Buyer Beware: As private equity creeps into the school security industry, school leaders face increased risks
Buyer Beware: As private equity creeps deeper into the hashtagschool security product and technology market, smaller companies get gobbled up into bigger entities.Bundled services. Louder marketing. Lobbyists hired. But quality risks going downhill.Our team worked with one district where a once-reputable visitor management system failed miserably across dozens of schools — challenges with service, unresolved […]
School security market data versus independent research data: Strategic school safety leaders need to know the difference
School board member: We have limited resources. We need to spend wisely while also letting parents know we are doing something. Superintendent: It’s hard to cut through the noise. Principal: I don’t know who to believe or who to trust – and I don’t need more headaches that make leading our school more difficult. I […]
Dr. Ken Trump’s school safety, security, and emergency preparedness forecast for 2024
The beginning of a new year is an excellent time to reflect on the prior year and ponder what the next year may bring. As in our personal lives, professional observations may vary and forecasts will often not pan out. But looking from the lens of others can add perspective and depth to our views […]
School safety: How will superintendents, principals, and boards keep schools safe – and save face with parents – when pandemic recovery money and state grants disappear?
Many school leaders are funding school security measures and student support services using Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Programs (ESSER) and/or American Rescue Plan (ARP) COVID pandemic recovery funds. If school leaders do not have a plan for sustainability once those dollars begin to disappear in the next year or two, school violence and […]
Do you have a game plan for school athletic event security? Shootings and other violence at high school games are not new, but they are far too common and intense
Last night, a 14-year-old boy was killed in a school shooting as police were dispersing a crowd following a Chicago-area high school football game. Meanwhile, in Kansas City, Kansas, shots were fired during a high school football game and the school officer returned fire until the suspects fled. These are the latest in a spate […]
Focus forward with a tactical pause: Recognize limitations of “single incident expert” school shooting and other school safety recommendations
We glean lessons from each school shooting, but the next may follow a different fact pattern. School leaders should exercise caution and restraint in making abrupt changes to safety policies and practices based upon the fact pattern of one (or even several) low-probability/high-impact incidents. A school central office administrator responsible for district school safety recently […]
In times of racial, community unrest with police, schools need quality School Resource Officer (SRO) police programs more than ever
As communities across the nation grapple with race and civil unrest with their police, children and police need to come together to collaboratively understand one another, their relationships, and their communities. There is no better form of true community policing than properly designed and implemented School Resource Officer (SRO) school-based policing programs. School boards, administrators […]
Cautious? Cowardice? Criminal? The MSD Parkland community wants justice for the inaction of Broward County SRO Scot Peterson, but they may be let down twice
Many in the Parkland, Florida, school-community believe that “justice” is being served with the arrest and charges against former Broward County School Resource Officer (SRO) Scot Peterson for not entering a Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School building as shots were being fired in February, 2018. Peterson has been called a coward by many. He may […]
Parkland one year later: School security and emergency preparedness after the MSD school shooting
During the past half-dozen or so years, I have done an increasing about of expert witness and litigation consulting on pK-12 school security-related lawsuits. These types of cases have included high-profile active shooter cases, such as my retention by the defense for the Sandy Hook Elementary School litigation, as well as rape and other sexual […]
Federal Commission on School Safety report rehashes decades-old best practices, adds a few political twists
Statement by school security expert Kenneth S. Trump, President of National School Safety and Security Services, on the Federal Commission on School Safety’s final report: The Federal Commission on School Safety’s final report largely rehashes school safety, security, and emergency preparedness best practices that have been recognized since the Columbine era nearly 20 years ago. […]