For school administrators, safety planning means more than staying on top of the latest security trends. You have to address community expectations, deal with budget constraints and, just as important, satisfy your state’s required school security systems. Does your state require a formal school safety plan? Do you need …
Many non-profit organizations, schools, community centers and houses of worship apply for security grants to help fund their much-needed security improvements. Before you sit down to fill out RFPs or grant applications, you should get familiar with physical security terminology. Below is a list of twenty of the most common …
Total Security Solutions market segment leader Rick Reid recently received these photos from a school in Florida, showing the condition of their security windows. What happened to these windows? Most people assume that this glass is decades old and deeply scratched. Maybe someone gouged …
Door barricades are an attractive solution: For just a few thousand dollars a school can outfit every single classroom with a door barricade that’s easy to activate and renders the room virtually impenetrable. They can be installed quickly, without disrupting school activities. And most importantly in many communities—where armed guards …
For decades schools have focused on “shatterproof” security windows. This made sense when the gravest threats to our schools were vandalism, extreme weather, or explosive devices. But the threats have changed. While security windows and aftermarket security films are excellent solutions for some forced-entry applications—and can even carry a blast …
Are students safer in school districts that watch their every move on social media? Some schools have started using digital surveillance systems to monitor students’ social media posts. This has prompted privacy advocates to question administrators about the responsible use of social media monitoring tools. As a growing number of …
The school year is done. It’s a good time to take a deep breath and a clear-eyed look at school safety planning. But that can be harder than it seems. The most recent headlines about catastrophic events dominated the school security conversation. But these eye-catching tragedies often have little to …
When it comes to school safety grants, most people focus on federal programs—and for good reason. For example, the Department of Justice awarded more than $70 million in school safety grants this year. FEMA is likewise offering $60 million in nonprofit security improvement grants this year alone. (That’s more than …
Communities are eager to invest in their schools’ safety and physical security. This increasingly includes a push to add school resource officers (SROs), sworn officers, or other armed security to every school. But doing so has proved challenging in many districts. School resource officers—although sometimes the focus of controversial news coverage—are far from …
Every politician and administrator in America is under increasing pressure to improve school safety and security. The result? An avalanche of well-intentioned seminars, dubious “security” products, questionable laws, and controversial policies. And still, there are scarce additional dollars available to support improvements in school safety. Fortunately, some of the highest …