Security isn’t easy for schools and universities. As education institutions increasingly become vulnerable targets for threats and attacks, they face the security challenges of maintaining a welcoming and open environment while ensuring the comprehensive safety of the students, teachers and staff. The balance between providing high levels of security with a certain level of convenience becomes crucial, especially when considering the large audience schools work with – the staff, administrators, students, parents and other organisations that utilise the facilities. In addition, schools are budget-conscious and must use their resources wisely.
School administrators are often contacted repeatedly by organisations with multiple safety and security products
The Partner Alliance for Safer Schools (PASS) is one of the organisations at the forefront of establishing security standards for schools. In 2014, the Security Industry Association (SIA) and the National Systems Contractors Association (NSCA) formed PASS, which brought together a cross functional group of members including school officials, safe schools’ consultants, law enforcement and security industry experts to collaborate and develop a coordinated approach to protecting K-12 students and staff. School administrators are often contacted repeatedly by organisations with multiple safety and security products. PASS has provided valuable insights regarding an ‘All Hazards’ approach to school safety and security.
Ensuring procedures evolve
There is no guarantee that what works to increase safety and security today will also work tomorrow. Because potential threats to safety and security can and do change, it is important that whatever policies, procedures and technology a school implements today can also evolve to address those changes well into the future. It is also important that schools take into account the need to distinguish among a wide variety of possible situations to ensure the appropriate people are notified and correct procedures followed. For example, the response to an active shooter situation is going to be very different from the response to a fight that occurs in a hallway.
| When it comes to protecting the entry, a video intercom, mounted just outside the main door, is a key component allowing two-way voice-and-video identification with visitors |
Two top priorities for school security are the ability to communicate within a facility, and the ability to control access of who comes and goes. Paul Timm, vice president of Facility Engineering Associates, an independent school security consulting firm, acknowledges the value (and popularity) of video cameras for school security, but says that value is almost completely realised in terms of forensics – reacting after an incident rather than during or before.
A second priority for school security is controlling access to the building
Communications, specifically mass notification systems, are an important tool for school security, says Timm. Mass notification must be able to provide emergency information to people in the gymnasium, or on a field trip. A second priority for school security is controlling access to the building. When it comes to protecting the entry, a video intercom, mounted just outside the main door, is a key component allowing two-way voice-and-video identification with visitors. But a video intercom works best in conjunction with other complementary products including remote-controlled locks that allow staff to admit visitors while safely sitting behind locked doors.
The object of any solution is to eliminate or delay entry of an assailant long enough for police to respond and for school administrators to communicate with teachers and campus staff so they can lock down their classrooms or evacuate, depending on the situation.