With more shootings and guns on campus, schools walk a fine line in response

When Superintendent Kenny Rodrequez first heard about last week’s fatal attack on a Nashville elementary school, he immediately ached for the three children and three adults who were gunned down.

But as a school district leader, he soon began an all-too-familiar routine. He studies news reports about each new school shooting, looking for ways to strengthen his own district’s security, aware that any school could be next.

“It’s not like it’s in some faraway land,” said Rodrequez, who heads a small district outside of Kansas City, Missouri. “It’s happening everywhere.”

The...