Correction: Jill Lemond’s job title at the time of the Oxford High School shooting was Assistant Superintendent of Student Services, not Assistant Superintendent of Safety and School Operations.
HOUSTON, Texas — This year’s Campus Safety Conference at EDspaces, held November 12-14 at the George R. Brown Convention Center in Houston, Texas, brought together a wide range of campus security, public safety, emergency management, facilities management, and architectural design professionals to learn and share new ideas on school and college safety and security trends.
Now in its third year, CSC at EDspaces was a co-located event offering a full CSC agenda and exhibit hall and access to all EDspaces sessions and vendors.
About 3,000 attendees learned from experts on topics ranging from effective classroom design to campus security technology trends to active shooter response and more. Additionally, attendees met with solutions providers and watched live product demonstrations, as well as networked with their peers from other schools and universities. Read on to hear about some of the show’s security, technology, public safety, and design presentation highlights.
CSC Presenters Discuss Lessons from Nashville, Oxford Active Shooter Events
Two presenters covered two recent high-profile active shooter tragedies and the technologies and processes they believe could have mitigated or possibly even prevented these and other shootings.
Evolv Technology Head of Education Jill Lemond spoke about her former district’s 2021 active shooter event that killed four students and injured seven others. At the time, she was serving at Oxford Community Schools in Oxford, Mich., as its assistant superintendent of student services when a 15-year-old student opened fire at Oxford High School.
Related Article: Oxford Schools Insurance to Pay at Least $5 Million to Each Shooting Victim, Judge Rules
According to Lemond, before the shooting, Oxford High School had implemented many security systems and procedures. However, she believes if her district had a better Behavior Threat Assessment and Management process and allowed more law enforcement involvement in safety and security issues, things might have turned out differently that fateful day.
She did, however, praise the response by students, the vast majority of whom were able to quickly lock down or evacuate when the gunman opened fire. Their prompt actions appear to have saved many lives.
“The shooting didn’t end because [the shooter] was tackled or ran out of bullets,” Lemond said. “It ended because he ran out of bodies to kill.”
In “The Nashville Debrief,” Armored One Founder and CEO Thomas Czyz discussed the 2023 Covenant Presbyterian School shooting in Nashville, Tenn., that resulted in the deaths of three students and three staff members.
“Lock your classroom doors. Close the door and lock it,” he advised attendees. “Survivability will go up 99%.”
Related Article: Texas and North Carolina Require School Lockboxes. Is Your State Next?
Czyz also called for the installation of blue lights in schools to indicate there is a lockdown. He believes red lights, which, when activated, indicate there is a fire, often confuse building occupants during an active shooter event, which could put them in harm’s way.
University of Texas Improves Lighting, Embraces CPTED
An often overlooked but critical aspect of college and university security and safety is lighting, both on campus and in the surrounding area. For years, the University of Texas at Austin’s students were fearful of the campus environment due to poor lighting and crime in the community.
The tragic murder of UT student Haruka Weiser in 2016 brought this issue into sharp focus and prompted the creation of SafeHorns, a non-profit established by UT Austin parents to improve safety on and around UT.
At CSC at EDspaces, SafeHorns President Joell McNew discussed the steps her organization has taken over the years – in partnership with the university, UTPD, local law enforcement, and Austin Energy — to address the problem. The first steps were to conduct a lighting study and get student feedback.
“We had them draw on maps where they walked, where they lived on campus,” she said. “We really wanted to understand where their fear was and the impact of lighting.”
Related Article: 4 Ways to Reduce Crime on College Campuses
That feedback resulted in a lighting initiative, as well as the improved implementation of Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED) principles at UT Austin. More and better lights were installed or maintained in areas prone to crime. Tree canopies were raised to improve visibility on city streets and sidewalks. Trees were also trimmed back so they wouldn’t block the school’s security cameras and lights, 8% of which were obstructed by trees or other objects.
Additionally, problematic spaces were transformed for use by students and the community for public safety training and other activities. A food pantry was created to assist the unhoused in the area, a safety app was launched on campus, and more.
2025 Campus Safety Conferences Head to Austin, Texas; Columbus, Ohio
Other topics covered at Campus Safety Conference at EDspaces included campus safety in high-poverty areas, developing a business case for campus physical security programs, grant writing, verbal de-escalation, internal communications during a crisis, cloud-based security systems, addressing wireless communications dead zones, weapons detection, how to talk to teachers about safety, reunification drills, sex trafficking, trends in school safety, behavior threat assessments on college campuses, glass door and window security, and more.
Be sure to save the dates for next year’s events. The 2025 National Campus Safety Conference will take place in Austin, Texas, July 21-23; and CSC at EDspaces will take place in Columbus, Ohio, November 5-7. For more information, visit CampusSafetyConference.com.
CHECK OUT THE PHOTO GALLERY OF THE 2024 CAMPUS SAFETY CONFERENCE AT EDSPACES!
