Follow the money. If you are a superintendent, school board member, or principal you should follow it very closely when it comes to school safety, or you may lose control over decisions about safety in your schools. Private investors are increasingly taking control over the school safety industry Private investors increasingly have their eyes set on taking over the school safety field. In some cases, this involves buying up smaller school safety businesses to consolidate under one single company. In other situations, it involves investors pouring money into what they believe are promising comp ..read more

“Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain.” That famous saying came from Wizard of Oz movie. It refers to the Wizard of Oz being exposed as a “normal” man behind the curtain pulling the strings to create the perception of something much different than what it really was in real life. Today the saying lives on to point to the need for people to explore the powers controlling things behind the scenes. No where does this apply more than to the need for school leaders to scrutinize school safety conference speakers whose presence as a speaker is paid for by a school safety vendor. Is your s ..read more

, the world’s leading authority on physical security technology, shows AI weapons detection systems missed their own test gun “a few times with the cameras rolling” in a media demo for a Virginia school district that reportedly signed an $11 million contract for the units. And the school district’s communications director wanted to make sure it did not happen again in front of other reporters. The head of education for the vendor, who was present at the media demo, questioned in the email whether the systems’ sensitivity settings were set “at the level we expected.” In another email, the schoo ..read more

Teachers find that cell phones create classroom distractions. School administrators find they accelerate bullying and conflicts. However, many students — and some very vocal parents — often feel they are essential to school safety. But are the cell phones an emotional security blanket for parents even more than a security tool for students? Some now argue that the real problem is parents who are texting their children throughout the day while their kids are school. And in an emergency incident at school, they can detract from school safety in a number of ways. The pendulum continues its swing ..read more

“I don’t know what to say, how to say it, and when to say it.” Those were the words of a school principal at the beginning of my doctoral program at Johns Hopkins. The topic with which he was struggling: Speaking with parents about school safety. This school administrator was not alone in his struggle with communicating school safety. My research aligned with my three decades of experience in school safety showing many school administrators experience similar communication struggles. Three different states. Three different school districts. Three different circumstances. Same issue: How much ..read more

The headlines include parents dressing down to bypass security and watch their kid attack another student, parents attacking a classroom teacher, and parents going after other students having conflicts with their kids. Principals and their school school safety teams prepare for many potential school security and emergency situations from school shootings to natural disasters and more.  But incidents around the nation in recent years suggest that they also need to discuss how they can prevent, and how they might respond to, parents who threaten and assault teachers, administrators, school ..read more

Strategic school safety leaders must recognize and understand that school safety is a political issue. From the highest national levels to your local school community, politics has infiltrated school safety narratives, policy and funding. Superintendents, school boards, and principals must be consciously cognizant of the increasingly political context around school shootings and school safety. Yet most are too busy with the many day-to-day aspects of running their schools to understand the depth of politics at play. As a career observer of school safety policy, I increasingly believe the polit ..read more

A popular question buzzing through the business and education worlds today asks, “What’s your ‘Why’?” Here’s a closer look at some of the “why” behind my articles and posts about school safety issues: “Does this guy ever post positive things?” or “Are we actually learning from failures?” I hear this question from time-to-time: Does this guy ever post positive things? The answer: Yes. If you have not seen what some would call “pure positives,” scroll back over time. You missed some. Surprisingly though, the purely positive posts (think: SRO saves kid from choking to death, for example) often g ..read more

“We have an entire top leadership turnover since your consultation with us five years ago and nobody can find your assessment report.” Imagine that being your first call in the morning as a school security consultant. How would you feel? The good news is that someone remembered that you were there and did something. But you may also feel frustrated and deflated. It is also frustrating to find outdated school emergency plans at school district and building levels. We have found School Resource Officer (SRO) memorandum of understanding (MOU) agreements outdated by five to ten years. We have eve ..read more

Dear Superintendents and School Boards: Your state legislators are providing you the “best” school security that money can buy — money lobbied for by school safety vendors’ lobbyists, that is! Plus, it will be up to your school district to find the funds to repair, replace, and/or sustain whatever you get once the vendors make their money grabs and disappear after the grant funds are eaten up. Truth is, it may not actually be the “best” school security.  In fact, it may not even be based upon what a comprehensive security assessment of your schools’ risks, threats, vulnerabilities, and ne ..read more