Students need to feel safe to be able to focus on their studies. Focusing on security during the school day and after-school activities ensures that all children can reach their full potential and achieve their goals. Using this guide can help you to create safe educational environments that foster growth and development in your students.
Perform a Building Inspection
Most educational facilities have gaps in their security plan that need correction. For instance, faulty door latches and locks could allow an unauthorized visitor to enter the building. Meanwhile, there could be blind spots in the view of the security cameras. Adding access code requirements to entry points can ensure that only people who are allowed to enter the space. Surveillance technology can also help your team with managing who is in various parts of the building.
Encourage Community Involvement
Ideally, everyone should be involved in keeping students safe. Asking for parent volunteers can put more eyes and ears on the property. Your school can also address safety needs during parent and teacher meetings. For instance, you can request parents to report suspicious activity they see the picking up and dropping off their children at school. Recruiting parent volunteers for crosswalk duty and screening the adults who offer to help can provide more security for the children who visit the property.
Monitor Visitors
Allowing parents and other people to visit the school fosters strong relationships within the community. Schools should be welcoming places, but it is necessary to practice good visitor management. For example, having a security guard greet visitors and ask them to sign in and out of the building makes it possible to maintain greater control of what happens inside the facility.
Hire Professional Security Guards
Parents and teachers can do a lot to report potential threats, but they aren’t trained to handle serious issues that could arise. Hiring professional security guards for educational facilities can allow your students to feel safer. On top of undergoing continuous training experiences, professional security guards arrive at your school site to assist with inspecting the building and making recommendations for enhancing safety. Simply seeing a security guard on the property is often enough to deter people from engaging in criminal acts.
Create a Security Response Plan
Security plans for schools should include preventative strategies along with details about everyone’s expectations for responding during an event. For instance, your school’s staff and students may need to shelter in place behind locked doors if a threat is detected. Meanwhile, the security guard will work alongside other local authorities to assess the threat and secure the safety of the building. Professional security services can include developing a plan that outlines the expectations for each person to follow. While no one wants to worry about a fire or intruder, knowing what everyone can do to stay safe provides students, staff and their families with greater peace of mind.
Although your staff can do many things to deter potential threats from developing, it is essential to have professional security guards available who are solely responsible for keeping everyone safe. Using a multi-layered approach to your school’s security plan ensures that no potential threat slips through the cracks.
