Improving on school security procedures: It is more important than ever before

In the wake of the numerous school shooting incidents, the topic of school security is one that has garnered national attention. When parents send their children to school; or husbands, wives, and partners say goodbye to their significant others, they do so with the unconscious assumption that they will see their loved ones later in the day. Sadly, that is not always the case. The unimaginable tragedy that took place in Newtown, CT shook the nation to its core and came as an affirmation that our children need more protection. As we can see on the nightly news regardless of where you hang your hat, active shooter scenarios and school shootings have become more and more prevalent and are clearly on the rise. In the year following the deadly December 2012 Newtown, CT shooting, there were at least two dozen school shootings across our nation; not all making national news platforms.1 Looking back at any situation, many people will say "oh, well I could have done this differently" or "I should have just..." As they say, hindsight is always 20/20. I believe that while we should absolutely learn from our experiences and be reactive, I think that it is essential that we are more proactive in our approach to school security. In the physical security realm there are things that we can do in an attempt to mitigate these heinous crimes against our children and our loved ones. Preparedness and prevention are ways that school systems can "prepare for and prevent an active shooter situation." 2 Before delving into the physical security aspects of increasing school security, it is important that the operational security procedures for the school be established and distributed accordingly. School administrators should have an Emergency Action Plan (EAP) that lays out the guidelines, actions and expectations of the faculty and staff in the event of an active shooter situation. The information contained in the EAP needs to work in conjunction with the physical security measures in order to provide the highest level of protection. If they counteract, the result could prove to be tragic. For example, while you may have physically secured the perimeter of your school building and have kept a shooter at bay you do not want students or staff walking through halls possibly becoming easy targets in the line-of-sight of the shooter. From a physical security perspective, there are various methods that you can use in order to strengthen your facility to prevent an act of violence. In order to do so, you must understand the five fundamentals of physical security design and the overall concentric rings of protection around your assets: There are various ways that you can protect your facility from the outside in utilizing concepts like crime prevention through environmental design (CPTED) in conjunction with access control systems and intrusion alarm systems that integrate seamlessly with Video Surveillance Systems (VSS). You can go a step further and have those systems integrate with and alert the authorities in the event of any type of emergency. Proper door hardware and automatically locking doors based on proper access control programming can save lives. For example, in the December 2013 school shooting in Colorado the shooter entered the school through a door that "should have" been locked.3 Through proper physical security design you can help to mitigate similar situations. Ballistic films can be added to glass doors, panels and/or windows in order to prevent entrance to your facility via shot-through or smashed glass. By effectively combining the massive amount of technologies that are available in the security market with the correct physical security measures that work in conjunction with an established EAP you are taking a prepared, preventive approach to ensuring the safety of your students and staff. Our children are our future. They should be given the chance to learn and grow in an environment that is not only conducive to learning, but that also makes every attempt to keep them safe while doing so. While no design, approach, or plan is ever fool proof or without vulnerabilities, the more proactive we are in protecting our children and our schools the more effective we will be. Keep the violence out of our schools; protect our children... 1. Source: www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/12/12/the-school-shootings-you-didn-t-hear-about-one-every-two-weeks-since-newtown.html 2. Source: www.dhs.gov 3. Source: www.cnn.com/2013/12/30/justice/colorado-school-shooting/index.html David Goetz is a consultant at Shen Milsom & Wilke LLC, New York, N.Y.