School Security Amidst Covid 19

What comes to mind when school security is mentioned is the tactics employed to ensure the safety of people and property against threats that could be spring up in an education environment. Normally one could say that the educational environment is one place which could be termed safe because it is usually characterized by a certain level of serenity. Over the years we have, however seen that this is not the case. We have witnessed cases of mass shootings, active assailant situations and event hostage situations in the school environment. With the presence of these vices one could then see that the school is just as unsafe as every other place, hence the need for a set well-grounded security measures. This paper will talk about the ways to ensure school security and also talk about the safety protocol measures during the covid 19 pandemic. We have established that the school is just like every other place as it concerns safety but the touching thing about the school environment as to why it is highly required that security be taken seriously is the fact that a huge percentage of the victims in this environment should anything go wrong are people who may not be able to defend themselves. This should also be taken into consideration when planning for the security measures. It should also be noted that the threat could come both from the inside and the outside. Students can be a source of insecurity. In school we could observe a high level of gang related activities. Surprisingly even in our high school we have seen cases of drug activities. It is trite rule that anywhere where drug activities are prevalent it is only but a matter of time before violence will break out. A school is a place where there are high numbers of potential victims. This fact is one of the reasons why an educational environment is one of the first choices of an active assailant.

In the US for instance statistics has shown that form 1990 to date there has been a total number of two hundred and forty school shootings. This very sad statistic has recorded a 450% increase over the past thirty years. However one could see from the nature of the school environment and everything else, the school environment is one of the highest target points for anyone seeking to cause severe damage to so many victims in a place with little or no security protocols. It is for these reasons that security in the school environment is something that should be taken very seriously. The US government acknowledged this fact in 2013-2014 as can be seen when terror attacks became a little too intense. Schools were locked down and there was a strict security check at the entrances to ensure that the inflow of people into the environment is highly regulated and monitored. After a while these measures however reduced. It is our opinion that these measures should be made permanent. No one knows the day or the time- If a weakness is spotted it can be utilized by anyone seeking to cause harm. The potential harm by this situation is quite devastating. No one would like to lose kids just because the security measures in place was not as strong as it ought to be or that a person failed to stay at his duty post. It is for this reason that we admonish that security measures placed in schools should be taken seriously.

Besides bombings and shootings, there are other things that should be guarded against. They are vandalism and bullying. Vandalism in schools is more common than the shootings and bombing. This is because the nature of the school makes it an even easier target for these vices. Vandalism is basically damage to property. It is characterized by break-ins and mini theft. It is mostly perpetrated by students of the school as they know the lay of the land. This is not the first time we have heard about students breaking into the teacher’s office after school hours to alter some records or just to cause malicious damage to either the teacher’s property or the property of another student. This is not the first time a situation like this has been brought to light. Of course the school has indeed been making efforts to forestall this negative impact. Employing night guards is a brilliant step in the positive direction to stop or at least reduce the rate of these occurrences. There are however other things that should to be put in place which will further mitigate the frequency of these sad event occurring in our schools. The school should try to start some evening programs for students. This program will help keep the school environment busy till late night. Now there should be more hands-on deck in the security efforts. There should be increased patrols as well. There is one thing we tend to forget or neglect in security efforts that thing is the availability of proper outdoor lighting. There is a way the corners of the school will be properly illuminated, no one will attempt to come in at night for breaking in purposes. If the place is properly lit and all these other measures are put in place, before long the issue of vandalism maybe completely forgotten in our school environment.

 

These are some security measures that can be employed to reduce the risk of security breach and loss of lives in the school environment. In the US for instance the government made available in the school police officers known as school resource officers. The job of these group of policemen is to educate some of the students on the need and ways to resist gang related activities. These officers do come with well trained dogs who can sniff out drugs and bombs. The next step is employing a sophisticated digital security system. A suggested system includes security cameras. These cameras should be placed at different points both inside the school and outside the school compounds. These videos should be connected to the one central point and should to be monitored at all times. This will go a long way to decrease incidents of bullying and vandalism. CCTV cameras as they are popularly called is indispensable in the security tactics that any school should employ in order to ensure the safety of its students.

Students of the school should to be provided with badges and identification cards. It could be much better if these cards are made electronic in a way that if any student should check in at the security entrance in the morning the card will be activated and at the security post such a students can be traced if the need arises. If this is the case there should be a rule that every student should have with them their identification card at all times. Even in timed of crisis it will go a long way to ensure that everyone is accounted for.

 

Covid 19 safety protocols.

The breakout of this deadly pandemic in 2020 demonstrated a lot of unforeseen consequences. These consequences were so severe that there had to be months and months of lock-downs in so many parts of the world. These lock-down affected many schools. So many of these schools lost almost an entire academic year. The government needed some time to understand what we are dealing with and how best to combat the situation. It is true that a vaccine has been created but the reality still remains that it will be a while before this vaccine gets to everyone. It is for this reason that safety protocols are still very relevant. We are talking about a pandemic that claimed close to 1% of the world’s population it is not something to be taken lightly. Some of these safety measures includes the use of face masks. The schools should make it mandatory that face masks should be used always upon entry into the school building and always while in public high traffic areas in the school building. The next step is always to ensure physical distancing. Breaking up large classes into smaller units and have teachers take care of these classes. Now instead of students moving from class to class for their classes they should be at a single location and have the teachers come to them. During lunch breaks, there should be proper spacing in the dining rooms. The school should also ensure that there is steady temperature checks in order to monitor the situation and follow up in order to detect symptoms on time. These are some of the safety protocols needed to be implemented by schools during these Covid 19 era.

By Douglas Ruhl

VP of Business Development

Strategic Security Corp