School Security Expert Tip – Using Red or Yellow Text in School Crisis Plans Can Cause Problems

Schools across the country are retaining school security experts to perform school security assessments.  While this can be a positive step, there are many simple and easy to implement ideas to improve school security.  We try to share the things our analysts have learned while assisting our clients with thousands of security audits for school facilities in each school security expert tip.

During school security assessments, our analysts evaluate school crisis plans and emergency diagrams.  One thing we see often are documents where key words and phrases have been highlighted in red or yellow text to draw the reader’s eye to the important word or phrase.  For example, a word in a crisis plan action step will be printed in red text.  Another common example involves the marking of emergency evacuation routes on fire evacuation diagrams.  We often see these marked with red lines to make them appear more prominently in the diagrams.

While this is a well-intentioned effort that will help most readers, there is a problem.  Many people who are color-blind cannot see certain colors.  This can result in the red or yellow words disappearing for those readers.  This could have serious ramifications in some situations.  We find this in more than half of the school security assessments we perform, and I have heard the same concern expressed by other school security experts who have noted the same finding during their school security assessments. 

What do school security experts recommend to address this?

One way to try to achieve the same positive effect while not creating the same problem is to use a light and bright color highlight for the letters or route marking while still using black text.  This can make the information stand out for the reader without causing the key information to disappear for readers who are color-blind.  Effective communication is important during school crisis situations.

While this is a simple and easy to apply school security expert tip – it can be a critical one.

School Security Expert Tip – Be Sure to Upgrade Skills of School Staff along with Security Technology

Be Sure to Upgrade Human Technology When Implementing School Security Technology

Our analysts have assisted our clients with school security assessments for thousands of school facilities over the years.  We also often conduct red team assessments to really put school access control and security systems to the test by posing as intruders and seeing what we are able to gain access to without being detected.  We have routinely been able to beat metal detector checkpoints, visitor management systems and some of the most sophisticated access control systems.

This does not mean that school security technology is not effective or valuable.  In fact, during these assessments, the technologies work as they are intended.  Instead, what we find is that like actual violators, it can be easy to identify and exploit a simple gap to defeat these approaches as long as school employees have not been properly trained and empowered to support the technologies.  While the quality and utility of school security and emergency preparedness technologies today is truly amazing, the capability of the human brain is truly astounding as well.  And like that of our best security technologies, schools do not always make the best use of these powerful protective options.  While more and more school employees are being trained in concepts like visual weapons screening, mental simulation, pattern matching and recognition, and controlled breathing, the majority of school employees in the United States have not been exposed to these life-saving concepts.  School officials should take care when implementing new strategies as there are a number of popular but unproven concepts being taught while research-based and proven approaches are often overlooked.

The per capita homicide rate in our schools has declined markedly over the past three decades.  Combining the effective use of appropriate school safety technologies with available information on how to improve the ability of school employees to prevent and respond to school crisis situations is one of our best opportunities to further reduce the number of serious injuries and deaths in our schools.

Respond to school shootings with proven research

A Research-based response to school shootings

Here are some books that contain good information that can help us be more likely to prevent, as well as more effectively prepare for and respond to school shootings and other school crisis events.  While there are no solutions that offer 100% protection from school shootings or other types of violence, the research and experience these authors bring to the table can help us more effectively note and react to the behaviors of people and the fast breaking situations that can be so critical in these types of incidents.  The techniques that we can use to respond to school shootings are the same techniques that help people survive tsunamis, plane crashes, fires and other types of disasters all over the world.  They also provide a balanced approach and remind us that we are far more likely to be killed or injured from everyday accidents or disease.

 

The Gift of Fear – Survival Signals that Protect us From Violence by Gavin DeBecker

On Combat – the Psychology of Deadly Conflict in War and Peace by Lt. Col. Dave Grossman

Sources of Power – How People Make Decisions by Gary Klein

Sharpening the Warrior’s Edge by Bruce Siddle

Unthinkable – Who Survives Disasters and Why by Amanda Ripley

I have found all of these books to be very helpful in my school safety research work.