For security teams and administrators of smaller schools and districts, reading the news can be disheartening. Headlines about big-city school districts spending literally millions of dollars on fancy screening equipment make it seem like security is for the populous and affluent, even as smaller, more cash-strapped districts face the same problems as their larger peers. For those schools not resigned to lower security, there is good news. Security screening has many entry points, and there are effective and affordable options at each step of the way. Here are a few places you can start.
Equip Key Players
The first step is to help your existing security frontline do their job more easily. For smaller districts, this usually means that the first investment should go to SROs, principals, and other staff most likely to be involved in a disciplinary situation or intervention. Just as training for these team members can have an outsized effect on the security atmosphere of a school, equipping these key players with the right screening tools can affect the most students with a minimal financial cost. When it comes to tools for screening students, a small investment in a few highly portable hand-held metal detectors will have an outsized deterrent effect on the student population, while simultaneously protecting your staff from real liabilities around searching students thought to be in possession of contraband. It is far safer in all respects when security team members can identify potential threats without having to lay hands on an unruly student.
Embrace Deterrence
Long before a full rollout of screening equipment like metal detectors or x-ray machines can fit the budget, a limited investment can have significant benefits at a fraction of the cost. While these smaller operations – usually in the form of random classroom or bus screening by walk-through detectors – are sometimes pooh-poohed as not providing the holistic security approach needed make students truly safe, this kind of thinking makes the perfect the enemy of the good. Random screenings impart incredible deterrence when employed with regularity and without prior notice. Many students who might bring contraband with them to school would change their mind if they knew there was a real possibility of being screened and caught. It is far better for any school to deter these marginal students before they become habitual offenders. Not only that, but they provide excellent insights into the unseen behaviors of the student population. Only a certain percentage of the student body interacts meaningfully with the resident SRO or principal, so random screenings help the security team do a temperature check on other students in an unbiased manner.
Expand by Iterating
Because security can be addressed in stages, it can be tested and refined. Much wasted security funding comes from a rush to a full rollout. Small districts should focus on a key school, or even a key building, when considering where to start on a larger program. Parents, students, and teachers all need to be educated and acclimated to new technology. Kinks in screening checkpoints and operations need to be ironed out. The concerns of resistant administrators need to be seriously addressed. Then, the security team can debrief and apply the results of the experiment to the next phase of the rollout that budget and buy-in allow. One of the most important lessons for success in this phase is in how to educate all stakeholders – clarifying prohibited items to parents and students in advance, preparing teachers for the few days of late students at the start of a new rollout, and addressing previously observed issues in the screening process with checkpoint staff before they start. Each rollout can then benefit from the lessons of the previous, eliminating the chaos that often accompanies mass rollouts in larger districts.
Security comes in many forms, and Garrett Metal Detectors is proud to be a piece of the puzzle for schools across America. Since 1984 Garrett has produced reliable and powerful security screening equipment for a wide range of users including K-12 schools, courthouses, and collegiate stadiums and arenas. If you are looking to enhance your school’s security, Garrett has both the experience and the equipment to help, and we’d love to set up a time to talk about what security makes sense for your district, big or small.
