PASS: Tailoring School Security to Your Requirements

A good football coach comes into an organization and molds his program, his system, to fit the talent on hand.

In Atlanta, we have a new football coach, Dan Quinn, who is doing just that for the Atlanta Falcons. Consultants could learn a thing or two from him.

You see, some consultants look at an organization and provide input based on their hot buttons, and take a cookie cutter approach to making recommendations to that organization. They wrap up all of their recommendations into industry best practices and they try to make it fit whatever environment they are actually consulting in.

With the Partner Alliance for Safer Schools (PASS), we want to do it differently. We are trying to come in and give a toolkit to principals and administrators. They are not security experts but they are responsible for the daily safety of the school and the kids.

A principal’s job is one of the most difficult jobs in the country. They are underfunded; they have federal and state mandates; they have criteria for scores they have to reach; they have parents that get upset.

On top of everything else they have to do, we are throwing security requirements on top of them. We want to give them the information they need to be able to make intelligent and sound decisions based upon security.

In recent years, we’ve seen a number of active shooters in our schools, and often our lack of security has allowed tragic consequences. While these situations do not happen often, we need to mitigate those risks.

We can do so in part by starting to deal with daily risks at schools, such as gang activity, drug dealing, workplace violence, bullying and trespassers. If we mitigate those risks on a daily basis, we are going a long way to mitigate the risks of an active shooter.

Principals and school administrators don’t understand security layers, but the PASS toolkit tells them they can start at the street and move into the school. It provides them with a means to set up security layers within their school system.

There is not a one-size-fits-all approach. A school system in Ohio may have different risks than a school system in downtown Birmingham, Alabama, or somewhere in New Jersey.

To address that reality, the PASS guidelines cover four tiers of emergency preparedness and response measures. Level 1 is not really a level but a starting point at which school officials can assess risks and then begin to move up the tier continuum. As you move up tier continuum, you are getting a better view, and you are getting better security. But at Tier 1, principals can get a basic security program moving while soliciting funding and support. Principals need a starting point to communicate intelligently with companies to help them design what they want, and the PASS guidelines give them that start.

For more information or to begin an assessment at your own school, visit the PASS website at http://www.passk12.org to get started. We look forward to helping you on the path to a safe and secure school.

The views and opinions expressed in guest posts and/or profiles are those of the authors or sources and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Security Industry Association (SIA).