The Lies We Tell Ourselves — and Our School Communities — About School Safety
There are two big lies we keep telling ourselves — and our school communities — about school safety. The first is: “School safety is our number one top priority.”The second is: “You can’t put a cost on school safety.” Both sound good. Both feel good. And both are false. The Budget Reality School safety is, […]
School safety is not a “plug and play” sport. It’s about fidelity of implementation.
School safety is not a plug and play sport. You can’t just plug in a new security product or piece of technology, walk away, and expect that things will run on autopilot. Why “it’s better than nothing” often isn’t really “better” Too often in recent years, I have heard school officials say, “Well, it’s better […]
School safety leaders: Focus on your core school security mission and functions (Lessons from recent Secret Service catastrophic security failures)
Strategic school safety leaders recognize the importance of first graduating from kindergarten before grasping for PhD school security solutions. Focusing on mastering the fundamental core school security mission and functions should be every school leader’s goal. For the past half dozen or so years, we have emphasized the importance of mastering the fundamentals of school […]
Growing legal school safety mandates and proposed consultant/vendor-driven school security “standards” may mean well, but many create unrealistic mandates that are impossible for schools to comply with
Sheriff Grady Judd, a Commissioner on the Florida school safety commission created after the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School (Parkland) school shooting, said last week that a new law requiring classroom doors to be locked when students are present is impossible to comply with without exceptions and the validity of the exceptions can be difficult […]
Retired? Briefly Hired? Fired? Strategic school safety leaders need to look deeper at job titles used by security vendors
Retired? Briefl Hired? Fired? Strategic school safety leaders look deeper at job titles used by vendors. The latest marketing trick security product and tech vendors pull on school leaders is to have salespersons staff ‘rebrand’ themselves by not using their vendor job title. Instead they put (ret) on a previous job title in a school […]
Superintendents can learn a critical school safety lesson from the now-former Secret Service director: You can handle an investigation properly, but you may lose your job if you bungle the communications
“You can handle the incident perfectly, but if you screw up the communications you can lose your job.” This insightful observation was shared by a school superintendent many years ago. His guidance was spot-on. In the past few years, it has proven to be true as numerous superintendents and other school administrators have directly or […]
From the White House to the schoolhouse, there is no perfect security – but by focusing on human factors, we can reduce risks
The recent assassination attempt of former President Donald Trump put the U.S. Secret Service’s security practices under the microscope and today led to the resignation of the Director of the Secret Service. The now-former director of the Secret Service admitted to Congress that there were “significant” and “colossal” problems with security at former President Trump’s […]
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 […]
Panic over panic buttons, guardians galore, and other school safety “legislation by anecdote”: Why lobbying based upon single incidents and high-profile tragedies does not necessarily make good school safety law.
Several state legislatures have passed laws requiring schools to have panic buttons or similar emergency alert systems, often dubbed “Alyssa’s Law” based upon advocacy by a Florida parent who lost her daughter in the Parkland school shooting. A number of states have passed laws requiring all schools to have police officers or armed “guardians.” There […]
School security is being sold to the highest bidders. Private equity and venture capital investors are hijacking the school safety field. Will a passion for profits overshadow a passion for school safety?
Follow the money. If you are a superintendent, school board member, or principal you should follow it very closely when it comes to school safety, or you may lose control over decisions about safety in your schools. Private investors are increasingly taking control over the school safety industry Private investors increasingly have their eyes set […]