As we welcome the new year, over the next few weeks, Campus Safety will take a look back at the top trends we experienced in 2024, as well as attempt to predict what we expect to see in 2025.
However, in 2024, there were also some incredibly powerful and important articles that some of you may have missed. Truth be told, active shooters, protests, and the like get the most attention… and deservedly so. They are truly traumatic and dramatic. That said, other equally important topics have the tendency to be overlooked.
Campus protection pros fully understand there is so much more to school, university, and healthcare facility security, public safety, emergency management, and facilities management. Other issues — like stalking, hiring the right contractors, autism awareness, teaching members of your community to report concerning behavior, and more — have a major impact on the safety and security of your organization. However, because these topics normally aren’t as headline-grabbing as, say, gun violence, they don’t get the attention they deserve.
Below are 10 important articles Campus Safety published over the past year or so that might have flown under your radar:
1. University Emergency Management’s Response Role in Civil Unrest
The spring of 2024 saw thousands of college students, faculty members, and other campus community members engaged in protests and counter-protests over the Israel-Hamas conflict. Campus public safety departments and their law enforcement counterparts from surrounding jurisdictions were called in to respond.
The following article covers how university emergency managers are increasingly being asked to take a more active response role in just about all disasters, including protests, demonstrations, riots and other civil disturbances. It specifically covers what university emergency managers must be prepared to do in the response phase of civil unrest.
2. How to Care for Patients with Autism
When considering autism in the context of hospital security, it’s crucial for hospital staff and security personnel to be aware of and sensitive to the unique needs and behaviors of individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Training staff to effectively interact with these individuals is crucial to providing high quality care and preventing avoidable escalation.
How to Care for Patients with Autism provides some considerations for incorporating ASD awareness into hospital staff and security protocols. Although the suggestions primarily apply to hospitals, security professionals who work for K-12 schools and/or institutions of higher education can apply many of these principles.
3. How Colleges Can Help Students with Autism Navigate Social Relationships
A common characteristic of individuals with ASD is fixation. Fixation is defined as a strong attachment to a specific object or routine, which can interfere with daily functioning and social interactions. Another common characteristic is the inability to understand social cues. This combination of characteristics can sometimes result in stalking behaviors.
How to Care for Patients with Autism discusses how college leaders can protect all involved parties if a student with ASD exhibits stalking behaviors.
4. 5 Policies Proven to Reduce LGBTQ Student Suicide Risk and How Many Schools Actually Have Them
Suicide is the second-leading cause of death among people ages 15-24, and the numbers are even more concerning among lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) youth. The Trevor Project found that 46% of LGBTQ teens, ages 13-17, and 34% of LGBTQ adults, ages 18-24, considered suicide in 2022-2023.
The following article from Campus Safety covers the most common school-protective factors a campus can adopt that reduce LGBTQ students’ risk of attempting suicide.
5. Protective Film on Glass Is Only as Good as the Installer
More than one in two campus protection professionals believe their glass doors and windows are the security systems most likely to fail during an unauthorized intrusion, according to the 2024 Campus Safety Glass Security and Safety Survey. As a result, many school districts have recently installed security/safety films on their glass doors and windows. They hope these solutions will delay intruders with firearms from gaining access long enough for police to arrive at the scene.
However, the installation process of these solutions is complex. The following article describes what campuses should look for when hiring contractors to install security/safety film on their glass openings. Selecting a competent, licensed contractor will help ensure the film that’s installed will work properly.
6. School Shooting Emergency Plans Exposed Online
Campus Safety frequently covers cybersecurity issues, and one of the most disturbing breaches occurred in January, when more than 4 million records that included emergency planning and security documents from U.S. schools were discovered by an ethical cybersecurity researcher. The documents were available for anyone to see online. Fortunately, the person who discovered the records promptly informed the company that managed the data. The company then immediately secured it.
The article below highlights the importance schools, institutions of higher education and healthcare facilities must place on the security of not only the data they control, but also the data controlled by their vendors.
7. 6 Tips for Rookie Campus Crisis Management and Emergency Response Pros
Emergency management and response at a university is an interesting animal, and those responsible for it need to know what they are doing. However, the author of 6 Tips for Rookie Campus Crisis Management and Response Pros noted at a conference he recently attended that several of the meeting attendees were new to the field of campus crisis management and emergency response and had no clear goals, objectives or defined priorities.
The following article offers six strategies to new crisis management and emergency response executives so that they will be successful in their new career.
8. ‘Is That a Threat?’ Teaching People to Say Something When They See Something
The phrase, “If you see something, say something,” has been bandied about for years now. Despite this, many students, faculty members, clinicians and other community members don’t know how to identify if a concerning behavior is truly a threat. Furthermore, if they do deem something to be a threat, they don’t know how to go about reporting it or are afraid to “say something.”
Related Article: School Anonymous Reporting Systems by State
The following Campus Safety article covers steps to help members of your campus community overcome their hesitancy to report concerning behavior and threats to public safety.
9. Stalking on Campus: Know More, Do More
Stalking is dangerous and devastating, often taking place in conjunction with physical and sexual violence. However, it often goes unrecognized and unaddressed — by victims/survivors and their friends and family, advocacy and support services, campus misconduct proceedings, and legal systems. Stalking is a crime as well as a violation of campus conduct codes and Title IX, and is covered under the Clery Act and Violence Against Women Act to the same extent as dating/domestic violence and sexual assault. Stalking is its own form of violence with its own risks, safety planning needs, and disciplinary and legal responses.
Stalking on Campus: Know More, Do More covers the basics of stalking, why campuses should review their responses to this crime, and how they can provide a holistic response.
10. The Role of School Boards and Superintendents in Crisis Management
For all the school safety training happening around the country that focuses on the important discussions of K-12 campus crisis prevention, preparedness, response, and recovery, there is a lack of training and lessons learned shared with school board members and superintendents. Many of these executives have limited knowledge about the state of school safety, the seriousness of threats impacting campuses, and the consequences of changing discipline strategies at odds with the emerging promising practice of threat assessment.
The following article describes the five crisis management traps that school superintendents and boards should avoid. (For more information on this topic, check out two webcasts CS hosted on this topic: One for school boards and one for superintendents.)
