At every Clinton City School, there's a camera at the doors and a police officer patrolling the hallways. Teachers are told to look for warning signs that a student may be struggling emotionally or mentally.
"We look for kids who are maybe a little anti-social. Kids who react very differently than their peers to simple redirection ... they don't quite seem to fit into a norm we might expect," said Suzanne Oliver, the supervisor for Student Services.
In the wake of a shooting at a Florida high school where police say a former student killed 17 people, one of the conversations happening on social media is the incredible burden teachers are taking not only to educate, but also protect their students.
One of the people killed in the Florida shooting was a football coach who died shielding his students.
At the University of Tennessee, Elementary Education Associate Professor Dr. Amy Broemmel said they're looking at ways to better prepare the teachers of tomorrow for a potential crisis today.
"We're just starting to embark on a partnership with our colleagues in the department of Ed Psych and Counseling and how they might be able to talk to some of our pre-service teachers about some of those counseling aspects that they might use, particularly in a lockdown situation, to keep kids calm during that," she said.
In Lauren Murphy's sixth grade classroom in Clinton, she can spot potential problems quickly because she makes an effort to connect with each of her students.
"As soon as you let them know how much you love them, as soon as you let them know you're there to help them, they want an extra hug. They want advice, they want to tell you, 'I'm going through this and can you give me more advice?'" Murphy said.
Something that used to be out of the ordinary, now, Broemmel said can no longer go unaddressed.
"We feel like it's our responsibility to prepare our future teachers to at least consider that so they can come up with some strategies if they're ever put in that (situation)," Broemmel said.