Tuesday, September 10, 2013

Active Shooter in Public Schools, Part 5: Prevention


On Aug. 14, 2013, ASSE presented Emergency Management: Active Shooter in Public Schools, a webinar addressing the process of preventing, preparing for, responding to and recovering from active shooter situations in schools.

Speaker David J Akers III, a safety and occupational health professional at Concurrent Technologies Corporation, concluded the webinar with the following strategies for preventing active shooter situations in public schools:

  • Review all security, crime and violence prevention policies and modify them as needed.
  • Train teachers, staff and students on how to identify escalating violent behaviors among other individuals at the school.
  • Provide parents with feedback on any behaviors their children may be exhibiting that are of concern.
  • Address all violent behavior and ensure corrective action like counseling, suspension and expulsion.

Additionally, Akers suggested several strategies for deterring or preventing unauthorized entry into the school:
 
  • Post signs stating that unauthorized trespassers are subject to arrest.
  • Introduce parking regulations so that vehicles belonging to visitors will be easy to identify.
  • Enforce dress codes for students and staff so that visitors will stand out.
  • Limit the number of entry points to the building using fencing, security guards, metal detectors and other measures.

Furthermore, the following strategies can be used to stop unauthorized people and objects from entering the building:

Security Guards or other hired individuals can be used for letting in authorized individuals and denying access to others. They can also be helpful for observing abnormal situations, such as a person who appears intoxicated loitering near the building.

Access Cards can be used as an easy way to let in authorized individuals without leaving doors unlocked or requiring constant supervision. However, users might share cards, and vandalism to card readers can occur.

PIN Entry using a keypad is relatively reliable, although users can forget or share their PINs.

Biometric Devices can identify authorized individuals using technology that recognizes fingerprints, faces, voices and other physical attributes. Some of these technologies are limited in their reliability due to changes in physical attributes. For example, voice recognition devices will at times fail to recognize someone’s voice simply because they are sick.

Metal Detectors can be used to detect knives and firearms, however, they generally cannot recognize items in bags and require use of hand searches or x-ray baggage scanners.