By Bret Rachlin on 7/24/2009 1:40 PM

School security at a Western Pennsylvania school district made headlines this week when the Highlands district “school board voted unanimously to force older students to buy school-issued mesh backpacks, as an attempt to curb students from bringing illegal or dangerous items to school (Source: Valley News Dispatch, July 24, 2009, New school security rules put in place at Highlands).” Since the district has installed metal detectors, which are new this year, school officials believe the see-through backpacks will make it easier for staff to monitor students’ belongings to ensure they do not bring weapons or other contraband into the school.

According to the article, school board members justify their decision in an attempt to be proactive, recognizing the need to do as much as possible to prevent unnecessary incidents that may put students and staff in danger ... Read More »

By Bret Rachlin on 7/17/2009 3:53 PM

Earlier this week the U.S. Department of Education awarded more than $724,000 to Boulder Valley School District in Boulder, Colorado, as part of its “readiness and emergency management” (REMS) grant program (Source: ColoradoDaily.com, July 16, 2009, Boulder Valley: Risks warrant security upgrades). The grant is the largest awarded in the nation.

While a total of 108 school districts across the country received funding this summer as part of this grant program, I thought it was interesting to read about the statistics listed in Boulder Valley’s grant application that earned the district the funding. According to the application, Boulder Valley’s security vulnerability includes the following:

22 “threat incidents” prompted lockouts, evacuations or school closures in the 2007-2008 school year. ... Read More »

By Bret Rachlin on 7/10/2009 3:19 PM

With the new school year a month or two away depending on where you live, how does the new H1N1 (swine flu) vaccination plans impact your emergency planning and communication (Source: The New York Times, July 9, 2009, Obama Warns of Return of Swine Flu in the Fall)? Earlier this week the federal government announced a plan to have a vaccination ready by October. According to the New York Times, “Vaccinations will begin in October only if tests scheduled to begin in August prove that the vaccine is safe and effective.”

While school children will likely be among the first in line to receive the vaccination, it’s also likely that not all of them will receive it, meaning many student absences. Of course, absences are not the only concern. What about students who come to school while ill? Do you have a p ... Read More »

By Bret Rachlin on 7/2/2009 1:57 PM

Earlier this week I attended the National Association of School Resource Officers (NASRO) annual conference in Baltimore, MD. While the conference focused on providing training for NASRO members (approximately 700 school resource officers attended from across the country), it was also a celebration of the important work school resource officers (SROs) do on a daily basis. Many SROs brought their families to the conference, so that they could enjoy a little vacation while attending training sessions (SROs often have strict schedules during the school year and many of them also work as community police officers during the summer), and they thoroughly enjoyed interacting with other SROs, discussing their similar and different approaches to school security.

Schools that employ SROs empower them to keep the schools safe and secure, so teachers can focus on teaching. However, most SROs are not bu ... Read More »

By Bret Rachlin on 6/26/2009 3:56 PM

Is your school district prepared for a mercury contamination? (Source: The Arizona Republic, June 19, 2009, Teachers sounded mercury alarm 2 years before spill). Unfortunately, this article doesn’t say whether or not Agua Fria High School in Arizona was prepared when “a student stole elemental mercury from a classroom at the Avondale school, closing it for three days, contaminating three classrooms, the boys locker room and two buses. Off-site, two homes were evacuated while the area was decontaminated.”

The article, however, highlights the state of confusion that exists at the school between a couple of science teachers and school administrators. Apparently, science teachers informed administrators about the need to dispose of the mercury up to two years prior to the theft, but obviously the chemicals remained on campus. Schoo ... Read More »

By Bret Rachlin on 6/19/2009 3:38 PM

While federal stimulus dollars continue to help fund many school resources across the country, many school districts still face steep budget cuts (Source: The New Britain Herald, June 17, 2009, Public expresses concern for school budget at meeting). Connecticut’s New Britain school district is one of those having to make a significant cut of $7.8 million from its budget. The majority of those cuts come from reducing teacher salaries, but $87,000 will be yielded by slicing security-guard salaries.

According to the article, New Britain High School had no security guards to spare. Plummer Carroll, head of security for New Britain High School, said “the removal of a security guard, or any security guard, would put us one instance away from media coverage at New Britain High School. If you cut security, the safety in the school will be in je ... Read More »

By Bret Rachlin on 6/12/2009 3:27 PM

Does your school district leverage new technology to train your staff on safety and security more effectively and efficiently? If not, then please consider this Ohio school district (Source: THE Journal, June 2009, Safety Training Goes Online at Berea City School District).

The Berea City School District used to train its nearly 1,000 faculty and staff members on health, safety, and compliance issues with staff meetings and video presentations. According to Michael Sheppard, assistant superintendent, "Not anybody attended those meetings. They weren't very exciting. It was very difficult to track that everybody participated in all the required training we needed to have done."

To improve its safety training, the district implemented Publi ... Read More »

By Bret Rachlin on 6/5/2009 4:00 PM

How does your school district provide security for its buses? If you don’t have confidence in your answer, then you might want to consider what happened in Gainesville, GA, last month (Source: Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 5/23/09, $10,000 reward for info on school bus fires). A fire destroyed eight buses and heavily damaged a ninth in the Gainesville City Schools bus shop. The estimated cost to replace each bus is $60,000 to $70,000. Although the fire has not officially been ruled arson, the damage to the district’s transportation program is significant.

In addition to being high valued assets, buses also are obviously relied upon to ensure students get to and from school. When thinking about the appropriate cost to protect your buses, a key question to consider is: what would it cost to close school for a day if the buses were inoperable? &l ... Read More »

By Bret Rachlin on 5/28/2009 2:43 PM

Last week, SecurityPark.net published an article on school security (Source: SecurityPark.net, 5/21/09, Good school security design is not simply about security hardware) that reinforces much of what this blog has represented over the past 15 months. The following quote from Mark Whyte, TPS Director of Security and Explosion Effects, encapsulates our approach to school security.

“Security systems for new schools have to provide value for money and must justify the capital investment involved. Good security design is not simply about security hardware – it’s about creating a safe and secure environment for staff and pupils and enhancing the learning environment. This requires a collaborative approach between headmasters, local authorities, the police, architectural liaison officers, architects and engineers.”

Do your school district’s secu ... Read More »

By Bret Rachlin on 5/22/2009 10:27 AM

As the 2009 school year winds down across the country, CDW Government (CDW-G) announced the results of its 2009 School Safety Index this week. Based on a survey of more than 400 district IT and security directors, the report indicated that although schools have increased both physical and IT security, security breaches have also increased causing an overall decline in schools’ physical and cyber security scores.

On the physical security side, the index found gains in school districts’ use of security cameras with 79% of districts reporting that they leverage cameras vs. 70% in 2008. Additionally, schools significantly increased their use of mass notification systems from 45% in 2008 to 70% of schools implementing them in 2009.

According to Bob Kirby, vice president K-12 education, CDW-G, “Districts reported gains in important are ... Read More »