Although the 2020-2021 school year has come to an end, surely drawing a sigh of relief from many, K-12 schools and institutions of higher education will likely have to continue to make campus security investments pertaining to the pandemic in the upcoming school year. However, we can’t forget about the importance of maintaining other security measures already have in place.
Many school districts hire security consultants to do walkthroughs of their campuses to look for security risks. These site assessments often consist of two parts: the physical assessment of each school to identify security measures and building systems unique to each building, and an assessment of each school’s operations and security policies.
All of these aspects of school safety must be reviewed and corrected when schools reopen in the fall — no matter what the new school year may look like. Seemingly small security mistakes, such as hanging student artwork on or above a door, can put students and teachers in harm’s way and cannot be overlooked.
Gary Sigrist, CEO and president of Safeguard Risk Solutions and a retired school district safety director, conducts dozens of these site assessments each year and has provided us with these photos from them. Some of the photos highlight security mistakes while others illustrate proper safety measures put in place.
Want some more practice? Here are links to our previous installments:
- Don’t Make These 9 Dangerous Campus Security Mistakes
- Are You Making These 10 School Security Mistakes?
- 10 Times K-12 Schools Screwed Up Security (And 5 Times They Nailed It)
- 12 School Safety Mistakes Found During Site Assessments
- 10 School Safety Dos and Don’ts Caught on Camera by Security Consultants
- 13 Times K-12 Schools Got Security Very, Very Wrong (And 6 Times They Got It Right)
- Can You Spot the Mistakes in These Campus Security Photos?
- D’oh! Don’t Make These 10 Ridiculous Campus Security Mistakes
Do you have any examples you’re willing to share from your own site assessments? We would keep the school(s) anonymous. Send your photos to [email protected].
