John Edwards, who spent 20 years working for the United States Secret Service, told a crowd of 70 childcare providers gathered in downtown Detroit recently that that their two professions have something in common.
Neither job allows for a bad day.
“You as educators, as people in charge of our most vulnerable population, you gotta protect where you work,” Edwards said.
On Saturday, Oct. 10, the Detroit Police Department hosted a safety training for early educators aimed at preparing them for emergency situations, with a particular focus on gun safety, de-escalation techniques and active shooter and threat preparedness. The event was led by the Institute for Childhood Preparedness, a national organization looking to fill the gap in emergency preparedness for childcare
programs serving infants, toddlers and preschoolers.
Providers were presented with options for how to better secure their childcare sites: DPD presenters reminded providers that gun locks were available for free in the event space's lobby.
A representative from Total Security Solutions, which installs bulletproof glass, gave a presentation on the different levels of coverage their product could offer childcare sites.
"We know what’s going on in our climate and culture. We need to be prepared for anything," said Nina Hodge, a Detroit-based childcare provider who helped organize the event with DPD.
Multiple presenters and childcare providers referenced both the March 2026 Temple Israel attack in West Bloomfield and the more recent incident where a toddler was found with a loaded handgun in a backpack at a childcare site in Canton, as examples of what’s become a fact of life in the United States: violence is a possibility at any time, in any setting. No place, not churches, schools or childcare facilities, remain untouched.
Childcare providers said they came to the event looking for concrete information they could use to feel safer at work and better able to protect their kids. They described an increasingly tense climate and a desire to be prepared in case one day it came spilling into their program.
“Knowing so many people that are out in society today that are angry. We need to make sure we’re keeping everyone alert inside our building, to know what’s going on inside and out,” said Jacqueline Pippen, who owns Pippen Palace Child Care Academy Inc. in Detroit.
Janet Dixon, who’s run a home-based childcare site in Pontiac for 35 years, said she came to the event looking to get information about how to better protect herself and her kids. Dixon said she’s been frustrated with the lack of safety at her childcare site since two rehabilitation homes opened next door. One day she says a brick was thrown through her window by one of the men she knows was living at the rehab site because she went outside to confront him.
And it's not always strangers that providers said they were concerned about – it’s parents too.
Peranica Williams, who runs a childcare site out of her home in Detroit, said she had an incident with a parent in 2018 that left her shaken. After Williams told one of her parents that she'd no longer be able to provide her family with childcare because of the parent's behavior, the parent erupted.
“She was cursing, snatching the kid up, and slammed the door so hard the window shattered,” said Williams. “It was frightening.”
Afterwards, Williams filed a police report. She said her brother bought her a steel bat and convinced her to get a concealed pistol license. Per Michigan’s childcare licensing rules, the pistol and ammunition have to be kept locked up separately, so she says she’s still not sure if it would help in the case of an intruder or altercation turned violent.
“I felt real vulnerable,” Williams said.
Stress spills into childcare sites
Throughout the event, presenters and childcare providers discussed how issues with parents were a common source of conflict at childcare sites, some of which explode into something bigger.
“You don’t have the luxury of knowing which parent had a bad night, if a parent had an argument before they showed up, or if a parent has a protective order against them or a custody battle has gone bad,” Edwards told providers.
Custody battles ending in gun violence in childcare parking lots were cited in particular as a threat for childcare sites.
Presenters during the event cited statistics from the U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy’s 2024 report on the increasing rates of high levels of stress among parents, like how 41% of parents say that most days they are so stressed they cannot function, to illustrate the reality of stress in parent’s lives as compared to other adults. They also cited research showing violence against educators was also on the rise post-pandemic.
After talking through a YouTube video of an explosive interaction between a disgruntled Walmart shopper and store staff, Andy Roszak, former firefighter-paramedic and founder and CEO of the Institute for Childhood Preparedness, went through de-escalation techniques providers could use to keep tensions low with or between parents.
That included using clear signage to keep expectations – like requiring ID to pick up a kid – for parents clear, adjusting body language and offering choices for how to address a situation.
Unique challenges for emergency preparedness with little kids
Presenters at the event highlighted the unique challenge early educators had in preparing for emergencies, compared with other businesses and educational centers.
“Understand that you have such a vulnerable population and they cannot move, run, hide or fight on command, so that means that you are the person that has to make that happen for them,” said Edwards.
But acting in a potential emergency situation can be difficult, especially for private providers who often lack emergency guidance tailored to the children they serve and what would actually work in their classrooms, said Roszak. When threats occur in a given local area, childcare providers also get left out of lock down alerts and other information from law enforcement that school districts get.
“We’re not as tapped into what’s going on,” said Stephanie Atwood, director of the childcare site at Alternatives for Girls, a nonprofit supporting homeless women in southwest Detroit. “In the past it’s been a challenge to be considered an educational space. We’re a daycare or babysitters, it’s not front of mind to tell their early childhood programs in the area,” Atwood said of law enforcement.
It depends on what county you’re in and the relationship you’ve built with local police leadership, she said.
After the firearm safety presentation, Rukhsana Baloch, an assistant teacher at Novi Northville Montessori School, said she was left wondering why so many people in our culture own guns in the first place.
Baloch said her preschool does drills to prepare for “when a stranger is in the building” – an age-appropriate name of an active shooter drill, she said. She said she understands anger and violence are a reality that need to be protected against to make sure kids are safe. But she also worried about the impression kids are left with.
“We are exposing our kids, showing them the world is not safe for you,” she said.
Beki San Martin is a fellow at the Detroit Free Press who covers childcare, early childhood education and other issues that affect the lives of children ages 5 and under and their families in metro Detroit and across Michigan. Contact her at rsanmartin@freepress.com.
This fellowship was founded with support from the Bainum Family Foundation. The Free Press retains editorial control of this work.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Childcares consider de-escalation, bulletproof glass to deal with dangers
