Resources

The single-room schoolhouse of yesteryear depicts an idyllic image of education. Recent incidents of school violence, however, have significantly altered that image. As a result, today’s public spotlight is on school security. School boards are scrambling for solutions. Parents want assurances. Students and school faculty are increasingly uneasy. While statistics suggest that the annual number […]

The “ABCs” of Loss Prevention Recent tragedies have magnified the threat of school violence in the minds of students, parents and educators. Unfortunately, the reactionary response is to purchase trendy equipment in an attempt to upgrade security. Before spending valuable school funds, however, it is crucial to take a more thorough approach. In fact, since […]

Question: What is the best way to address the threat of school violence? Answering this question is one of the greatest challenges and most important assignments facing school administrators today. Suggestions provided by local law enforcement, state agencies and/or product vendors are often subjective and simplistic. Sifting through the myriad of possible solutions under varying […]

Introduction The importance of providing a safe school environment for students, staff and visitors cannot be overstated. However, administrators routinely encounter difficult questions as they negotiate the ever-shifting landscape of school safety and security: How much security is too much security? Will parent and community backlash be encountered if changes are made that affect convenience? […]

Let’s name some hot topics in campus security. Certainly “violence” is and will always be a hot topic. Whether considering local incidents, national tragedies, or the recent rash of “copy cat” threats, people tend to allow fear and, sometimes morbid curiosity, to arouse high levels of interest. Of course, “funding” is always a hot topic. […]

Much has been written about specific school shootings and school violence, in general. Relatively little is known, however, of the Red Lake High School shooting that occurred in March of 2005. That incident claimed the lives of ten and injured a dozen more in Red Lake, MN. RETA Security’s involvement in a post-mortem assessment of […]

The main idea of security is captured in the following areas – deterrence (discouraging unauthorized actions), detection (recognizing unauthorized actions), delay (slowing unauthorized actions) and response (reacting to unauthorized actions). If you can increase your effectiveness in these four areas, you are already on your way to being more secure. As a 17-year-old, one of […]

Adults often don’t understand that today’s mobile phone technology allows students to do much more than just study in class. Imagine for a second that you are back in the 11th grade and you’re in a classroom, the likes of which you have never seen before. There are computers all over; a teacher sits at […]

The best school safety policies are only as effective as the people who implement them. Sometimes even the most obvious of security rules get ignored. As a typical student, I have bigger things to worry about: girlfriends, math tests, sports, whether or not I can go to a movie on Friday, and other things that […]

Whether through the adoption of better visitor management procedures, such as the credential exchange, or the purchasing of a visitor management software system, effectively protecting students, staff and visitors in our schools depends greatly on improving access control. Let’s begin those efforts at the front door. Those that accept this challenge can only gain ground […]

Recently, I had the opportunity to speak with a retired school administrator on the topic of access control. He mused over memories of actually arguing against the need to lock exterior doors at his suburban school just a few years ago. At that time, he really did not see a need to secure the building. […]