The Ultimate Guide to School Security
EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW TO GET YOU STARTED
There are many signifiers of a great security team. Good school security officers build excellent relationships with all groups and members of your school community, maintain professional bearing and behavior, and, yes, protect the community from active shooters. However, as you read throughout our guide, you will discover that the job of providing a safe school environment goes well beyond preparing for the worst-case scenarios. While it is important to acknowledge the data on shootings you see below, you should also note that your security team will tackle a wide variety of campus responsibilities on a daily basis (taking them off your plate!), even as they remain vigilant for serious emergency situations.
A security team’s primary goal is to provide a safe environment. This task includes preparing for the event of a school shooting. With casualties from school shootings on the rise, training a security team to identify potentially harmful people and situations before they escalate is increasingly important.
According to the FBI, 250 active shooter incidents occurred between 2000 and 2017. These events have increased in frequency. In 2000, there was one incident with seven people killed. In 2017, there were thirty incidents with 729 casualties due to an active shooter (138 killed and 591 wounded).
How to Assess Your Security Needs
In order to create a physical security plan, it is vital to first assess your security needs. Physical security is the protection against any physical threats, which covers issues that may arise in the real world as opposed to a cyber setting. Each campus has unique vulnerabilities that need to be addressed in order to proceed.
Assess any identified risks or other concerns you may have. List past security issues as well as potential dangers you already know about. Walk through your campus, doing your best to assess risk and understanding threats and vulnerabilities.
Create a physical security audit checklist. Key points to consider in a checklist would be:
- Management policy - Who will ensure that officers are on time, appropriately prepared, and staying focused?
- Physical security policy and post orders - Are officers aware of what they should be doing at all times?
- Risk assessment - How likely is it that a given risk happens? How much of an impact would it have if it did?
- Access control - How many points of entry does your campus have? Is there any way to stop an unwanted visitor?
- Security staff - How many officers do you require? What experience level is needed?
- Data/information security - What is the cyber security plan?
- Emergency communication - What system is in place to communicate externally and internally in an emergency?
- Rapid Response - What is the rapid response plan on campus?
NOTE: Each of the above categories of security assessment should further be expanded with campus-specific questions.
Based on the checklist, choose suitable controls to mitigate the listed risks such as cameras, gates, security officers, visitor management systems including identification, etc. Create, communicate, and implement policies and procedures for the security team. Procedures will include post orders, which are directions for individual security officers’ posts.
Once your security plan is in place, audit and assess the success of your controls. Review whether your security level has improved appropriately after defined intervals. If you find major issues, correct them accordingly. Give post order revisions to the security team.
Physical security assessment is critical in safeguarding the campus grounds, buildings, traffic control, fire life safety systems, mailrooms, cleaning services, and other resources associated with the facility. Reviewing your security plan is especially important in protecting students and staff. Without a good policy of physical security assessment, it is difficult to manage your campus without high risk factor.
READ MORE: The Basics of Threat Assessment
How to Find Good Officers
When selecting security personnel for your campus, focus on finding officers who have professional experience and training as well as the ability to communicate and integrate with your campus culture. If you are not hiring a professional security firm to staff your security resource, there are a few things to keep in mind as you hire security officers.
First and foremost, make sure that any officer you hire has a guard card or other state licensure. State agencies perform background checks on the people they certify and, for safety and risk management reasons, you want to be sure that your candidates have no prior criminal history. Many schools also perform their own specialized background checks, obtaining more detailed information on a prospective hire’s suitability for work in an environment with children.
Once these basic thresholds are met, assess whether your potential officers have training specific to working in a school community. Most states provide resources for specific training in school security. These programs help familiarize officers with rules about locker searches, ways to defuse situations, boundaries for appropriate physical contact, and guidelines for communicating with children - skills which are essential to successful engagement on any campus.
You will also want to find candidates who are interested and engaged in the community and the culture of your organization. Ensure potential officers have an appropriately authoritarian manner while still being accessible and friendly to all members of your community. Officers should be able to maintain a strong command presence while still smiling and greeting everyone in a warm and friendly manner. When students feel comfortable with the officers assigned to their school, they are more likely to feel safe and supported. They are also more likely to ask for help or report any unusual things they might see or hear.
READ MORE: Decided to change security firms? Read our how-to article before the switch!
How to Train Officers for a School
The training required to obtain a guard card covers the basics of serving as a security officer but does not provide much helpful information on working in specific environments. Officers stationed on a school campus will be called upon to support a variety of functions and participate in multiple interactions with clients at all levels - students, faculty, administrators, guests, alumni, government officials, board members, and community leaders. For this reason, ensure that guards on a school campus receive specific training to help them communicate on different levels and determine the best approach for a given audience or situation.
Due to the significant amount of legislation and precedent regarding school safety and child protection laws, school officers should also be trained on the requirements of serving as a mandated reporter, identifying appropriate and inappropriate physical interactions between students and adults, and being aware of the unique challenges children face in the way they interact with the world around them.
Remember that security officers are often giving the first impression of a campus community. Therefore, they should be fully trained on the culture of their campus and have a general understanding of what is expected from each member of the community. Officers are required to walk the fine line between serving as an authority figure while also providing a warm and welcoming atmosphere that supports the institution's educational goals.
Serving and protecting a school campus require a different set of skills than those required of guards at a warehouse facility. As we often say, kids are different than boxes. A security program designed specifically for schools will create the safest and most supportive environment for educational communities.