20 steps to better school security


On Board Online • September 24, 2018

Susan Vickers
Superintendent, Hunter-Tannersville Central School District

Numerous articles, white papers and seminars on improving school safety are available. The latest was issued in July, when the U.S. Secret Service issued an operational guide called Enhancing School Safety Using A Threat Assessment Model. In February, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security released a paper entitled Making Schools Safer.I view a 2016 report, the Active Shooter white paper by ASIS School Safety and Security Council, as a foundational document for preventing active shooter incidents.

Here are 20 lessons I've gleaned from these reports, as well as talking about the topic with colleagues, law enforcement, and individuals with the United States government because prevention is the optimal goal:

  1. Understand that your school/school district will become a victim of an aggressor. The only unknown is when and where.
  2. Regularly conduct safety drills and hold discussions with students and staff. The last fire in a school that claimed a victim was in the 1950s. Repeated drills in the decades since then have brought fatalities to zero.
  3. Empower students to come forward with information without fear of reprisal nor disbelief. A warm and caring school culture goes a long way in establishing this feeling.
  4. Conduct social-emotional discussions with students as part of a Threat Assessment Team approach. Give the people on the team the purview and authority to act.
  5. Harden the target/schools. Are your classroom doors easily breached? Do you have a safety vestibule in each building? Where are the panic buttons? Can every classroom phone announce a lockdown and directly dial 9-1-1? Bullet resistant glass and solid core doors that are kept locked at all times will help buy valuable time.
  6. Include key people in the same threat assessment and school safety trainings. The discussions and establishment of a common language will go a long way in helping to protect the school community. The U.S. Secret Service advocates that a threat assessment process is an effective way to improve school safety.
  7. Hold active shooter trainings in each building in your district.
  8. Plan time for teachers and staff to ask questions. This ensures internalization. In the classroom we call it checking for understanding and closure, so we need to practice what we preach with our staff.
  9. Have a single point of entry for each building - no exceptions.
  10. Have well-lit exteriors and install cameras that are able to view every angle of the buildings both internally and externally. Lighting and visibility are critical aspects to have in place to help prevent incidents and to help ascertain what is happening during an incident.
  11. Forbid students from using a teacher's key/swipe card.
  12. Require all visitors to sign-in/sign-out and use designated ID's.
  13. Create a policy that does not allow visitors to bring bags into schools.
  14. Staff the entrance where visitors are allowed entry with people who know the students and community well. Never staff this position with a substitute.
  15. Require staff to wear their ID badges at work at all times.
  16. Enforce a zero-tolerance policy regarding joking about school shootings and mass killings.
  17. Establish, maintain and promote a positive working relationship with the local policing agencies. In our school district, we appreciate unscheduled visits by state troopers, sheriff deputies and local police officers. Police presence is a form of deterrence.
  18. Ensure that your speaker system can be heard in every nook and cranny of your district.
  19. Call for a lockdown across the entire district rather than one building. And when a call for lockdown is made, make sure it locks the building down completely.
  20. Develop a safety plan that involves school resource officers, recognizing that a school shooter may make a careful study of their habits and target them in an early phase of an assault. According to the ASIS white paper, "Often, the perpetrators of K-12 violence are known - either current or former students, staff or teachers. They know the school layout, class schedule, and have become familiarized with the SRO's habits. They know when and where to strike with least resistance and most effect." SROs are an excellent layer of defense, but other strategies need to be in place.



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