Essential Security Lessons from Partners Across K-12 Education
Nearly 26 years ago, the idea of what kind of security measures schools require was irrevocably altered when two teenage students walked into Columbine High School in Colorado with four different firearms, four knives, and 99 explosives. The two students murdered 12 students and one teacher before turning their firearms on themselves on 20 April 1999.
Since Columbine, the discussion around school security expanded massively, with new solutions emerging and maturing emerging and maturing in ways that do not interfere with schools’ mission of educating and fostering the needs of students.
“It’s very much the butterfly effect,” says Guy Bliesner, school safety and security analyst for the Idaho State Board of Education. “In school, perception matters. If the security measures are over and above and perceived as excessive, one of two things will happen. They’ll be perceived as trying to create a prison or they will be perceived as that school is at much greater risk than it may well be.”
While still terrifying and impactful, school shootings and active assailant incidents are still rare, Bliesner points out. “It’s not the dystopian world of Mad Max out there,” he says. This means that security at schools must accommodate education and fosters an environment that encourages learning instead of fear or other negative impacts from an aggressive physical security stance.
“There’s lots of things that physical security experts aren’t experts on, and we need to bring those other people in,” Bliesner says. “…It’s very much a multidisciplinary effort. The people who can be affected by what you’re doing need to be at the table, and we need to strive to understand not just what they need, but why they need what they need.”
While the threats to schools, students, and staff have evolved beyond physical attacks from active assailants, the experts Security Management spoke with agreed that successful security threats—whether physical or otherwise—leverage a common weak link.
“What we know for certain is that most school security failures are not equipment or systems failures,” Bliesner summarizes. “They’re people failures.”
Solutions are not limited to physical security components, such as metal detectors, door locks, or active shooter drills. Subject matter experts also look at securing schools through various methods, including investing in solutions specific to a site and gaining support and insight from other departments and external stakeholders.
“The reality is that…we haven’t defined what school security looks like,” Bliesner says. “Everybody has a different view from their own perspective, which is expected.”
To showcase this spectrum, Security Management spoke with a variety of subject matter experts from education-centric associations and professional organizations that are each relying on their and their peers’ knowledge base to create safer schools in the United States.
School Resource Officers
“I think that sometimes there are certain groups or communities that have this idea that SROs are only coming into a school to arrest students. The truth of the matter is, it’s the complete opposite from that,” says Mo Canady, executive director for the National Association of School Resource Officers. “The goal of an SRO is not to see how many students you can arrest—it’s to build relationships within that community.”
School Nurses
“Having a clear disaster prevention, recovery, and management plan is critical. And making sure that not only do we have plans in place, but that everyone understands the role that they play, that no one’s left out of the conversation because we all have a role to play,” says Teresa Hinkley, CEO for the National Association of School Nurses.
School Psychologists
“As a prevention piece, just having a positive school climate is kind of setting the stage for all the other aspects of school safety,” says Emilie Ney, director of professional development for the National Association of School Psychologists.
School Facilities Managers
“You’ve got to emphasize to folks that it’s far more than just security,” says Brandon Payne, executive director for the National Council on School Facilities. “We’re talking about the overall education of your child from the time they walk in the door in their earliest years to the time they graduate from their high school experience. And what does that look like, both in providing the best atmosphere from a facility standpoint for educational attainment and also ensuring their safety through that.”
School Safety Directors
“There's really no operating definition for school safety or for school security. And that's one of the biggest problems that we face. What all does it include?” says Jason Stoddard, chair of ZeroNow’s National Council of School Safety Directors.
