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.
Previous blog posts covered other topics discussed in this
webinar, including Developing a Preparedness Plan, Preparing for an ActiveShooter Situation, Responding to an Active Shooter, and Recovering from anActive Shooter Event.