One of the most effective ways to improve school safety is to focus on effective student supervision.  Though a much less expensive approach than security cameras, improving student supervision can protect students from a wide array of hazards ranging from taunting to terrorism.  Student supervision is one of the most effective school safety strategies we have seen.  Whether the danger is from a tornado, gang activity among students or an active shooter, improvements in student supervision at school and on field trips can be a powerful preventive school safety tool and can dramatically speed up emergency protective actions such as lockdown, evacuation, severe weather sheltering or shelter in place for hazardous materials. 

Students who are not being effectively supervised are not only more vulnerable to victimization by others and involvement in accidents, they are also more difficult to move to safety rapidly.  Making an effort to develop and maintain effective student supervision is a powerful school safety strategy.

While qualified school security consultants will provide benefits far beyond the fees they charge, school officials should always carefully consider whether quality free resources can be obtained before retaining school security consultants.  Many state agencies provide high quality and free school security consulting resources.  Two of our analysts provided free school security consulting services while we served with the Georgia Office of Homeland Security and another Safe Havens analyst did so as an intern.  Then as now, we were often troubled to see school officials pay school security consultants for services they could have received for free from government agencies.

While several school security consultants have become upset when we advise schools of this, our purpose as a non-profit school safety center is to make schools safer and helping schools utilize their available funding more efficiently is one of our goals.  The best school security consultants have to routinely turn away paid work and should not be offended by school officials who seek to wisely utilize their limited fiscal resources.   School officials should consider pushy or aggressive actions by school security consultants as a potential warning sign.

Lessons learned from the preliminary summary of the Sandy Hook Report

Campus Safety Magazine has posted a feature article prepared by five Safe Havens Analysts.  The article outlines seven of what our analysts considered to be seven of the most important observations from the preliminary Sandy Hook Report summary.  On November 25th, the state attorney general released a preliminary summary of the Sandy Hook Elementary School Shooting Report.  The Sandy Hook Report has been long awaited by school officials who have been forced to make tough decisions over the past 12 months on the way they approach school safety and school security.  At the time of this posting, most of these key observations have not been addressed in the media coverage we have seen on the report.  The points about school lockdowns and the ways schools should hold lockdown drills are particularly important, even moreso in light of the considerable amount of erroneous information that has been put forth in the wake of the Sandy Hook tragedy.  We feel these points bear a critical look by school and public safety officials as they evaluate plans, procedures and drills for not only active shooter incidents but also any other type of crisis decision-making.  We owe it to the victims to avoid some of the misconceptions that abounded previously to the release of the preliminary Sandy Hook Report, and to look for ways to learn from this tragedy and make reasoned and rational changes to improve the safety of students and educators everywhere.

Click here to read the article at Campus Safety Magazine.

I am proud to announce that our Safe Havens Video team was recently awarded a Davey Award for our video training series “Safe Topics”.  The award is for our series as a whole and is a fitting reward for the hard work our team put into this video, which is already in use by school districts around the country.  Most of our school security assessment clients are now using the Safe Topics school safety video series to enhance their school’s emergency preparedness and staff safety training.

The Safe Havens video crew has filmed school safety footage in Mexico, Bolivia, Canada, France, the Netherlands, South Africa, and Vietnam.  They have produced training videos for the United States Department of Education, the Pennsylvania Department of Education, the Hawaii Department of Education, and numerous school systems and law enforcement agencies. 

The Davey Awards honor outstanding creative work from small firms to highlight the “Davids” who go up against big firms with big budgets.  Just like David who defeated Goliath with a big idea and a little rock, the Davey Awards recognize firms like ours with big ideas that can change the world. This year there were nearly 4,000 entries from media agencies all over the world.

The Davey Awards is judged by the International Academy of the Visual Arts (IAVA), a worldwide organization with over 600 members including luminaries from companies like Disney, GE, Keller Crescent, Microsoft, Monster.com, MTV, Sesame Workshops, and many others.

“This year’s Davey Award winners truly represent the best small firms worldwide. The work entered into this year’s competition embodies a smart, tactful approach to creativity and highlights the capabilities and forward thinking mindset that makes small agencies so unique” noted Linda Day, Executive Director of the IAVA.  

This award is the third national award won by the Safe Havens International Video Unit. They have worked hard to earn all three awards and we are proud of their efforts.

Safe Havens is comprised of more than 30 unique individuals with a number of practicing Christians among our ranks.  As we prepare to celebrate Thanksgiving day with our families, we would like to extend our hope that you have a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday.  We all feel truly blessed to be alive and to have the privilege to do what we love each day.

The final summary report for the Shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School was released this afternoon.  Several of our analysts are reviewing the report now.  We thought that some of our readers might be interested in the report as well.