“Fast” does not equate to “best.”

This was my response in a communication with a private school administrator who shared with me yesterday that her school’s board of trustees had been pondering a school security assessment for three months, but then when the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting occurred, they wanted the process expedited. Since scheduling over the Christmas break would be difficult for the school staff, she in essence checked the references of one of the first security consultants who personally answered the phone and contracted with that consultant.

Fortunately, we were not that consultant. If that is how this particular school’s board and administration makes decisions on school security, I’d prefer to stay far, far away. They sound like a “liability waiting to happen.”

We also know the security consultant who is sitting by the phone all of the time is obviously not out working with schools.

In the hours and weeks following the Sandy Hook Elementary School shootings, we continue to receive inquiries from school districts seeking school security assessment services. While we don’t encourage “paralysis by analysis,” we do encourage school leaders to make informed, thoughtful decisions when selecting school security consultants.

What is a school security or safety assessment?

Our approach to school security / safety assessments is to provide educators an independent evaluation by experienced school security professionals of existing positive safety measures in their schools and recommendations for building upon those measures in a strategic plan reporting approach.

A professional school security assessment is more than a checklist template of physical security equipment measures that will end up in a report recommending that schools spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on new equipment.

We look at a variety of issues in an assessment including:

• School emergency and crisis preparedness planning
• Security, crime and violence prevention policies and procedures
• Physical security measures  including access control, communications capabilities, intrusion detection systems, perimeter security, after hours security, physical design, and many related areas
• Professional development training needs related to school safety and emergency planning
• Examination of support service roles in school safety, security, and emergency planning including facilities operations, food services, transportation services, pupil services, physical and mental health services, technology services, and associated school departments
• School security and school police staffing, operational practices, and related services
• Linking of security with prevention and intervention services
• Personnel and internal security
• School-community collaboration, school and public safety agency partnerships, and school-community relations issues on school safety

…and much more!!!

Security assessment final reports

Any safety / security assessment conducted by a professional school security consultant will culminate with a final report. Any consultant who even entertains the idea of not providing the client with a report would seem to be putting not only their client school or school district, but also themselves, in a high-risk position for potential legal and public relations liability down the road.

As experienced school safety professionals, we structure our reports to highlight the many positive aspects of safety, security, and preparedness in place in our clients’ schools. Educators and their school-community should know what they are doing right so they continue down that path. Recommendations are framed as steps to build upon those strengths and serve as a strategic plan for the school or school district to use in the months and years ahead.

The failure of a security consultant to provide a written report not only leaves no record of the service provided by the consultant, but also opens up the school or school district to speculation and false allegations of what they may or may not have been told by the consultant. A written report removes any doubt and, if done by an experienced school safety professional, will provide the school or school district with supportive evidence to demonstrate their commitment to school safety and a report that is a positive public relations tool to reassure the school community.

Consultants who provide “draft” reports can open up schools for claims of tampering, political influences, and/or controversy. We saw that recently in Bibb County, Georgia, where controversy arose in a local newspaper story questioning changes in a school security consultant firm’s report about a recommendation for the district to change it’s discipline policy. The district came under fire again over differences in crime and discipline data in the consultant’s reports. And later, the media raised questions of conflicts when the consulting firm’s vice president was hired as the district’s school police chief following a reported recommendation by the security consulting firm that the district fill the vacancy.

We conduct an exit interview with our client school district project coordinators to discuss our key observations. This affords them the opportunity clarify any facts, if need be. But we do not allow them to “red ink” a “draft” report and/or in any way position themselves where they could be accused of compromising the integrity of the assessment process.  In the end, the schools get a professional, honest, and independent assessment with opportunity for input all throughout the process, but without putting themselves or the security consultants in a position for public controversy like that in the Bibb County news stories.

Watch for red flags in selecting school security consultants

Over the years, especially after high-profile school shootings, we have encouraged school leaders to exercise caution in hiring school security consultants. We have provided a number of tips for selecting school security consultants. These tips have held true throughout the years.

We also encourage school leaders to obtain at least ten written school reference letters about prospective school security consultants from prior school clients. Names and phone numbers are one thing and can be helpful, but a written reference letter provides an additional layer of comfort and security to school leaders not familiar with a prospective school security consultant’s work.

Our firm is not the only firm providing school security assessments. There are other qualified individuals. But there are also too many high-risk individuals and companies that can lead their client schools to public controversy, rather than positive public relations.

Ken Trump

Federal funding for school safety, security, school policing, and emergency / crisis preparedness was chipped away and eventually eliminated from the federal budget by President Obama and Congress during the four years prior to the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting that resulted in the deaths of 20 children and six adults.

While no one can say whether these programs would have specifically prevented the Sandy Hook attack, it can easily be argued that the elimination of these federal grant programs de-emphasized school security, school police, school emergency preparedness, and school violence.

In fact, Kevin Jennings, Obama’s then-assistant deputy secretary for Safe and Drug Free Schools, proudly boasted in a 2010 interview that the Administration was redefining school safety away from ‘school violence”: 

“The traditional view of a “safe school” has been one in which there is little or no violence on campus.

I think this viewpoint is much too limited.   If you’re only looking at school violence to measure school safety, I believe you’re only seeing the tip of the iceberg.

Consider this: “Incivil behavior” – verbal threats, hate language, bullying, social rejection – is almost twice as likely to predict student “self-protection” (skipping school, avoiding areas/activities) as is crime (theft, attacks) at school.

In a truly safe school – and the definition we use today at the Office of Safe and Drug-Free Schools – students feel like:

• They belong.
• They are valued.
• They feel physically and emotionally safe.

In other words, we put a greater focus on the overall school climate.”

Jennings backed his words with action as the Department of Education, under his leadership, eliminated school violence prevention, security, and emergency preparedness funding including:

1. Readiness and Emergency Management for Schools (REMS) grants designed to help school prevent and manage emergencies including, but not limited to, school shootings like the one at Sandy Hook; and
2. Safe and Drug Free Schools Program that funded drug and violence prevention programs, training security personnel and School Resource Officers (SROs), and other school crime and violence prevention initiatives.
3. Project SERV (School Emergency Response to Violence) funds used to provide short-term resources  such as additional security and mental health services to schools like Sandy Hook that experienced a school shooting or other major act of violence (9/11, etc.).

Before abruptly leaving his post, Jennings made “bullying” nearly the sole focus of his office, with a strong emphasis on the bullying of LGBT youth.  Jennings, a bundler for Obama in the 2008 election, served as founder of the Gay, Lesbian, Straight Education Network (GLSEN) prior to his appointment by Obama.

But Jennings was not the only one cutting programs for school security and school police. Other programs eliminated include:

1. Secure Our Schools (SOS) grant program that provided grants for security equipment, security assessments, and training from the Justice Department’s Office of Community-Oriented Policing;
2. COPS in Schools programs for school-based policing from the Justice Department’s Office of Community-Oriented Policing; and
3. Safe Schools, Healthy Students grant program that provided schools with resources for mental health, violence prevention, and associated needs as jointly funded through the collaboration of the U.S. Departments of Education, Health and Human Services, and Justice.

It is fair to say that two of these programs, the COPS in Schools program and the Safe and Drug Free Schools Program, were chipped away at by the Bush Administration and prior Congressional actions before Obama. The Obama Administration just finished them off.

And Congress has dirty hands in the whole deal, too. It is amazing how even after a 2007 GAO report documenting the lack of preparedness by schools for emergencies, along with hearing testimony before the House Homeland Security Committee, the federal Readiness and Emergency Management for Schools (REMS) grant was eliminated rather than strengthened. Add to that testimony before the House Education Committee in both 2007 and 2009.

My take: Congress has been asleep at the wheel when it comes to federal policy and funding on school safety, security, school police, and school emergency / crisis preparedness.  Meanwhile, the Obama Administration, which has focused its definition of school safety on bullying and civil rights, quietly eliminated all programs associated with the security, policing, emergency preparedness, violence prevention, and mental health school safety programs.

When the good folks inside the Beltway ask, “How did this happen?,” and “What do we need to do to prevent another Sandy Hook?,” I suggest they:

• Grab a mirror and ask themselves about their own actions and inaction; and
• Take a look at their voting record to see which of the above programs they voted to eliminate or failed to proactively advocate for in the federal budget.

These programs may not have prevented the attack at Sandy Hook Elementary School, but they may very well have helped other communities prevent an attack like it.

Ken Trump

Bulletproof backpacks for students. Bulletproof vests for teachers. Arming teachers. Teaching children to attack armed intruders.

These were among the many ideas bantered around in the news, online, and elsewhere across America in the days following the shooting deaths of 20 children and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, CT.

The Today Show (NBC) flew me to Connecticut for a live interview with Erica Hill across the street from the fire station where kids fled to safety after the shooting occurred at their school.  I stayed in town to provide analysis and commentary for CNN, Fox News Channel, and others. I will never forget the looks on the faces of the residents I watched walking through town as I navigated around the area that weekend.

After some careful thought, I pulled together a few initial key points in a brief three minute-plus video to put some context on school safety issues following Sandy Hook.

To date, many ideas put forth have included those that are politically-loaded from special interest advocates, opportunistic by product vendors, and just plain off the wall. I pray that we will be able to have rational conversations and see useful responses from our elected officials in the forthcoming weeks.

Ken Trump

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A belated Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year greeting to our friends, family, and colleagues who follow the School Security Blog.

This holiday season is one I will never forget for reasons both bad and good. On the bad side, the Sandy Hook Elementary School shootings dominated the week prior to Christmas. I spent the weekend after the shooting in Newtown, CT, providing live interviews for NBC’s Today Show, CNN with Soledad O’Brien and Don Lemon, taped and live Fox News Channel interviews, and more. The shell-shocked faces of the town’s residents are impressions that will never leave my mind.

On the good side, like many parents across the nation the Sandy Hook tragedy reminded me of the joys brought to me each day by my children, wife, and family. Even as the national and international media calls persisted through the Christmas holiday, and requests for services mounted from school districts, I felt no guilt in stepping away for family events and activities. To the contrary, this year each and every moment was a bit more enriched by the stark contrast of what I was blessed to experience that 20 other parents just had taken from them in Newtown, CT.

I can’t transfer the imprints from my mind or the emotions from my heart that I felt as I navigated through Newtown in the days after 20 of its youngest children and six of its beloved adults were taken from their families. But I can tell you, ask you, and beg you to slow down, spend that extra minute with your children and family, and treasure each moment.

May 2013 bring a more safe and peaceful world for us all.

Ken Trump

The Plainfield (IL) Police Department’s recent request to allow its School Resource Officers (SROs) to store AR-15 rifles in gun safes at their high school generated quite a buzz. (See the Chicago Tribune story entitled Assault rifles in schools a sign of the times.)

But was the request really unreasonable?

Actually, the request by the police is not unusual. It is also not inconsistent with reasonable tactical planning. It does, however, have an understandable “shock and awe” initial impact to many educators, parents, and lay persons.

We know with the number of “lone wolf” active shooters in the news more often, as well as in prior school shootings, that these incidents often unfold from beginning to end in a matter of minutes. It would be a significant loss of time for an officer, who is outgunned by an intruder armed to the hilt, to return to his/her car to get authorized weapons he/she already has been issued by the police department to address such a threat.

We could do all types of “what if?” questions. What if the office is not near his/her office? What if the officer happens to be outside of the building? All understandable questions but this request is, in essence, simply an extra level of preparedness.

When we encounter this type of request, my concerns tend to lean toward how the weapons would be secured rather than whether or not the request itself is unreasonable. Many SRO offices have false ceiling tiles where someone could climb in over the top. Their offices are rooms for which numerous others may have keys (principals, cleaners, etc.), and they typically do not have dedicated intrusion alarms.

While police appropriately propose storing the weapons in a weapons safe (a solid practice), I tend to recommend additional security measures addressing these other physical security gaps of the office itself. Can ceiling access be eliminated? Can the room be specially keyed? Will a dedicated intrusion detection system (alarm) be put on the room?

In terms of the extent of this practice, nobody knows for sure in hard numbers. Is it something we encounter all the time? No. Is it something we have seen here and there over years past? Yes.

Are the majority of SROs doing it? Nobody knows for sure. There are many variables that come into play including the type of police department equipment issued (some may not even have this type of equipment), police department policy, school district political and image considerations, etc.

My bet is that the last dynamic — school district political and image considerations – would play the greatest role in local debates on this issue. While the need and rationale should be clearly and effectively communicated to members of the school community, school leaders need to remember that school safety and preparedness, not image, should guide their decision-making.

Today’s world is not the same world of a decade ago. Schools reflect that world. School and public safety leaders need to work thoughtfully on sensitive issues like these with safety, not school politics, leading the way.

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“Run. Hide. Fight.” That’s the Department of Homeland Security’s advice for staying safe during a shooting.

“Buy a gun. Take self-defense classes. Teach kids to attack armed intruders in a school.” Those are some recommendations from others.

Following recent mass shootings at an Aurora, Colorado, theater and at a Sikh temple in Wisconsin, the search for solutions intensified as it typically does after high-profile shooting incidents.

As I told Fox News Radio’s Jill Nado, the first step is not running, hiding, or fighting. Instead, I said:

“People have to get a little bit more out of that ‘me, me, me’ society, where they can’t drive and walk without an electronic device attached to their hands, or their ears or their eyes.”

Really? Yes, really.

How on God’s Earth can we really tell people to “see something, say something” when an increasing number of people cannot see a car coming at them in a parking lot because they cannot walk from their parked car to the mall entrance without their reading their emails or getting lost in a cell phone conversation while ignoring the world around them?

As I told Scripps Howard reporter Kristin Volk during a local ABC news TV interview, people should be aware and prepared, but not scared. Go about your business every day, but be more aware of your surroundings:

We can expect more “lone wolf” attackers as economic uncertainty, and people with undiagnosed and/or untreated mental health illnesses, continue to grow.

Many people have a tendency to view threatening comments and behaviors as isolated incidents.  They often miss the bigger picture of a progression of deteriorating events and/or behaviors that escalate to a tragedy. In fact, many people work hard at convincing themselves that what their gut feelings tell them is a red flag of a safety threat is actually nothing.

This summer I spoke with a group of over 150 kids at a youth leadership conference. I had an off-duty police officer walk up to me in the middle of my session, hand me a dollar bill, and leave the room right in the middle of my speech.

Then I asked the kids to describe the man. A number of the youthful observers picked out various pieces of clothing or individual features of the man. But fewer than a handful noticed the man had a gun openly displayed in the small of his back as he walked throughout the conference room.

When I asked the attendees to close their eyes and tell me how many exits were in the room where they were setting, few got the actual number correct.

We are a fast-food society. It is all about “me, me, me.”  What does it say when what is on the I-Phone or Blackberry is more important than the person getting run over by a car thanks to their inattention in walking through a grocery store parking lot?

We cannot “see something, say something” or detect warning signs of a potential mass shooter until we get our heads screwed on properly, put the distractions aside, and pay a little better attention to what is going on around us.

Are you part of the problem or part of the solution?

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