“Schools should consider creating a threat-assessment team,” Tal suggests. “These people will ensure the assessment is conducted, is complete, and will acquire resources to address the risks and hazards uncovered. From there, educate everyone, including students, staff and parents, on what to look for in terms of potential threats, what to do if one is detected and to whom to report. The policy of ‘see something, say something’ is critical and should apply when a threat is reported or perceived.”
Assessments are often conducted by building security firms and can help schools develop appropriate strategies. (See “Resources”, page 3, for a list of organizations that help administrators in this process.) Once these plans and policies are in place, it is important to practice them. Sadly, things like active-shooter drills have already joined fire drills and become part of the protocol most students experience, and it is important to conduct facility safety drills as part of an overarching strategy.
“I know schools are providing training and drills, but I do think it needs to be more focused on at this point,” Herzog says. “There do need to be regular safety drills and conversations that take place in and out of school.”
National standards could help supply schools with a blueprint for security design, as well as procedures and best practices to follow to best protect the lives and health of students and staff.
Balanced Approach
Oftentimes, following a tragic event, like Uvalde, the conversation can shift to “hardening” schools. This thinking tends to focus on more security equipment and systems at points of entry. Of course, this can be part of the solution, but it is not sufficient on its own. It works in much the same way that balanced fire design relies on multiple strategies to contain, control and prevent fires. Sprinklers alone aren’t a complete solution. School security also requires a multilayered approach, and tougher doors and locks aren’t enough.
“From my experience, the best electronic monitoring systems you can install or paying police officers to stand at the front doors will not solve the problem,” Herzog says. “Without properly trained staff paying attention to those systems, they do no good. Staffing is extremely important, as is training.”
Part of the issue in terms of people and equipment is funding. Schools are often struggling on just the basics, and security upgrades are no small expense.
“Historically, cost has been a limiting factor for many schools in addressing their security needs,” Donahue says. “A building assessment can assist schools in prioritizing upgrades to address their specific needs, which can be implemented as budgets allow.”
“The government is starting to finance school security following recent incidents, which should help,” Tal says. “Physical security is essential, but without the other two legs mentioned earlier, the stool will not stand. We need to be putting some money into training, obtaining expertise in threat assessment and conducting drills, also.”
Of course, there definitely are technologies and systems that, properly applied, can boost the security posture of a school.
“Having a camera on every possible access point and hallway is one thing,” Herzog says. “Also, have alarms on doors that should not be left open. Even if the door is locked, you can put a timer on it for a minute or two so someone can go out but the school knows if it is left open. Another thing I think can help is scanning student IDs as they come in. This could help with attendance and provide information of who is there and who is not in the event something does happen.”
Standard Practice
At this point, each school and each district are essentially left to their own devices when trying to determine appropriate security measures for facilities. There is no official guidance or standardized approach.
“In response to active-shooter incidents, many states have attempted to address school safety by developing guidelines. Unfortunately, there is no consistent national standard for school security,” Donahue says. “The Whole Building Design Guide resources on active-shooter protections cautions, ‘The lack of guidance documents focusing specifically on active shooter designs will likely lead to varying levels of implementing and reliance on methods and technologies which may not be as effective or cost efficient.’ As national standards are developed and adopted, new standard products will become available that maximize performance, which should allow security upgrades to be more affordable.”