school safety and security
The School Safety and Security of their students and grounds are a top priority for School Administrators. Christian School Products has many articles to keep your school informed of the School Safety and Security products. Background Checks, Access Control, Building Security, Emergency Management and Response, School Lockdown Procedures, Video Surveillance, School Uniforms, School ID’s, Safety Equipment, Intruder Prevention Equipment
The Role of Technology in School Safety
By Heather Terry Across the entire school safety spectrum, technology has played a significant role in enhancing school safety, especially in recent years. Coordinating this technology successfully requires looking at the big picture of your school safety and security ecosystem. Getting your existing systems to communicate with each other can better streamline your school
Changing Threats Require Changing Security Measures for Educational Facilities
By Lisa Durel It has never been more important to ensure the safety of educational facilities, their students, and staff from dangers that lurk just outside the campus. In fact, there’s been an ever-growing concern about the dangers that manage to make it inside the school walls without detection. On-campus safety has typically been
Combine Panic Alerts and ARS for a Robust Safety Solution
The rise in school deaths and violence is mind-numbing, but states and districts are becoming more proactive in their efforts to stem the continuing rise of school threats and emergencies. One example is the new grant programs for schools to purchase silent panic alert technologies that schools can use to signal a life-threatening situation
How to Reach Everyone During an Emergency with Mass Notification
By Paul Shain Mass notification systems to help achieve the speed and reach they need to ensure everyone receives a message as quickly as possible. Mass notification systems offer several benefits that can help schools enhance safety and communication. It all starts by understanding the types of situations a school is likely to encounter
Key Capabilities to Improve Communication
By Peter Steinfeld Effective communication in schools is more challenging than ever. The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic continues to impact the ability to keep students and staff safe, and schools also face increases in severe weather events, violence, and more. For administrators, staying up to date on each of these threats and notifying a large
Safer K-12 Design: School Should Feel – and Look – Like School
By Becky Brady K-12 schools exist to engage students in active learning, providing them with the skills and knowledge for successful futures. Unquestionably, these environments should also be safe and welcoming. Today’s students grapple with concerns including bullying, fights, the risk of school shootings, natural disasters, and mental health of students and teachers, which
Safely Slide into the Winter: Slips, Trips and Fall Season
By John P. Morris While slips, trips and falls occur year-round, sweater weather is the perfect time to think about fall prevention. Fall hazards exist everywhere, such as slippery leaves, wet and icy pavement and winter decorations with frightening wires posing severe tripping hazards. They can’t be ignored, even when schools are extremely busy
How Technology Can Be Used to Keep Schools and Students Safe
By Kevin Brown and Alok Jain Albert Einstein once stated that a problem cannot be solved with the same consciousness that created it. This concept is spot-on when it comes to school safety and security – particularly with Christian schools. All too often, public schools approach safety and security with an “insurance policy” mentality;
Digital Contact Tracing: Academic Applications Beyond Pandemic Response
By Jana Rankin Contact tracing has emerged as one of the most recognizable terms of the COVID-19 pandemic, but the actual practice has long been used to unravel complex human interactions and recreate them within specific parameters such as location, duration, or physical proximity. While we are all aware that health officials are applying
Delivering a Layered Defense Solution
By Paul Messenger Not long ago, security concerns for most schools involved student conflicts, vandalism, theft and liability — now, the foremost concern is life safety. School shootings have become a major motivator for improving the security of school districts in the United States. Increasing outbreaks of active shooter and other security incidents in
Bringing Safety to the Surface
Did you know that roughly 70 percent of all playground related injuries are caused by falls from playground equipment? When building a playground environment, your choice of surfacing should be the most important factor. One of the most important things we can do to help provide a safe play environment is to include a
The Doorknob Dilemma
Do your classroom door handles have locks on them? Are classroom door locks permitted by the fire marshal in your area? The answer to both of these questions is far from straightforward and the answer varies from school to school and fire district to fire district. Classroom door handle inspection is a standard part
Selecting a School Video Surveillance Solution
By Tom Cook A video surveillance system is a must for school systems of any size, but their needs will vary. It may be intimidating for schools to find the right comprehensive security solution. And while public school districts face funding issues for critical projects such as security, it’s often an even larger problem for
How to Run a Background Check on School Employees
By Robyn Kunz Everyone wants children to be safe in school, but people tend to focus on the threat of outsiders. But, in reality, children end up spending most of their time with teachers and school staff. Because children spend so much time with these people and often trust them, it’s vital that school staff
School Bus Surveillance
It seems like schools are now being continually bombarded with new ideas and technologies for improving school bus safety. With so much technical innovation happening across the transportation industry, it’s inevitable that many of these new technologies would make their way onto buses. However, which ones are actually worth the money? One easy answer to
6 Steps to Increase School Security with Visual Identification
By Julie Kuepers With the recent barrage of school violence around the nation, school leaders have realized that the bar for security standards needs to be raised significantly. To maintain higher security levels in the classroom and within school walls, it’s integral to understand the security options that are available. In addition, when you partner
How School Security Can Be Improved Using Locks
School security is an increasing concern these days. You hear about it all too often in the news. A shady character makes his or her way onto school grounds and causes horrible tragedies. It happens so often now that most schools have a police resource officer on staff all the time, even elementary schools. However,
5 Considerations to Make When Building a Campus Security Plan
K-12 schools face a number of challenges, not the least of which is the basic principle of safeguarding students, staff and faculty from emerging threats. They must strive to strike a balance between building a safe and secure environment and maintaining a welcoming one. A combination of policies and procedures for stakeholders to follow can be instrumental in
Keyless Locks for Classrooms
The most common approach to school security has centered around protecting the perimeter. But as our nation has seen time and again, the best security systems and intercoms at the entrances to the school are easily thwarted by an armed gunman intent on getting in. Once in the building, the classrooms become prime targets for
Emergency Response Preparation
In the first 21 weeks of 2018, there were 23 school shootings where someone was hurt or killed. That averages out to more than one shooting a week. If you have a social media account, follow the latest news, or have been personally impacted by this pressing issue at the forefront of our nation’s attention,
Benefits of Remote Video Surveillance
School is the one place every parent expects their child to be safe. Children in private schools expect the security even more because they are paying for their child to attend the school. Security is necessary, and there is no compromise. Running a private school is not an easy task; it is just as challenging
Why Do Organizations Conduct Volunteer Screening?
It’s a basic fact: background screening is complicated. An amazing amount of data is available that may or may not reflect the most up-to-date facts about volunteers. Deciding which type of background screening searches a volunteer manager needs to run to find well-intentioned volunteer candidates can often seem like a daunting task. Every organization has
How School Uniforms Enhance the Student Experience
By Kim Rice Private schools continue to maintain their preference for uniforms over individual dress. This may be due to evidence that school uniforms lead to a happier, healthier school environment where learning is students’ main priority. Improved Academic Performance Even the most casual school uniforms tend to look more modest and professional than the
The Importance of Entrance Matting
By Robert Segers Often overlooked and many times an afterthought, the proper matting at your building’s entrances can be the best investment you make to protect your interior flooring as well as the safety and well-being of your students, faculty, staff and visitors. Eighty percent of soil, dust, contaminants and moisture are tracked in on
Why We Should Consider This Emergency Management Process for Ending School Violence
By Todd Piett The deadly school violence in Parkland, Florida, should drive school and safety leaders to consider multiple solutions to preventing another shooting tragedy. One solution is to leverage a multi-pronged approach: the emergency management lifecycle. 1. Mitigation The first step in an emergency management framework is mitigation – essentially reducing the likelihood that
The Growth of Biometrics in Schools
By Anne Marie Dunphy Although it seems futuristic, biometrics is not a new technology. The ancient Babylonians used fingerprints on clay tablets for business transactions, and the ancient Egyptians used physical characteristics to identify workers to make sure they didn’t claim more provisions than they were entitled – just like governments today are using biometrics
Paul VI Catholic High School
The Catholic Diocese of Arlington engaged VMDO to lead the planning and design process to relocate Paul VI Catholic High School from its founding location in Fairfax, Virginia, to a new site in Loudoun County. The first and most critical step of the four-year process of design and construction was a three-month programming effort of
Access Control in the Eye of the Storm
By Jeffrey Coates When in imminent danger, use the simplest means of arriving at the desired result. Both my partner and I have worked in a tactical and, many times, violent environment for more than 35 years. Over the years, we have added many insightful lessons we were able to put away into our future
The Standards Are Coming
By Mark J. Berger Standards are our way of selecting products that we know will meet our needs as well as relevant codes and safety regulations. Standards must evolve to meet emerging needs. Classroom lock standards have evolved over the last 100 years, but there haven’t been too many changes in the last 25 years.
Preparing for Emergency Response
With the start of a new school year, it is an excellent opportunity for districts to review their school security. With students and staff returning to campus, now is the time to review the performance of security and safety changes made over the summer. It also presents an opportunity to seek out and identify additional
Video Security Systems: DIY with Your Own IT
By Michael Bailey Schools find themselves today at the center of a perfect storm, a collision of seemingly unstoppable forces. Growing security challenges, tightening financial resources and revolutionary technologies are converging. The rising threat to the safety and well-being of our students, staff and facilities is all over the news. Tax dollars, grants and/or fundraisers
More Schools Make Background Checks a Prerequisite to Volunteering
Shrinking budgets and other organizational pressures mean many schools increasingly rely on their volunteers to perform essential functions inside and outside the classroom, yet inconsistent vetting of these volunteers may expose schools to unintended risk – as recent headlines attest. While laws and policies regarding criminal background checks for school volunteers are different for every
3 Tips for Buying ID Lanyards for Schools
By Dan Ryan Let’s talk lanyards! These card accessories are a great way to carry and display an employee badge, ID card, badge holder, keys or some other kind of credential at job sites of all kinds, from office buildings to hotels. It’s not hard to see why lanyards are popular. They’re easy to use,
How School Bus Safety Technology Can Help You Solve Transportation Challenges in 2017
By Vlada Terenina Over the last 50 years, technological advances have shaped the modern world. As technology gets more accessible, it’s expanding into all areas of life. The student transportation industry of tomorrow is not going to be the same as the student transportation industry of today. Let’s have a closer look at what challenges
Lockdown as Part of Your Active Assailant Strategy
By Ron Baer Perimeter fencing, visitor entry vestibules, attack resistant doors, proper locks, secure key systems, and effective hardware all play an important role in a school’s Active Assailant Strategy including their lockdown policies and procedures. Each element must be carefully considered to ensure the safety of students, faculty, staff and extended campus users. While
