Posted on December 1, 2013
Securing schools
Posted: Sunday, December 1, 2013 1:30 am | Updated: 6:55 am, Sun Dec 1, 2013.
HARRISBURG — Pennsylvania school officials should consider scheduling more drills to prepare for intruders, forming local safety committees and investing in so-called “choke point” campus designs to improve student safety, a new state legislative report has found.Since the Sandy Hook School massacre that took 27 lives last year, Pennsylvania’s 500 schools have been re-evaluating safety plans — much like schools and officials around the nation. The event prompted the state House to convene a special committee to study what schools are doing and how they can improve procedures.“Certainly, tragedies like the Newtown, Conn., shooting cause you to revisit the way you’ve planned to do business and look at all facets of your operations and make sure you’re doing absolutely everything and anything required and possible to keep our kids safe,” Bristol Township Schools Superintendent Samuel Lee said. “If we can’t do that, we can’t do anything. That’s a top priority.”
The final report from the House Select Committee for School Safety provides an overview of safety measures in public and nonpublic schools across the state, and makes recommendations to school officials, local law enforcement and state lawmakers.
“The events just a few states away at Sandy Hook Elementary were always on our minds,” said York County state Rep. Seth Grove, who sat on the school safety committee. “A statewide effort to secure our educational facilities is a challenge in a state as large and diverse as Pennsylvania, but I’m proud of the work we’ve done, and look forward to helping districts implement our recommendations.”
The new report is based on input from school officials, state agencies, law enforcement, mental health experts, students and parents following four public hearings: two at the state Capitol in Harrisburg, one at Sun Valley High School in Aston and one at Slippery Rock University. The special committee, chaired by Lehigh County Rep. Gary Day, was made up of 15 lawmakers, including representatives of standing committees for education, health, local government, children and youth, judiciary and veterans affairs and emergency preparedness.
“When you start to think about safety, there are so many different aspects. You can have weather emergencies, you can have power outages, you can have horrible things with gun violence,” said Rep. Mary Jo Daley, D-148, Narberth, a school safety committee member. “Bullying and mental health issues impact kids’ education.”
‘Choke point’ security models
One of the committee’s top safety recommendations is for schools to design facilities with minimal entrances and exits.
“While no single security measure was universally implemented or mandated, testifiers most frequently noted the importance of defining and securing a single main point of entrance that is staffed with appropriately trained personnel,” the report states.
Some schools don’t have the money to redesign buildings, the report notes, especially amid the moratorium on state reimbursement of new construction projects through the PlanCon program. But most schools have procedures to screen visitors and to keep tabs on campus activity through security officers and surveillance cameras.
The Pennsbury School District uses a design that school officials refer to as a “man trap,” which requires visitors to enter a vestibule and get buzzed in to enter the front office, said Sherwood Taylor, director of administrative services. The school district’s surveillance cameras are accessible in an online system, so Taylor can monitor schools from his desk in the administration building. Police officers alerted to a security issue also can view the camera activity from patrol cars.
“We have a very close relationship with our local police and give them access to our cameras,” he said.
Taylor said the district recently upgraded its camera systems in nearly every school, with plans to equip every building with the upgraded surveillance technology by the end of the school year.
Active shooter drills
State law requires schools to run fire drills once a month, and a disaster or lockdown drill once a year. The committee suggested mandating monthly lockdown drills.
“I was probably a little surprised that they don’t run some of these drills more often,” said Daley, who recalls ducking under her desk during school drills as a child amid the threat of a nuclear disaster.
Many districts already run intruder or active shooter drills more than once a year. In Pennsbury, schools run intruder drills quarterly, and organizers try to mix up the timing and type of emergency.
“We want the kids to practice in different situations,” Taylor said. “They could be at lunch when an alarm comes on. They could be at recess. We’re trying to practice different scenarios so the kids get used to taking the proper precautions. It makes our staff think, too.”
The Bristol Township School District teamed with the local police to put on a major active shooter scenario at the high school over the summer, with faculty and students participating.
“It was about an hour and fifteen minutes and it seemed like it lasted a week,” Lee said. “For us educators who aren’t used to those types of situations, it was quite shocking.”
One of the big questions now, Lee said, is whether the traditional school lockdown is always the best procedure, with an evacuation plan perhaps a better alternative under certain situations.
Among some of the other recommendations:
“We were not making necessarily in most cases really specific recommendations, but more the idea that law enforcement and the school districts should work together, and that that should potentially include MOUs,” she said.
Daley recognized many cash-strapped school districts don’t have the funds to implement some of the suggestions.
Funding challenges
The state has increased funding for school safety in 2013-14, including $8.5 million in state grants for safe schools initiatives.
In Pennsbury, Taylor is applying for a grant to purchase more than 100 new two-way radios since many of their current units are broken. The district could benefit from more funding to upgrade camera systems, and to hire an additional school resource officer, he said. Currently, six full-time and 24 part-time security officers work for the district, which has about 10,500 students in 15 schools.
“Every grant opportunity, we are writing to enhance what we have,” Taylor said. “We always budget to the funding we have, but it’s never enough to cover our needs.”
The state Department of the Auditor General reviews the safety of school buildings, including whether doors stay locked and the staff gets proper training.
Last year, state auditors conducted 610 initial safe school reviews involving more than 1,500 school buildings, Auditor General Eugene DePasquale told the school safety committee at its July 15 hearing in Harrisburg. In many cases, auditors found that crisis plans had not been updated or explained to local law enforcement, and sometimes individual duties during an emergency weren’t defined clearly enough.
“While we are pleased that our audits resulted in school security improvements, we are constantly looking for ways to improve the process and help provide even greater safety for school students, teachers and staff,” DePasquale said. “As fiscal watchdogs, we will continue to do our part to ensure that schools that receive school safety funding are following the rules.”
View the final report by the House Select Committee for School Safety here.
The final report from the House Select Committee for School Safety provides an overview of safety measures in public and nonpublic schools across the state, and makes recommendations to school officials, local law enforcement and state lawmakers.
“The events just a few states away at Sandy Hook Elementary were always on our minds,” said York County state Rep. Seth Grove, who sat on the school safety committee. “A statewide effort to secure our educational facilities is a challenge in a state as large and diverse as Pennsylvania, but I’m proud of the work we’ve done, and look forward to helping districts implement our recommendations.”
The new report is based on input from school officials, state agencies, law enforcement, mental health experts, students and parents following four public hearings: two at the state Capitol in Harrisburg, one at Sun Valley High School in Aston and one at Slippery Rock University. The special committee, chaired by Lehigh County Rep. Gary Day, was made up of 15 lawmakers, including representatives of standing committees for education, health, local government, children and youth, judiciary and veterans affairs and emergency preparedness.
“When you start to think about safety, there are so many different aspects. You can have weather emergencies, you can have power outages, you can have horrible things with gun violence,” said Rep. Mary Jo Daley, D-148, Narberth, a school safety committee member. “Bullying and mental health issues impact kids’ education.”
‘Choke point’ security models
One of the committee’s top safety recommendations is for schools to design facilities with minimal entrances and exits.
“While no single security measure was universally implemented or mandated, testifiers most frequently noted the importance of defining and securing a single main point of entrance that is staffed with appropriately trained personnel,” the report states.
Some schools don’t have the money to redesign buildings, the report notes, especially amid the moratorium on state reimbursement of new construction projects through the PlanCon program. But most schools have procedures to screen visitors and to keep tabs on campus activity through security officers and surveillance cameras.
The Pennsbury School District uses a design that school officials refer to as a “man trap,” which requires visitors to enter a vestibule and get buzzed in to enter the front office, said Sherwood Taylor, director of administrative services. The school district’s surveillance cameras are accessible in an online system, so Taylor can monitor schools from his desk in the administration building. Police officers alerted to a security issue also can view the camera activity from patrol cars.
“We have a very close relationship with our local police and give them access to our cameras,” he said.
Taylor said the district recently upgraded its camera systems in nearly every school, with plans to equip every building with the upgraded surveillance technology by the end of the school year.
Active shooter drills
State law requires schools to run fire drills once a month, and a disaster or lockdown drill once a year. The committee suggested mandating monthly lockdown drills.
“I was probably a little surprised that they don’t run some of these drills more often,” said Daley, who recalls ducking under her desk during school drills as a child amid the threat of a nuclear disaster.
Many districts already run intruder or active shooter drills more than once a year. In Pennsbury, schools run intruder drills quarterly, and organizers try to mix up the timing and type of emergency.
“We want the kids to practice in different situations,” Taylor said. “They could be at lunch when an alarm comes on. They could be at recess. We’re trying to practice different scenarios so the kids get used to taking the proper precautions. It makes our staff think, too.”
The Bristol Township School District teamed with the local police to put on a major active shooter scenario at the high school over the summer, with faculty and students participating.
“It was about an hour and fifteen minutes and it seemed like it lasted a week,” Lee said. “For us educators who aren’t used to those types of situations, it was quite shocking.”
One of the big questions now, Lee said, is whether the traditional school lockdown is always the best procedure, with an evacuation plan perhaps a better alternative under certain situations.
Among some of the other recommendations:
- Install “panic buttons” — like the kind that trigger silent alarms in banks — in school main offices;
- Provide teachers and administrators with wireless pendants that can alert emergency responders to trouble;
- Install ID scanners at visitor checkpoints to recognize sexual offenders registered under Megan’s Law;
- Mandate all students and staff carry identification badges; and
- Set up electronic notifications systems to inform parents about emergencies.
“We were not making necessarily in most cases really specific recommendations, but more the idea that law enforcement and the school districts should work together, and that that should potentially include MOUs,” she said.
Daley recognized many cash-strapped school districts don’t have the funds to implement some of the suggestions.
Funding challenges
The state has increased funding for school safety in 2013-14, including $8.5 million in state grants for safe schools initiatives.
In Pennsbury, Taylor is applying for a grant to purchase more than 100 new two-way radios since many of their current units are broken. The district could benefit from more funding to upgrade camera systems, and to hire an additional school resource officer, he said. Currently, six full-time and 24 part-time security officers work for the district, which has about 10,500 students in 15 schools.
“Every grant opportunity, we are writing to enhance what we have,” Taylor said. “We always budget to the funding we have, but it’s never enough to cover our needs.”
The state Department of the Auditor General reviews the safety of school buildings, including whether doors stay locked and the staff gets proper training.
Last year, state auditors conducted 610 initial safe school reviews involving more than 1,500 school buildings, Auditor General Eugene DePasquale told the school safety committee at its July 15 hearing in Harrisburg. In many cases, auditors found that crisis plans had not been updated or explained to local law enforcement, and sometimes individual duties during an emergency weren’t defined clearly enough.
“While we are pleased that our audits resulted in school security improvements, we are constantly looking for ways to improve the process and help provide even greater safety for school students, teachers and staff,” DePasquale said. “As fiscal watchdogs, we will continue to do our part to ensure that schools that receive school safety funding are following the rules.”
View the final report by the House Select Committee for School Safety here.
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