During a time when violent threats against educational institutions — from elementary schools up to the college level — are at an all-time high, experts are saying that now is the time to keep security concerns front and center when designing school buildings.
In a recent piece for Security Today, Ron Boezwinkle and Jason Russell outline what is needed to make today’s schools safety conscious in their designs. They start the piece by highlighting the reality that fears about school safety are ubiquitous in American society right now. They cite 2023 Gallup poll numbers that reveal 44% of parents report fearing for their children’s physical safety while in school.
In response to these fears, school administrators are taking safety into consideration in how school buildings are designed and renovated to respond to more prevalent threats like school shootings. The two authors of this piece are speaking from authority — Boezwinkle is an architect and client lead at GMB, while Russell is the president and founder of Secure Environment Consultants.
Here’s a look at some of their recommendations and insights:
- Conduct a security assessment — Before making adjustments or devising new security protocols, administrators have to conduct an assessment of the school and its security features. Boezwinkle and Russell write that external security consultants must be brought to the school to “evaluate any vulnerabilities.”
- This is a layered process — Security protocols aren’t universal school-to-school. They must be tailored to fit a school community’s specific needs and need to be three-dimensional in nature. Administrators must take multiple factors into account. “Incorporating layers of security includes creating a secure entrance, then limiting access to classroom wings or pods, followed by securing the individual learning spaces,” they write of this multi-pronged approach.
- Security concerns are more than just violent threats — There are more to security concerns than the kinds of school shootings that dominate national headlines. The authors write that administrators and security professionals at a school must keep in mind that a threat could include concerns like “fire and medical emergencies and leverage alert systems, technology, door locks, and identification” along with proper staff training to handle the wide range of potential threats a given school may face.
- Expensive options aren’t the only way to go — Different schools have their own community-specific needs as well as budgetary concerns. The most expensive solution might not be right for one school compared to another. Russell and Boezwinkle write that a high school might have to zero in on behavioral threat assessments versus an elementary school that might need to invest more in entrances and exterior door improvements. Keeping a learning environment secure means more than investing in big budgets without identifying what the school’s actual needs are.
- Security needs will evolve — Keep in mind that many of today’s outdated school security systems might have been state-of-the-art 20 or 30 years ago. Needs change and evolve. So do security threats. Boezwinkle and Russell write that administrators and security officials at a school must be cognizant that new concerns will emerge, which will require new protocols and technology. A school has to evolve with the times and not be static in its approach to security.
For more on the authors’ recommendations, read their full article here.