Keeping our students safe
In order to address the mass shooting and bullying, …Security is a priority for schools and essential for students because experiencing violence adversely impacts the students’ performance, future life, and the culture of schools (Schwartz, et al., 2016).
School principals are suggested to think about the below actions in order to improve school safety and security
All-hazards school safety plan
Improving school culture.
Integration of new technologies and existing systems.
Identification of school’s needs, budget, and community values before selecting a technology.
What can be done about school violence?
Actions can be done to reduce the school violence, (CBC News: The National, 2019)
The Role of Technology in Improving K-12 School Safety
Several technologies exist to help schools address violence and threats to safety. Some of these technologies such as entry control equipment are commonly used, whereas others such as violence prediction technology are not. For most technologies, there is limited information about their prevalence. For all technologies, evidence of effectiveness is severely limited or nonexistent (Schwartz et. all, 2016).
Employing entry control equipment: Entry control digital equipment can help a lot of the security guards recognize the suspicious cases and avoid entering prohibited things into schools
ID technology
Video surveillance
School-site alarm: available in most schools and helps a lot to decrease incidents
Protection systems
Metal detectors
X-ray machines
Anonymous tip lines
Tracking systems
Mapping schools and bus routes
Using violence prediction technology
Social media monitoring.
Twelve types of technologies suggested for schools' safety by Schwartz et al. (2016)
Twelve Categories of School Safety Technologies, (Schwartz et al. (2016)