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Keeping our students safe

Ed Townsend
Posted 6/7/22

Sometimes I think I have seen it all in this column writing business.

I even remember back in the 1980s when I was a well-known journalist how I covered sports and entered schools with no …

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Here & There

Keeping our students safe

Posted

Sometimes I think I have seen it all in this column writing business.

I even remember back in the 1980s when I was a well-known journalist how I covered sports and entered schools with no questions asked.

Then some schools posted a security guard at the main school entrance, but once they got to see you often there never were any questions asked.

Even went through a period of time when I was asked to sign in with my name and who I was going to see and the time I checked in… then signed out and the time I checked out.

This was all good and schools just did not want strangers walking in or through the interior of school buildings.

In talking about comprehensive school safety (I know where I'm coming from on this topic because I also worked for some 20 years as a Certified Safety Engineer for two leading state Insurance Companies.) I studied safety for municipalities, school districts and many higher learning institutions so I've seen it all but the many different killings and attacks in school districts came after I retired.

I talked recently with a retired police officer, who asked that we not use his name because he still does undercover work for schools and municipalities.

This retired officer told me... “the world isn’t safe for anyone as there are just too many crazies out there.”

We discussed the many years we both worked in school safety and talked about school shootings and the need for safer schools… a subject that has never been more obvious.

Here is a list of what we came up with:

  • Some of the school safety assessment deals with building access control, communications, monitoring, surveillance and policies to address these areas.
  • Gone are days when you just walked into a school… and this is good because if you overlook even one of these areas it could lead to a fatal incident.
  • Recommendations we both support are the installation of a security system, set up surveillance cameras, have guards, manage visitors effectively, and install gates.
  • Providing frequent safety training and procedures to all also helps.
  • Establishing a working risk management team with regular meetings keeps everyone informed.

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