On its surface, the job of those specializing safety & security should be a simple one; to keep bad things from happening by securing an environment from accidental and/or intentional incidents that may cause injury, loss or even death. However, when you add in the challenges of convenience, throughput, culture and compliance, the issue gets amazingly complicated. School security is, and continues to be, a layered subject centered on continuous philosophical debate, and as a result it has fallen victim to countless myths and misconceptions pertaining to its level of complexity, its potential solutions, and its overall purpose in keeping our students and staff members safe in our educational institutions.
Here are several of those myths, debunked.
Myth: “My school does not need added security; it’s safe”
In a perfect world, the need for school security (or building security of any kind) would not exist because it would not be needed. Sadly, that is not the case, and therefore it is almost impossible to justify the far-too-common “it won’t happen here” mentality. As we have seen in the last few years alone, these horrific incidents to not discriminate in terms of school size, location, or even grade level. Professional security protocols should be viewed as a regular, primary focal point in school district or collegiate infrastructure, ranging from regular threat assessments and building audits to allocations of funding that include up-to-date security maintenance. The issue boils down to the inevitable need for preemptive planning, and this pertains to schools of all types. A lack of change will only doom us into repeating a vicious cycle of tragedy.