| School Security |
| School security is a hot topic these days. We get many calls and e-mails asking my advice on how to stop the gun violence at schools. We’ve answered many probing questions. Should we hire armed guards? Should we arm all or some of our teachers? Should police officers be assigned to every school? Should we install metal detectors? Should we erect walls and fences around the school and search everyone who enters? Should the media downplay the shootings to discourage copycats? These are all valid questions, but implementing the recommendations is unlikely to produce a long-term solution. However, putting guns in the hands of teachers is a scary concept and should not be considered. |
| Campus Security |
| "Gun Violence at School" Guns at School |
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Guns, children, and school should never be used in the same sentence. But over the last few years a trend has emerged causing the media to report
incidents of gun violence in our schools. This has got to stop! The question is how do we stop it? A knee-jerk response like "ban all the guns" is an over simplification of a more complex problem. It has been reported that in the United States guns are manufactured at a rate of about 18,000 per day and have an estimated life of about 400 years each. It should be no surprise then, to learn that in the United States there are more guns than there are adults. To think or believe that guns can be removed from every home in America is illogical, especially since their Constitution specifically guarantees our right to bear arms. In all fairness, however, the writers of our Constitution, over 200 years ago, were probably thinking about citizens having a slow-loading, single-shot Musket for civil defense against invaders. They could not possibly foresee the use of assault weapons at school and mass murder. Another common solution offered is to control the public and private sale of guns. These regulations would further limit private sales to minors, prohibit sales of certain automatic weapons, and cause more registration of guns. All these methods may have some impact on the availability of guns in the future and will undoubtedly help the police locate more gun owners. Unfortunately, more laws and regulations tend to open up the black-market where gun transactions will continue to flourish illegally. All we have to do is look at our existing drug laws and our failed attempt at liquor prohibition to see that legislation is a slow process and has definite limitations. |
| Declining Crime Rate |
| Although gun violence is in the spotlight because of the recent pattern of school shootings, the violent crime rate and criminal incidents involving guns has been declining over the past several years. Arguably, gun violence should be increasing almost exponentially based on the number of guns in existence and the number of new guns being manufactured year after year. The question of how to stop gun violence on campus may best be understood by looking at the connection between "where" the incidents occur, "who" is committing them, "who" are the intended victims, and "why". The most common thread is the location…our high schools and middle schools. The second pattern that has emerged is that the perpetrators are also students. The third pattern is that the shooters were male and to varying degrees not apart of the mainstream school social structure. |
| Copycat Crimes |
| Why this level of violence continues to occur at schools, as opposed to some other place, is obvious. The first school
shooting created media frenzy and the offending students became infamous. The massive media blitz creates a sick notoriety for those who want
to make a statement by the massacre of fellow students. Clearly, a "copycat" game is now in play. Unfortunately, others may decide
that they want to beat the record and get a higher body count. Aside from the media, it seems that the Internet is playing a role in spreading
the word about violence, hate, and guns. For the first time in history, anyone on the Internet can learn how to make a bomb or communicate
anonymously with hate groups, or with terrorists. I predict this sick copycat trend will pass and the period will be recorded as a dark time in our history. What is needed now is increased awareness, both at home and at school. Parents, teachers, and students need to communicate about the underlying issues and everyone needs to pay attention for the telltale signs of violence. Evidence of the potential for violence is often found in a student’s home, on their computer, in their notebooks or in their locker at school. |
| Are Video Games to Blame? |
| Violent video games, like the first-person-shooters, may have influenced the mindless and surreal concept of randomly shooting students. At no other time in history could a young person have sat for hours in front of a video monitor and simulated the massacre of hundreds people (or aliens) using a high-powered arsenal of weapons. This form of "electronic entertainment" does not represent reality because there are no consequences after pulling the trigger. Graphic shooter video games teach the player to seek out and destroy everything in their path while displaying the blood and guts in vivid color, 3-D, and with stereo sound effects. It is not surprising that a few of these video shut-ins may begin to fantasize about shooting other students they believe have tormented or shunned them while at school. |
| How to Stop guns on Campus |
| Sure, we can make it more difficult to bring guns onto campus. But this will come at a cost of personal freedom. We can
build a fortress-like school with higher fences, lock more doors, close the campus, install magnetometers and x-ray machines, and conduct pat
downs and random locker searches. The problem is that the student violence could simply move to another public gathering place like a movie
theater, a shopping mall, or a restaurant. When someone is carrying a gun at school, usually other students will know, but won’t say anything and that needs to change. Many times parents will observe a negative change in behavior of their children, but won’t inquire or investigate the suspicious activity that needs to change. Many parents allow their children to surf the web every day, without knowing how to supervise their activity…this may be our greatest challenge. Teachers are our messengers and have the forum to promote discussions about the social and moral impact of hate, violence, guns, and computer video games that subject needs to be incorporated into the mainstream curriculum. For now, our students need more social awareness, parental interaction, and protection by our existing laws. For the long term, our society needs to figure out how to deal with the availability of guns, how to handle the programming content on the Internet, in violent video games, and in movies. Children are our future and we need to help them find a balance between the rapidly changing technology and with traditional social values. |
| School Security |
| "Is Easy" |
| School Security |
| School security has been in the headlines in recent years due to incidents of high-profile school gun violence and bullying.
The news has also reported a resurgence of drug activity on campus especially with new designer drugs. This wave of drugs and violence has brought our
school system under intense scrutiny. Critics have found many of our nation's schools to have abysmal security systems in place to protect our children
from harm. Like any other enterprise, it is easy to criticize a system after being viewed under a microscope and when reviewing facts in hindsight. We sometimes survey elementary, middle, and high schools that have a reputation for security problems. We have done it often enough where I have developed a routine for how to conduct a thorough school security survey. The most common school security complaints are non-students on campus, fights, drugs, vandalism, and truancy. After many inspections and interviews with school administrators, teachers, staff, and students, we have come up with the following conclusion: School security is easy. |
| School Security is Easy |
| Aside from prison or mental health facilities, a school campus is unlike any other public institution in terms of control.
Administrators have so much control over the campus environment that providing security is relatively easy compared to most other commercial
properties. A school has control over who accesses the campus and when. A school controls the timing of class periods and which students attend
each class. A school controls the level of supervision throughout the day. A school establishes strict rules of conduct and for attendance.
A school can mandate the use of metal detectors and can conduct bag, backpack, and locker searches at will. A school can control vehicle access
and in some cases search vehicles parked on campus. A school can administer discipline for misconduct including temporary suspension and permanent
expulsion from campus. Practically speaking, once the first period bell rings no student should be outside of the class roaming the hallways without authorization. Since class attendance is required to be taken in each period, it is a simple matter to detect and eliminate the non-students outside. If a student is truant, acts up, or violates a school rule the prescribed amount of discipline should be swiftly, fairly, and evenly applied. The majority of my school surveys concluded that poor campus security is affected most by administrators failing to consistently enforce school rules with the tools already available to them. |
| Schools are a Unique Challenge |
| As consultants we can say school security is easy. However, we are aware that the day-to-day experiences of teachers and staff are a challenge. If you think about it, elementary and high schools contain mostly children under the age of 18 years. As children grow so do their behavioural and emotional problems and schools often become a dumping ground for undiagnosed and untreated students. These problems can manifest into depression, lack of social skills, mischief or serious violence at school. As children enter their teens, behaviour problems seem to either subside or intensify. Some teachers have actually told me that they are afraid of some of their students. Teachers and administrators must have extreme amounts of patience and understanding to deal with daily misconduct especially with morally bankrupt students and uncaring parents. Some schools are further challenged by meagre budgets and conflicting district discipline enforcement policies. |
| A Matter of Priority |
| The excuse most often used to explain why security problems exist has been that it is a matter of priority. Unfortunately, schools are often overwhelmed with conflicting priorities and security gets pushed to the bottom of the list. To administrators, schools short on teachers and staff or are without books or proper facilities seem to be a higher priority than solving a few security problems. The crime and discipline data indicates that 90% of the security problems are caused by 10% of the student population and non-students. More than one administrator has commented that school districts won’t expend vast personnel and financial resources for additional security because of only a few troublemakers? Despite this philosophy, when a serious incident does occur, money is usually thrown at the problem hoping for a quick fix to make the problem go away. |
| Security "Not a Quick Fix" |
| Quick fixes are like Band-Aids that don’t last long and need to be reapplied often. Besides, school security is not
something that should be 'applied' to solve a particular problem. If it is…you’re doing it wrong. A school security plan needs to
be totally integrated into the daily routine of all staff so that it is not recognizable as a separate measure. Security and student safety is
everyone’s job and not solely delegated to campus supervisors, vice principals or security officers. With a little training and a lot of
commitment even the toughest schools can be transformed back into a once-safe education facility. In my experience, most schools already have all the authority they need in the education code and in district policy manuals to make any campus reasonably safe. The solution to school security problems is in the application and execution of existing rules and having a system in place to periodically audit each school for compliance. When schools consistently conform to clearly defined and articulated rules, the majority of students benefit from the reduced number of distracting bad influences. When this occurs, the focus returns to educating the majority of the students and not on disciplining the remaining few. |
| "It sounds simple because it is." |
| School Security |
| Stop the Gun Violence |
| School Security |
| School security is a hot topic these days. We get many calls and e-mails asking our advice on how to stop the gun violence at schools. Should we hire armed guards? Should we arm all or some of our teachers? Should police officers be assigned to every school? Should we install metal detectors? Should we erect walls and fences around the school and search everyone who enters? Should the media downplay the shootings to discourage copycats? These are all valid questions but implementing the recommendations is unlikely to produce a long-term solution. However, putting guns in the hands of teachers is a scary concept and should not be considered. |
| Stop Gun Violence |
| The question of how to stop incidents of gun violence on campus may best be understood by looking at the connection between
"who" is committing the violence, "where" the incidents occur, "who" are the intended victims, and "why".
Think about it. These offenders are not gangsters, not drug dealers or street criminals. The incidents don’t seem to be racially motivated or
hate crimes. The perpetrators were almost always registered students of the school. The most common thread is the location, our high schools and middle schools. The shooters were almost always male, and to varying degrees not apart of the mainstream school social structure. Most were described as loners, the subject of bullying, and interested in guns or violent first-person shooter video games. In almost every case some other student or friend knew about their desire to shoot someone at the school but didn’t take it seriously and therefore didn’t report it. Sure, we can make it more difficult to bring guns onto campus. But this will come at a cost of personal freedom. We can build a fortress-like school with higher fences, taller block walls, limit access to one gate, close the campus, install magnetometers and x-ray machines, and conduct pat downs and routine locker searches. We can add armed guards and police officers, add state-of-the-art video surveillance, and limit sport field activities. All of these security measures will be expensive and not likely to be supported by any school district for very long. In my opinion, these are not viable solutions for the long term. |
| Nature of the Violence |
| In almost every case, the shooters acted like they were on a suicide mission. They had to know they would be caught, injured or
killed during the rampage. Despite this fact, the shooters made plans, prepared their armament, and attacked in broad daylight without concern for
being identified. In my opinion, these shooters were looking for notoriety and wanted to become infamous by making some sort of twisted statement
about their unhappy life. With this level of motivation, traditional school security measures will not be effective in preventing their attack. Despondent students are nothing new. School bullies have always been present. Class status conflicts have always been part of school life. There have always been distinctions made between the amounts of money parents had and bestowed on their children. There has always been drug or alcohol abuse at home or during school. There have always been abused children, parentless children, and children with varying degrees of mental illness or with discipline problems. Depressed students have been committing suicide for years but the media hardly ever focused on their personal plight because it was viewed a victimless. Today, students have developed a kamikaze-like philosophy with the desire to kill other people along with themselves. |
| What is the Solution? |
| Almost any radical security measure discussed above will have some effectiveness in preventing future violence but not consistently and for the long term. With the shooters being registered students at the school they will always be allowed access. Metal detectors and searches won’t stop the highly motivated shooters who are willing to run past or fire on the gatekeeper to get at their intended targets. Armed security or police can be effective but they can’t cover the entire campus and can be disabled as well. Just when you fortify the campus, the shooters can change their methods to include school parking lots, adjacent thoroughfares, shopping centres or arcades. I predict this sick copycat trend will pass and the period will be recorded as a dark time in our history. What is needed now is increased awareness, both at home and at school. Some tightening of security is needed but in my experience the school districts will not support additional costs for long. Parents, teachers, and students need to communicate about the underlying issues and everyone needs to pay attention for the telltale signs of violence. Evidence of the potential for violence is often found in a student’s home, on their computer, in their notebooks or in their locker at school. Parents need to assess their need to have guns and ammunition immediately available to their children. The time has come for students to condemn talk of gun activity and speak out about any such deviant behaviour. When someone is carrying a gun or planning to bring a gun on campus usually other students know. Student hotlines should be created for anonymous reporting. Many times parents will observe a negative change in behaviour of their children, but won’t inquire or investigate the suspicious activity…that needs to change through education and awareness. The media actually helps in this area. The media needs to downplay coverage and not glorify a school shooting incident. Many parents allow their children to surf the web every day, without knowing how to supervise their activity…this may be our greatest challenge. Teachers are our messengers and have the forum to promote discussions about the social and moral impact of hate, violence, guns, and computer video games…that subject needs to be incorporated into the mainstream curricula. For now, our students need more social awareness, parental interaction, and protection by our existing laws. For the long term, our society needs to figure out how to deal with the availability of guns, how to handle the programming content on the Internet, the proliferation of violent first-person shooter video games, and violence in movies. Children are our future and we need to help them find a balance between the rapidly changing technology and with traditional social values. |
| Securo VIP |
| Executives & VIP Protection Top executives and VIPs are a constant target to threats. To cope with this situation, Property Guards has designed Executive and VIP Protection plans for these high net-worth individuals. Protection could include a simple but effective bodyguard's service or a specialist type of service which includes armed protection, private jet or bullet armoured vehicle or even all of these. Several top Indian and International Industrialists and Film personalities have been the recipient of our highly secure services |
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