With School Security Upgrades, Avoid Knee-Jerk Reactions
The following practices will help your district take a careful and intentional approach to implementing school security upgrades.
Guy Bliesner began his career in education in 1994 as a high school teacher and coach. Moving into administration in 2006 as the Safety and Security Coordinator for the Bonneville School District. While serving in that position he was named to the Idaho’s Governor’s School Safety Task Force. Also, during his Bonneville tenure, he was named a finalist for the 2011 Campus Safety Magazine’s national Campus Safety Director of the Year Award. In 2013 he left the district to form, with a partner, the private School Safety, Security, Risk Management consulting firm of Educators Eyes. This firm developed and implemented Idaho’s first statewide school safety and security condition assessment. In 2016 he dissolved the firm to join, as a founding member, the newly created Idaho Office of School Safety and Security. He currently serves as the School Safety and Security Analyst assigned to schools in Southeast Idaho. His mission is to support the public and charter schools of southeast Idaho to bolster school safety through assessment, training, and planning assistance.
The following practices will help your district take a careful and intentional approach to implementing school security upgrades.
Schools should continuously review their security and safety programs, involving educators and only adopting practices and technologies that are appropriate.
Combining security cameras with adult staff who can intervene during incidents and provide pupils with “teachable moments” will optimize the effectiveness of cameras and personnel.
It’s surprisingly easy for a school to overlook these safety and security fundamentals. Don’t let your campus be one of them.
The right student/parent reunification process can help reduce trauma, as well as limit liability exposures after a school security incident.
Here’s what one community learned about reuniting students with their parents after it conducted an active shooter exercise with first responders and community volunteers.
Campus climate and culture are foundational in the creation and maintenance of a safer and more secure school for both students and staff.
Planning, as well as using current training opportunities and plausible, realistic scenarios will enable most schools to greatly improve their safety training and exercise programs.
A school security analyst shares how Idaho schools worked with first responders to establish a common initial response platform for emergencies.
Consider framing your school security and safety programs via a detection-communication-response rubric.
In this webinar, attendees will learn the observable behaviors people exhibit as they head down a path of violence so we can help prevent the preventable.
This discussion will help participants analyze, understand, and assess their own program effectiveness.