There are two words that school superintendents love to hear: “cheap” and “free”. When it comes to school safety and security, it is critical that school administrators take the time to implement relatively easy and inexpensive safety measures in an all-hazards approach to school safety.
Here are some examples of low-hanging fruit that are either free or relatively inexpensive to implement, in an effort to improve upon the overall safety plan and to further instill a culture of school safety.
Policies, Procedures & Drills
- Conduct your own site safety assessment. Something is better than nothing. You don’t have to pay significant money to outside sources when you can do rudimentary things yourself. Use a multi-disciplinary approach to identify and evaluate physical security.
- Lock all outside doors and reinforce a ‘no propping” policy. This is a simple but effective concept.
- Enhance fire drills by periodically implementing injectables. For example, blocking off selected exits to see how students and staff react, or “kidnap” a student (an employee’s child works best when you give the employee notice) to see if the staff recognizes the student’s absence.
- Practice a reverse evacuation for fire drills. Sometimes, conditions outside might be more dangerous than inside. Likewise, practice a delayed evacuation. Teach staff members situational awareness. Stop, look, and listen. Is there smoke? Are there flames? Are there strange noises?
- Bus evacuation drills: engage students in the decision-making process. WIN: What’s Important Now? Ask students how they would react to a fire in the back, in the front or if the bus were turned on its side. Do they know about roof hatches? Do they know about egress windows and how they operate? Do all staff participate in drills, besides drivers, recognizing that buses are used for extracurricular activities and field trips?
- Active Shooter Drills: crawl, walk, run with this progression. Start with announced drills, but progress to unannounced drills ultimately ending with what are called level 5 drills. (But be sure to let local first responders know ahead of time that a drill is being held so that they don’t think it is an actual event and respond with weapons drawn, which could pose a danger.) Level 5 drills again engage students and staff in the WIN philosophy. Open individual classroom doors during a lockdown and present scenarios to students and staff in each room. What would you do if smoke started to come under your door? How would you go about breaking the window, if necessary, to escape? What might cause you to have to exit the room?
- Single point of entry: Do you require all visitors, including students, to enter through a single location for easier monitoring?
- Substitute teachers: Do you conduct annual training with subs on safety protocols and procedures? Do you inform veteran teachers when subs are present in the event of an emergency?
Social/Emotional Issues
- Beyond conducting drills and hardening the facility, perhaps the most important aspect of school safety is developing relationships with students. Have you put pictures of your students on lockers, had faculty and staff walk by, and then place check marks on the photos signifying that they have a close relationship with individual kids? This is a great way to identify students who would benefit from specialized support.
- Have you conducted a mental health awareness day in your school focusing on wellness, self-care and sensory activities? This could incorporate therapy dogs, art activities, self-care jeopardy, physical activity and more.
- Have you invited law enforcement into the school on institute days to train staff on safety issues? Has law enforcement conducted hands-on training with staff in regards to situational awareness? Do you encourage officers to stop by the school during the school day simply to provide a presence and to engage informally with students?
- Do you have a behavioral threat assessment team? Does it include faculty, staff, social workers, counselors, psychiatrists, administrators and first responders? Does the team meet regularly? Does it meet preemptively or only after an incident has occurred?
School Safety Solutions from the ISG
Students will not learn optimally unless they feel safe and secure in their environment. Addressing school safety issues does not have to break the bank. Although time is an investment, kids are the greatest investment by far. How much are you willing to invest?
Talk with your local ISG expert to learn about our campus security technology solutions for identification, tracking and access control. You can also speak with us about integration with visitor management, video surveillance and much more.
Whether your campus is a K-12 school, a college or university, a healthcare organization, government agency or an enterprise corporation, our nationwide network of ISG dealers have solutions you need.
Stay tuned for Part 2 soon!
Original article written by Dr. Roger Alvey for Campus Safety Magazine
