Education is a tool that has the potential to change the world. Unfortunately, violence tends to threaten education in the world of today. Students are regularly exposed to violence and dangers of many different kinds. Sadly, of all the terrible things happening in schools these days, only a tiny fraction gets reported. Every day, children are victims of physical bullying, assaults, and many other threats that do not get the attention they deserve.
According to the U.S. Department of Education, a survey conducted on crime and safety between 2015 and 2016 found that several middle schools in the U.S. reported that students had incidences of bullying at least once every week. Interestingly, research shows that this violence seldom occurs in public places. In most cases, these incidences occurred in areas with the most negligible monitoring, like hallways, stairwells, and similar sites. All of this points to one crucial thing: we need to protect the students and the schools. To keep the legacy of education for our children, we must make the security of K-12 schools a top priority.
In this article, we will explore some steps, tips, and security systems that schools can utilize to keep their students safe and secure.
How Can Schools Enhance Grade School Security?
The following are ways schools can improve the security of grade schools for their students and staff.
Use of Visitor Management and Entry Control Systems
With a sound visitor management system, schools can monitor the arrival and departure of visitors, staff, students, and volunteers on school premises. With these monitoring systems, you can take down important information from people when they enter or leave the facility. Schools can also provide pin codes or access control badges to make it easier for students, staff, parents, and other familiar visitors to enter faster. Schools can use visitor management systems together with access control systems. With access control systems, schools can restrict access to authorized persons like staff and students. Schools can also incorporate electromagnetic doors that are controlled remotely into their system for better security.
Use of Technology:
Technology is crucial in every sphere of life today, including in education. To help ensure the safety of students and staff, schools can employ the use of relevant technology tools. Some of the appropriate technological tools that schools can use include the following:
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Identification technology includes all technological tools to help identify people who have authorized access to schools from those that shouldn't. Standard methods that you can use include palm scanners, visitor badges, biometric access control systems, facial recognition, etc.
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Video surveillance technology: With video surveillance systems, schools record the activities of their students and staff. It is vital in areas like the hallway where there are fewer teachers. That way, authorities can monitor all activities around the school.
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Communication technology: These are tools with which students and staff can alert and notify law enforcement agents and the proper authorities about suspicious activity on the school premises. Communication technologies that schools can use include radios, walkie-talkies, phones, intercom systems, etc.
Other helpful tips include the following:
- Schools should have security personnel at the gate.
- Schools must develop an emergency action plan for security problems.
- Teachers and other members of staff must go through a compulsory background screening before they are employed.
- Schools should include security studies in their school curriculum.
- Schools must have security panels that will review the school's security from time to time.
Contact the Experts at Koorsen for School Security
If you have questions regarding improving your school’s security, give Koorsen a call today. Our security experts would be happy to discuss options and ways to improve your current security system or design one just right for your school’s security needs.
