While there are a number of high caliber school security experts, there are also an astounding array of subject matter experts from other fields who can help make our schools safer, more effective, and more comfortable places of learning.  I have been blessed to have had the privilege to interact with a number of people that I can only describe as brilliant during my career.  LT. Col. Dave Grossman is one such person I mention with regularity. 

I have also learned a great deal about school security from people I have never had the privilege to meet such as Gavin deBecker and Dr. Gary Klein.  I devour books by people like Klein, Debecker and Amanda Ripley and have learned a great deal from them.  I have learned a great deal from a university professor named Michael Roberto even though I am sure he would not describe himself as a school safety expert.  Dr. Roberto has done a superb job of synthesizing the works of a number of other very smart folks.  Our analysts have been able to make schools safer across the nation as well as in places like Mexico, Bolivia, South Africa, and Vietnam by drawing upon the work of these talented men and women.

People sometimes ask me why I am so impressed with other experts when I sometimes strongly disagree with some beliefs they have.  This is a logical question.  Like school security experts, any subject matter expert who has presented and/or published extensively will cover a wide range of concepts, professional opinions and beliefs.  This frequently creates situations where experts lack total agreement.  This is particularly true among the nation’s top school security experts.   For example, just I sometimes disagree with Gregory Thomas, one of the nation’s most respected school security experts, I sometimes have differing views from those of Lt. Col. Dave Grossman, who I cite regularly in my presentations, blogs, articles, and books.

As a practitioner in the field for more than three decades, I have learned that while school security experts may not always agree, we can often learn from others who hold some significantly differing viewpoints.  I have also learned that there is much that I or any school security expert can learn from brilliant subject matter experts.  At the end of the day, the safety of our schools demands such intellectual interaction and collaboration.

Though I decline most of the requests I get to serve as an expert witness for school security cases, I do find the few cases I accept to be a great way to learn to serve our clients better.  As with my experiences as a law enforcement officer, my school security expert witness experiences and consulting sessions with clients for years have all shown me that thoughtful documentation can help to reduce exposure to civil liability while improving school security. 

During site visits for school security assessments for both a public school system and an independent school last week, the same issue arose.  Both school organizations had taken some impressive steps to enhance school security.  At the same time, both organizations had sometimes failed to create effective documentation for some of the measures they had implemented.   Taking the time to develop systems to document efforts to improve school security can be easy and well worthwhile.

For example, one practice we implemented early in my career as a school district police chief was to create a simple diagram outlining police coverage for every school athletic event.  Our department designated an officer to supervise each event.  This officer was required to develop a diagram depicting each officer’s areas of responsibility at various times.  For example, for a football game, the diagram would show where a particular officer was to patrol during the game, during half-time and where they might need to move to at the end of the game.  By noting the officer’s name on the diagram, we were able to make sure that each officer clearly understood where they were supposed to be and where they needed to move to at various times.  This eliminated any confusion about who was supposed to be where.  At the same time, this created a documentation trail that could easily be produced if we were litigated as the result of a safety or security incident. 

Though fights were occurring at almost every football game our district held, this approach dramatically reduced them.  Implementing a standard practice of prosecuting anyone under the age of 21 who was found to be under the influence of alcohol reduced fights even further.  These approaches combined with banning anyone wearing gang attire and prosecuting anyone who intentionally struck another person made fights a rarity at our athletic events.

Doing the right thing, combined with solid and accurate documentation will not only reduce the chances that schools will be successfully litigated, it will more importantly reduce the chances that something will happen to provide a reason for litigation in the first place.

Safe Havens International analysts have assisted with five statewide school security assessment projects over the years.  Safe Havens was selected last week to assist with a sixth statewide project in New England.  We are in the process of finalizing the contract and will make a more detailed announcement as soon as this process is completed.  State level school security projects are always a challenging but wonderful experience.  These school security projects are also some of the most productive in terms of cost/benefit ratio for statewide approaches to school security.

Our non-profit school safety center has been fortunate enough to interact with a number of other school safety centers over time.  Though a number of state government school safety centers have been defunded and closed over the years, others are still providing an array of valuable services to schools and their community partners.  We recently learned that the State of Minnesota has decided to fund their state school safety center once again after funding had been cut for a lengthy period of time.  We are glad to see this step to enhance the level of school safety in Minnesota.  There are significant benefits to a properly run state school safety center as well as those of well-run non-profit centers like ours and the highly regarded National School Safety Center. 

The school safety center approach has had a positive impact on school safety in a number of states and at the national level, and we applaud the efforts at our colleagues at school safety centers across the nation. 

Our analysts have been pleased to note that far more K12 schools are installing duress buttons than in the past.  Commonly called “panic” buttons, duress buttons allow school staff to communicate an emergency to a call monitoring center or in some cases directly to school security, school police or even 911 centers in rare cases.  During the more than forty school security assessment projects our analysts have conducted this year, we have found that the majority of our public and non-public school clients either have recently installed or were receptive to our recommendations that they should install panic buttons.  This is a stark contrast to what we have found assessing thousands of K12 schools over the years.  We feel this indicates significant progress in school security.

Our analysts are however, finding a very common gap when panic buttons have been installed in schools.  During controlled one-on-one crisis simulations, we have regularly found that the reasons school employees activate the panic buttons does not match the expectations of law enforcement officers.  For example, when responding to a video scenario of an agitated visitor brandishing a claw hammer or a large knife, many staff correctly state they would press the button (though a surprising number say they would not because the aggressor does not have a gun).  However, when we query local law enforcement officers who would respond to the panic button activation, they routinely tell us the buzzers are installed for active shooter situations and that they would respond accordingly.  In addition, a surprising number of school office employees responding to a scenario involving a fire state they would activate the panic button not realizing that only law enforcement officers would be dispatched. Relating to this, we have found that the majority of test subjects do not realize they should also call 911 to provide more detail if the situation allows them to do so.

There are a number of very robust panic button systems which are tied to security cameras and audio allowing dispatch, security and/or 911 center personnel to see and/or hear what is going on in an area where the panic button is activated.  However, the majority of systems installed by schools lack these features.

We recommend that schools that install panic buttons provide employees with written guidance on their use and some form of staff development to better prepare them for situations where they might be used in an emergency.  Of course, these efforts should be properly documented and all panic buttons should be tested on a regular basis.

I just finished our last onsite meeting as part of a school security assessment for the Granville Public School System in North Carolina.  I am now in Charlotte to start a school security assessment for an independent school there.  Safe Havens has been honored to perform school security assessments for dozens of North Carolina school systems, parochial and independent schools.  We have also had the privilege of training hundreds of North Carolina educators and public safety officials to perform school security assessments.  Safe Havens analysts have performed school security assessments for six public school districts and two independent schools in North Carolina this year and as in years past, have typically found North Carolina schools to be proactive and progressive in terms of school security practices. 

Conducting forty school security assessment projects this year has been challenging even though we now have more than 30 analysts.  At the same time, it has been a rewarding year as we have had the opportunity to interact with many true advocates in North Carolina as well as in almost every other region of the country.   I am proud of our client’s efforts to make their school safer.  I am equally proud of our dedicated analysts who are often on the road more days than they are at home with their families.  It has truly been an inspiring experience.