School Weapons Detectors: What Are Schools Really Screening For? The Kalamazoo Gun Incident Raises Questions About Sensitivity Settings and Transparency
When schools tell parents they have weapons detection systems, are they explaining what those systems are actually configured to detect, and what they may miss? A loaded handgun brought into Kalamazoo Central High School in Michigan on October 16, 2026, has generated conflicting accounts, public frustration, and questions about the effectiveness of the school’s weapons […]
Strategic School Safety Leadership: New Independent Guide for School Leaders During Challenging Times
The horrific elementary school shooting in Bend, Oregon, is another heartbreaking reminder of the stakes involved in protecting our schools. Our thoughts are with the victims, their families, educators, and the entire school community. In the aftermath of school tragedies, superintendents, principals, school boards, and safety officials face extraordinary pressures to provide answers, reassure families, […]
Strategic School Safety Leadership and Communications: You Cannot Have One Without the Other
New independent guide examines why communicating school safety is not simply a public relations function, but a fundamental responsibility of effective school leadership. School leaders can make sound safety decisions, follow established emergency procedures, and manage a difficult incident effectively, yet still lose the confidence of parents, employees, and their communities because of poor communications. […]
Customer Experience Is a School Safety Tool: What a New NSPRA Survey Tells School Leaders
School safety is often discussed in terms of cameras, access control, emergency plans, threat assessment and school resource officers. But one of the most overlooked school safety tools is much less technical: how people are treated when they interact with a school. A new 2026 national survey from the National School Public Relations Association (NSPRA) […]
School Safety Is Leadership: Keeping Safety at the Forefront Every Day
Editor’s introduction: School safety leadership is an ongoing responsibility, not a project administrators can complete and check off a list. In this guest article, Dr. Jim Hanna, Superintendent of Rossville Consolidated School District, shares a superintendent’s perspective on leadership, emergency preparedness, relationships with first responders, exercises, accountability, and maintaining school safety as a daily strategic […]
Strategic School Safety Leadership: Preparing for the “Unknown Unknowns”
School emergency plans are usually built around the knowns. Strategic school security leadership gets tested by the “unknown unknowns.” Schools appropriately plan and train for foreseeable emergencies: fires, severe weather, medical emergencies, threats, violence, evacuations, lockdowns, reunification, and other scenarios. But some of the most difficult situations confronting superintendents and school administrators do not fit […]
What Is School Security Leadership? 7 Characteristics of Effective School Safety Leaders
What is school security leadership? Effective school security leadership combines ethics, independence, sound judgment, competence, transparency, strategic thinking, and the courage to make difficult decisions in the best interests of students, staff, and schools. School security leadership is more than managing security technology, writing emergency plans, conducting drills, or responding to the latest school safety […]
School Security Ethics: Conflicts of Interest, Vendor Influence, and Ethical Leadership in K-12 School Safety
As the school security industry has grown into a multi-billion-dollar marketplace, the ethical lines separating school leaders, security directors, nonprofit organizations, conference organizers, and school security vendors have become increasingly blurred. The result is growing concern over conflicts of interest, vendor influence, procurement integrity, and maintaining independent school security leadership. School safety depends on trust. […]
Correlation vs. Causation: A Critical Thinking Guide for School Leaders Evaluating School Security Effectiveness Claims
School leaders routinely apply evidence-based decision making in education. The same analytical thinking should guide decisions about panic buttons, weapons detection, other school security technologies, and school safety programs. Can School Security Technology Improve Attendance, School Climate, and Graduation Rates? School leaders are increasingly encountering school security effectiveness claims about school security technology. Some claims […]
As School Security Vendors Bundle the Services, Do They Bungle the Quality?
The Shift From Specialized School Safety Tools to “All-In-One” Platforms or Companies In the school safety marketplace, many security product and technology vendors begin with one strong core service. Hypothetically, it may start with a visitor management platform. Or perhaps a panic alert technology. Maybe it is even emergency management software, tip reporting, or threat […]