Your School’s Security May be Missing This Simple Thing

Lax School Security Often Stems from a Lack of…..

School security can be complicated. Kids and teenagers are unpredictable, campuses are ripe with activity throughout the day and even the most advanced security system can’t always see what’s going on in every corner at every moment. But, school security doesn’t have to be as complicated as it’s made out to be and a breach in security can often be traced back to a lack of one particular thing, enforcement.

In it’s simplest form, school security relies not on technology and gadgets to keep kids and adults safe, but on the rules and regulations set down by administrators. But, while it is the job of the administrator to create these regulations, it is also their job to enforce them. The rules are put into place for a reason and the moment they begin to be ignored is the moment errors are made and weaknesses in a school’s security often become exposed.

Rules Are There For a Reason

As the bell rings to begin the school day, every student is meant to be accounted for. Attendance is meant to be taken at the beginning of every period and every absence reported to the office. This simple task would show if a student that was present the hour before is now missing, roaming the halls or off campus. And, if this student is in the hallways, monitoring of these hallways either through surveillance or patrol should show where the student is. If the child has tried to leave the school, the policies regarding those entering and exiting campus should have detained them.

But, if a teacher missed attendance for one reason or another or a student was allowed to leave the school despite the guidelines put in place preventing this, the school is now exposed. One overlooked rule or procedure can lead to a chain of events that while on a normal day may not mean much, could eventually invite disaster.

For the administrators that put these procedures in place, enforcing their implementation is just as important as establishing them. According to a blog by Chris E McGoey, CPP, CSP, CAM, “The majority of… 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.”

This is not to say that following every single rule every day will guarantee the complete safety of your campus. We all know that things happen and even the best-laid plans don’t mean success. But, a reliable set of rules can play a major role in protecting a place that is often unpredictable and unreliable. And making sure those rules are enforced, is the first step toward a safe and secure school environment.