How safe is the school you work in? Are you confident that in the case of an emergency your administration and security teams would be able to respond in a timely and effective manner? In doing research, I found an organization called National School Safety and Security Services that creates school safety plans. The comapny's website is www.schoolsecurity.org This company has been in the school safety planning business for over 25 years.
The National School Safety and Security Services strive to make schools safe from both weather related emergencies and/or school violence. A school district interested in these services would start with the assessment. According to the National School Safety and Security Services, the assessment is "used as a strategic planning tool." In other words, the assessment is not to make a school district feel good or bad about the safety plans they have in place. It is meant to evaluate how effective those plans would be in protecting the students during an emergency. The company tours the school campus. In addition, off campus evaluations are made on school policies and protocols. Based on the findings of the on and off campus assessments the company offers viable solutions to improve school safety.
The school district has the option of purchasing various safety plans from the company. Other services the National School Safety and Security Services offers is risk-reduction training, professional development on how staff should handle school violence, and other high-tech. gadgets meant to ensure student safety, like metal detectors and cameras. The comapny will even conduct what they call table-top exercises. From what I gathered, this is a simulation of an emergency that can run a half day or a full day. This is not a full scale drill because those can be time and labor intensive. Instead, this is meant to be a stress free walk through of how to handle an emergency situation. If I am not mistaken, this is exercise is comprised of more dialogue than what an all out drill would be.
These services are not free of charge, and unfortunately I could not find an actual cost. A school district would have to contact the company to set up a consultation. However, the company did emphasize that the cost included the size of the district, the number of schools within the district that were to be assessed, the time it took to conduct those assessments, completion of a pre-assessment review, the results of the report itself, travel time, a consulting fee, and all expenses, such as travel, logding, and food. Also, it should be noted that the more off site evaluations of school policies and protocol the more expensive it is. Obviously, this would be an expensive endeavor. There is a link on the website to grant information.
Is it worth it? Would most school districts pay to have an evaluation of the effectivness of their safety plans? It is absolutely worth it! I'm not so sure, though, that school districts could afford to have their schools evaluated. Look at the number of school districts locally that are sturglling financially in Michigan's sluggish economy. It seems like this is something all schools should have done. Unfortunately, the cost will hinder most school districts from having if completed. Once something tragic occurs community members will be asking if something could have been done.
I still have many questions regarding this safety assessment and plans. Does the company make any guaratees? How many schools have they evaluated, and what is their track record? Do the schools that had an assessment done feel it was worthwhile? What are your thoughts?
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I can honestly say that I work in the safest school in Saginaw County. My students do not have access to "weapons" that are available to "outside" students. However, my students are much more constructive when it comes to making and using weapons. When it comes down to it, they use their fists.
I have a camera in my classroom, a "guard", and an emergency beeper. I press the little red button when an incident is arising, and guards come to the scene.
Thank you for the link that you provided. It is a really great site that I plan to visit again when I get some time to look more in-depth.
I think that alot of schools would benefit from this type of service. Unfortunately, it all goes back to the money issue. I'd be curious to hear what the schools that have this program think about it.
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