaks Special Needs School, and also incorporate the Sure Start family centre and nursery.

Mr Hall said: "We are working very closely with different partners to make sure the site is welcoming and secure. It will be open long hours - not just during the day. There will be sign-posted sections for different points of entry; there will be a full-time member of staff around the site responsible for site-management; and there is definitely CCTV investment."

By contrast, he says, the old Hob Moor Primary School has controlled entry points, but none of the other innovations.

There is no one-size-fits-all solution to the problem of security at local schools, Mr Hall says. Different responses are needed for primary and secondary schools, and also according to the nature of the school. A busy city-centre school such as All Saints requires different solutions to a village school such as Dunnington, for example.

But school security ten years on from Dunblane is now an integral part of the council's expenditure. York's Local Education Authority, itself formed just weeks after the Dunblane massacre, allocated £300,000 a year for health and safety work in individual schools. A joint bid by the LEA, the York Safer Schools Group and North Yorkshire Police in 1997 brought a further £315,000 from the Government.

Today, with £10 million to £11 million being spent in York each year through the Schools Capital Programme, the council considers security issues along with all others when deciding which school projects to invest in.

While it is right that schools make every effort to be safe and secure, what we don't want, Mr Hall says, is to see children growing up in a situation where everything is presented as scary and unpleasant.

For that reason, despite the improvements in security, York's response to the tragedy at Dunblane was measured, he says.

"We did not want to do a knee-jerk response, and go to a fortress mentality. There's a balance to be struck between pupil safety and an environment where children can enjoy being at school. Parents had concerns about perceptions of prisons being built."

He says there is a danger in being heavy-handed - and he also feels excessive fencing can deter local communities from becoming involved with schools.

For all the practical improvements to safety, he says the main development has been in attitude.

"The biggest change has been one of awareness, and understanding the need to think through risks," he said.

"Everything is much more structured. There are procedures in place. I am sure you could breach those procedures if you really thought it through, but staff are more willing and ready to challenge someone on school grounds."

The defences have been greatly improved, but Mr Hall refuses to be complacent, warning: "No matter how conscientious you are, and how careful, you cannot counteract the actions of someone who is particularly determined."

Gun control

HUNDREDS of thousands of people signed petitions calling for a ban on handguns in the wake of the massacre.

Despite widespread opposition from the gun lobby, a law banning the private ownership of handguns was passed in 1997.

A promised national firearms register, which would track everyone who has a gun licence and those who have been judged unfit and which was promised nine years ago, has yet to be introduced.

Home Office Minister Hazel Blears told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that the Government was still "absolutely committed" to setting up such a register - and that it should be in place by the end of the year.

Ms Blears said there had been difficulties with the computer technology required. "But we do now have a system which is going to be trialled in May this year and, if that's successful, I expect it to be national within nine months," she said.

The Gun Control Network (GCN), which included relatives of those killed in the Hungerford massacre, continues to campaign for a register.

GCN chair Gill Marshall-Andrews said: "Provision for a national database of gun owners was made in the first Firearms Amendment Act of 1997. It is indeed bizarre that nine years later the nation still waits. Is this incompetence or a lack of political will?

"The register is basically a list. It won't contain biometric data on gun owners. It's not a difficult thing to develop."

Mick North, whose daughter Sophie was killed by Hamilton and who has campaigned on behalf of GCN, said: "I have no doubt that had it not been possible for Hamilton legally to own guns simply for the purpose of target shooting, that he would never have thought through or carried out his crime."

Schools outside York

IT IS not only York schools that have improved security following Dunblane.

A spokesman for North Yorkshire County Council said: "£1 million was spent on school security in the years immediately after Dunblane, and all schools in North Yorkshire benefited. Some schools had fences erected, or better fences erected; most had intercom systems and key-pads put on the doors; and many had CCTV set up.

"One of the things that has also happened since, but not just related to Dunblane, is the rolling out of an ID card system. If it's related to school security, we are always looking at ways of improving.

"Schools are a lot safer now than ten years ago. Within the two years following Dunblane we did a lot. A lot of lessons were learnt - it was a real wake-up call."

A spokesman for East Riding of Yorkshire Council said East Riding schools had benefited from the extra government funding for security provided after Dunblane, the same as schools elsewhere.

No one could legislate for a mad gunman intent on randomly shooting people, he said.

"But staff in schools have always taken their duty of care for children very seriously."

Updated: 09:02 Tuesday, March 14, 2006