Campus Security Checklist (REVISED)

The following is a post that I wrote in 2012, hoping that I would only have to publish it once.   This is now the fourth time I have shared it.  Hopefully, this time will be the last.

Over the upcoming days, weeks and months there will be considerable hand wringing, finger pointing and second guessing when it comes to analyzing the tragedy of last week. There is little positive to come from this.  An irrational actor, with a mission and no exit strategy, attacked the school.  A perfect storm of unmitigated evil.

In my education leadership career, I do have some unique experience and expertise in school security.  Here are some things that I recommend you should do to review your campus security procedures and practices, today.  This checklist is quick, practical, reasonable and actionable.

1. Keep your exterior doors and windows secured at all times. This may mean that locks need to be replaced and keys need to be inventoried and redistributed.  This should have been done before, do it now.  Stop the practice of people propping doors open when they go outside.  Constantly remind staff and students the seriousness of exterior door safety. Be diligent in modeling and monitoring this practice and dealing with those that forget and break protocol. 

2. Review and practice alert, evacuation, and shelter-in-place procedures. Regularly, not just on the last day of the month. Immediately stop the practice of warning staff when there is going to be a drill.  It defeats the purpose of the drill and creates the learned behavior of, “Checking to see if it is a real emergency.” Also, there should be drills conducted on days when campus leadership is not available.  Emergencies can occur at any time.  Practice accordingly.

3. Keep your head on a swivel.  Stay alert.  When it comes to their surroundings, most adults operate in a fog throughout the day. This is where you can actually use students to help with security.  They are much more alert than we give them credit for.  Teach them to monitor our shared surroundings (visitor badges, unlocked doors, open windows, damaged equipment, unsafe conditions, etc.) and quietly report to their teacher. Make it a game.

4. (NEW) Allow any adult or student on the campus to initiate a lockdown.  This bears repeating, allow any person on the campus (adult or student) to initiate a lockdown.  Most campuses require a previously identified administrator or team to authorize a lockdown of a campus.  That person or persons may not be readily available when an imminent danger is identified.  So for a lockdown, eliminate the middleman and secure the school first. Then only lift the lockdown at the direction of a key administrator or a public safety officer. 

5. When something seems off, listen to your gut.  If you gut is wrong, all you did was take an extra precaution.  If your gut is right, you prevented or reduced the severity of a difficult situation.

6. (NEW) Provide students and teachers with a phone script.  Pre-write a basic, fill-in-the-blank, “Here’s what happened, now we’re safe, how to get me,” script for students and teachers.  As soon as the situation is stable, hand out the scripts and have the students and staff call their loved ones on their cell phones and follow the script.  They are going to call anyway. So manage the situation and reduce the amount incorrect information and panic that is generated from any school safety incident.

7. Plan for the worst. Pray for the best. We should not turn our campuses into armed camps and we cannot live in fear.  But we should be prudent and take reasonable precautions. 

This is a tough time to be an educator.  But this is also a proud time.  We have peers who have paid the ultimate price to protect our children. We will not forget that. And still we man our posts because the job is important and it is what we do.  We Are Teachers.    

Think. Work. Achieve.

Your turn...

• Call Jo at (832) 477-LEAD to order your campus set of “The Fundamental 5: The Formula for Quality Instruction.” Individual copies available on Amazon.com!  http://tinyurl.com/Fundamental5 
• Now at the Apple App Store: Fun 5 Timer (Fundamental 5 Delivery Tool); Fun 5 Plans (Fundamental 5 Lesson Plan Tool) 
• Upcoming Presentations: ASCD Annual Conference; TEPSA Summer Conference 
• Follow Sean Cain and LYS on www.Twitter.com/LYSNation  and like Lead Your School on Facebook

Campus Security Checklist

Sadly, there has been a need to post a version of this a number of times on the blog.  But as we were reminded again this week, we can never ignore campus security.

In my education leadership career, I do have some unique experience and expertise in school security.  Here are some things that I recommend you should do to review your campus security procedures and practices, today.  This checklist is quick, practical, reasonable and actionable.

1. Keep your exterior doors and windows secured at all times. This may mean that locks need to be replaced and keys need to be inventoried and redistributed.  This should have been done before, do it now.  Stop the practice of people propping doors open when they go outside.  Remind staff and students constantly of the seriousness of exterior door safety. Be diligent in modeling and monitoring this practice and dealing with those that forget and break protocol. 

2. Review and practice alert, evacuation, and shelter-in-place procedures, regularly (and not just on the last day of the month). Immediately stop the practice of warning staff when there is going to be a drill.  It defeats the purpose of the drill and creates the learned behavior of “checking to see if it is a real emergency.” Also, there should be drills conducted on days when campus leadership is not available.  Emergencies can occur at any time.  Practice accordingly.

3. Keep your head on a swivel.  Stay alert.  When it comes to their surroundings, most adults operate in a fog throughout the day. This is where you can actually use students to help with security.  They are much more alert than we give them credit for.  Teach them to monitor our shared surroundings (visitor badges, unlocked doors, open windows, damaged equipment, unsafe conditions, etc.) and quietly report issues to their teacher. Make it a game.

4. When something seems off, listen to your gut.  If your gut is wrong, all you did was take an extra precaution.  If your gut is right, you prevented or reduced the severity of a difficult situation.

5. Plan for the worst. Pray for the best. We should not turn our campuses into armed camps and we cannot live in fear.  But we should be prudent and take reasonable precautions. 

I hope that you find this checklist useful and I pray that you will never have to confirm its effectiveness on your campus.

Think. Work. Achieve.

Your turn...

• Call Jo at (832) 477-LEAD to order your campus set of “The Fundamental 5: The Formula for Quality Instruction.” Individual copies available on Amazon.com!  http://tinyurl.com/Fundamental5 
• Call Jo at (832) 477-LEAD to order your campus set of “Look at Me: A Cautionary School Leadership Tale” Individual copies available on Amazon.com!  http://tinyurl.com/lookatmebook 
• Now at the Apple App Store: Fun 5 Plans (Fundamental 5 Lesson Plan Tool); PW Lite (Basic PowerWalks Tool); PW Pro (Mid-level PowerWalks Tool) 
• Upcoming Presentations: The Fundamental 5 National Summit (Multiple Presentations); NASSP National Conference 
• Follow Sean Cain and LYS on www.Twitter.com/LYSNation  and like Lead Your School on Facebook

A Superintendent Shares... Emergency Plans

A LYS Superintendent shares the following:

I had been contemplating writing about the "school to prison" pipeline. Although not unique, I have a collection of experiences that are not common in the field of education. I have served in the military, I was a law enforcement officer, and I am now a school superintendent. Given the recent tragedy and Governor Perry's wise call for schools to review their emergency plans, I decided to delay the "school to prison" pipeline piece and to give my perspectives on school intruder situations.

In law enforcement, these school shootings are generally referred to as "active shooters." The actor is not taking hostages; the actor is intent on murder and is actively carrying out that intent. Law enforcement protocol will be to engage and stop the active shooter. If that is one officer on the scene or fifty, law enforcement will engage and stop an active shooter. I won’t go into the details of law enforcement active shooter methods and tactics for obvious reasons.

In this nightmare situation school's usual response is to go into "lock down" mode. Teachers will lock students into rooms and try to remain out of sight. Going into lock down is a way to be as safe as possible until the cavalry arrives. To say it another way, going into lock down is a way to minimize casualties until law enforcement arrives and stops the active shooter. Notice I used the
word minimize and not stop. Once a person is in your school and actively shooting, you are almost certainly going to take casualties until someone stops the shooter. I see absolutely no way around that fact.

So in the end it comes down to time. Time is equated to lives lost or saved. If you are fortunate enough to have a law enforcement officer on campus, your response time for help will likely be low and the casualties suffered will likely be minimal. If you are relying on off-campus help, your response time will likely be longer, certainly several minutes. Going into lock down can slow the rate of taking casualties, but the casualties are not likely to stop until the active shooter is engaged. When law enforcement arrives, are they going to be familiar enough with the specific building layouts to make it to the right spot? If a shooter is in the band hall, do the responding officers know where the band hall is, or will they have to figure that out once they arrive? That will cost you more time, and casualties.

I would encourage each of us to think of how to minimize the rate of casualties and how to decrease response time at each of our campuses. Every campus is unique. If you are a large district with a police department you have options. But how many school districts with their own police departments put an officer at each elementary campus? If you are in a rural area with law enforcement perhaps 10 minutes away, you may want to think outside the box. Many lives can be lost in 10 minutes of active shooting. I learned this week that some districts authorize certain school personnel to carry weapons on campus. In light of using all available resources, I could make the argument that this is a prudent decision. If you have a principal who has a background in law enforcement, why wait for a 10-minute response when you can have a response in a minute? Do you have a coach on campus who was in the military? In the days of diminishing resources and increasing needs, it may be prudent for each district to exam some of these out of the box options. I know as a veteran of the military and law enforcement it would sicken me to wait minutes for help, help that I have been well trained to provide, knowing that every tick of the clock is a potential life lost.

SC Response

I’m not an advocate for putting more arms on our campuses.  There are just too many “if’s” involved. As a gun owner, I am well aware that the simple fact that having a gun in my house increases the risk of injury in my house.  The clinical logic of your post is compelling (a result of your training and expertise), but as you point out you are unique in our field.  In the review of our emergency and response plans I agree that we should explore every prudent action to secure our campuses. However, I would postpone any decision to arm staff members until our collective raw emotions, anger and fear have been checked.   

Think. Work. Achieve.

Your turn...

• Call Jo at (832) 477-LEAD to order your campus set of “The Fundamental 5: The Formula for Quality Instruction.” Individual copies available on Amazon.com!  http://tinyurl.com/Fundamental5 
• Call Jo at (832) 477-LEAD to order your campus set of “Look at Me: A Cautionary School Leadership Tale” Individual copies available on Amazon.com!  http://tinyurl.com/lookatmebook 
• Now at the Apple App Store: Fun 5 Plans (Fundamental 5 Lesson Plan Tool); PW Lite (Basic PowerWalks Tool); PW Pro (Mid-level PowerWalks Tool) 
• Upcoming Presentations: North Dakota Principals Association Conference (Keynote Speaker), TASSP Assistant Principals’ Workshop (Featured Speaker), American Association of School Administrators Conference (Multiple Presentations), National Association of Secondary School Principals Conference (Multiple Presentations), Texas Association of Secondary School Principals Conference (Multiple Presentations) 
• Follow Sean Cain and LYS on www.Twitter.com/LYSNation

Campus Security Checklist

Over the upcoming days, weeks and months there will be considerable hand wringing, finger pointing and second guessing when it comes to analyzing the tragedy of last week. There is little positive to come from this.  The school was attacked by an irrational actor with a mission and no exit strategy.  A perfect storm of unmitigated evil.

In my education leadership career, I do have some unique experience and expertise in school security.  Here are some things that I recommend you should do to review your campus security procedures and practices, today.  This checklist is quick, practical, reasonable and actionable.

1. Keep your exterior doors and windows secured at all times. This may mean that locks need to be replaced and keys need to be inventoried and redistributed.  This should have been done before, do it now.  Stop the practice of people propping doors open when they go outside.  Remind staff and students constantly the seriousness of exterior door safety. Be diligent in modeling and monitoring this practice and dealing with those that forget and break protocol. 

2. Review and practice alert, evacuation, and shelter-in-place procedures, regularly (and not just on the last day of the month). Immediately stop the practice of warning staff when there is going to be a drill.  It defeats the purpose of the drill and creates the learned behavior of “checking to see if it is a real emergency.” Also, there should be drills conducted on days when campus leadership is not available.  Emergencies can occur at any time.  Practice accordingly.

3. Keep your head on a swivel.  Stay alert.  When it comes to their surroundings, most adults operate in a fog throughout the day. This is where you can actually use students to help with security.  They are much more alert than we give them credit for.  Teach them to monitor our shared surroundings (visitor badges, unlocked doors, open windows, damaged equipment, unsafe conditions, etc.) and quietly report to their teacher. Make it a game.

4. When something seems off, listen to your gut.  If you gut is wrong, all you did was take an extra precaution.  If your gut is right, you prevented or reduced the severity of a difficult situation.

5. Plan for the worst. Pray for the best. We should not turn our campuses into armed camps and we cannot live in fear.  But we should be prudent and take reasonable precautions. 

This is a sad time to be an educator.  But this is also a proud time.  Without a moments hesitation our peers paid the ultimate price to protect our children. We will not forget that. And in the face of fear and uncertainty, the rest of us manned our posts yesterday because the job is important and it is what we do.  We Are Teachers.    

Think. Work. Achieve.

Your turn...

• Call Jo at (832) 477-LEAD to order your campus set of “The Fundamental 5: The Formula for Quality Instruction.” Individual copies available on Amazon.com!  http://tinyurl.com/Fundamental5 
• Call Jo at (832) 477-LEAD to order your campus set of “Look at Me: A Cautionary School Leadership Tale” Individual copies available on Amazon.com!  http://tinyurl.com/lookatmebook 
• Now at the Apple App Store: Fun 5 Plans (Fundamental 5 Lesson Plan Tool); PW Lite (Basic PowerWalks Tool); PW Pro (Mid-level PowerWalks Tool) 
• Upcoming Presentations: North Dakota Principals Association Conference (Keynote Speaker), TASSP Assistant Principals’ Workshop (Featured Speaker), American Association of School Administrators Conference (Multiple Presentations), National Association of Secondary School Principals Conference (Multiple Presentations), Texas Association of Secondary School Principals Conference (Multiple Presentations) 
• Follow Sean Cain and LYS on www.Twitter.com/LYSNation