What Can We Do To Make Our Schools Safer

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School Safety and Security Best Practices
Presenter Jose Contreras
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In This Presentation

• Define Best Practices
• Discuss Best Practices in Schools
• Discuss Emergency Operations Plans
• Talk about NIMS and ICS requirements
• Discuss Emergency Drills

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What is a Best Practice?

• A best practice is a technique or action through
  either experience or research, which has
  consistently proven to lead to a specific
  positive outcome.
• Some practices may be an innovative or a
  promising practice but not yet proven
  consistently. These practices should be
  considered and a decision made within your
  district or school and could be part of your EOP.

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Identifying Best Practices

• In 2008. ESCs and ISDs, along with the Texas
  School Safety Center, collaboratively developed
  the Texas School Safety Standards.
• Currently the TSSC is leading efforts to
  collaboratively develop Best Practices in School
  Safety which coincide with the Texas School
  Safety Standards.

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Actions Being Taken by Schools

• Improving access control in schools
• Training ALL staff and students
• Using Cameras and Technology
• Adding School Based Law Enforcement
• Adding anonymous tip lines
• Improving climate and culture of schools
• Creating and improving Emergency Operation Plans

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Improving Access Control

• Visitor Policies
• Sign in at office using a photo ID
• Systems that check against Sex Offender Data Base
• Leave ID until visitor signs out
• Questioning reason for visit, in some cases
  requiring appointments and providing escort
• Training Staff and Students to look at visitors
  badges and report those in violation

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Access Control (cont)

• Restricting access so that visitors must go
  through the office
• Monitoring any unlocked entrances
• Teaching classes with doors LOCKED
• Dont prop open doors that are meant to remain
  closed and locked
• Training all staff to look for unusual items,
  unknown persons, and recognize signs of agitation
  or exhibiting threatening behavior

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Access Control (cont)

• Improve Key Management
• Staff sign a log for keys
• Use key blanks that cannot be duplicated
• Identify areas that staff should have access to
  and issue keys to them
• Develop procedures about re-keying locks
• Collect keys upon separation from employment

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Training ALL staff and students

• Often Support Staff are not included in training
• Do ALL staff members respond to drills?
• Do All staff members know what to do in critical
  situations?

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CAMERAS and TECHNOLOGY

• Cameras can monitor areas when or where staff are
  not available
• Provide documentation to solve crimes, vandalism,
  behavior
• Software to develop detailed floor plans and site
  plans
• Electronic door locks that can be operated from
  office or remote locations
• Sign in systems that check databases, document
  and track visitors

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CAMERAS and TECHNOLOGY

• Remember the function of each device
• Cameras record or document
• Cameras cant react and make decisions
• Visitor check in systems only work if all
  visitors have to use them
• Check Sex Offender Registry for areas near each
  campus and bus pick-up points
• Remember there is no way to identify sexual
  predators only REGISTERED sex offenders

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Improving Your Emergency Operations Plans

• Establish a common language
• Are tailored to address local risks and
  vulnerabilities
• Address the diverse needs of students and staff
• Are communicated with stakeholders
• Take an all hazards approach
• Are continually reviewed and revised
• Are developed collaboratively
• Update and create your own SOPs and annexes

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NIMS National Incident Management System
A system used in the US to coordinate emergency
preparedness and incident management among
various federal, state and local agencies
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NIMS is based on an appropriate balance of
flexibility and standardization Flexibility
NIMS provides a consistent, flexible and
adjustable national framework within which
government and private entities at all levels can
work together to manage domestic incidents,
regardless of their cause, size, location or
complexity. Standardization NIMS provides a set
of standard organizational structures, as well as
requirements for processes, procedures and
systems designed to improve operability among
jurisdictions and disciplines in various areas.
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NIMS Compliance

•   All Recipients of Federal preparedness
  funding are required to fulfill NIMS
  Implementation activities in close coordination
  with member of their local government and
  emergency response community.

NIMS mandates the use of ICS
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Incident Command System (ICS)

• A standardized, on-scene, all hazard incident
  management approach based on best practices
• ICS is based upon a flexible, scalable response
  organization providing a common framework within
  which people can work together effectively
• ICS is designed to give standard response and
  operation procedures to reduce the problems and
  potential for miscommunication
• ICS has been summarized as a "first-on-scene"
  structure, where the first responder of a scene
  has charge of the scene until the incident has
  been declared resolved, a superior-ranking
  responder arrives on scene and seizes command, or
  the Incident Commander appoints another
  individual Incident Commander.

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Who Should Be Trained in ICS?

• Key Individuals
• Anyone who has a task in the Emergency
  Operations Plan.
• IS-/ICS-100.A An Introduction to ICS
• IS-/ICS-700 NIMS, An Introduction

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• Emergency management personnel with a critical
  role in response should complete the following
  four courses
• IS-/ICS-100.A An Introduction to ICS
• IS-/ICS-200.A ICS for Single Resources and
  Initial Action Incidents
• IS-/ICS-700 NIMS, An Introduction
• IS-/ICS-800.B National Response Framework An
  Introduction

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Depending on the school and campus, this may
include the following personnel

• Superintendents
• Principals and Asst. Principals
• Administrators
• Security and Police Staff
• Emergency Management (Crisis/Incident Response)
  Team members
• Transportation and Maintenance
• Facilities and Food Preparation Staff

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Where can we get NIMS ICS Training?

• The Texas School Safety Center provides training
  in NIMS and ICS
• FEMAs Emergency Management Institute (EMI)
  provides on line training by visiting their web
  site at
• http//training.fema.gov/IS/crslist.asp

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Why Have Emergency Drills?

• We will know what actions to take
• We will practice those actions so that we can
  perform them in an emergency
• We will test our procedures to see if they will
  work
• We can make adjustments to improve our actions
• Improvements will save lives and prevent injuries

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Emergency Drills

• Drills should be named and announced using plain
  language instead of code words in accordance with
  Incident Command Systems and NIMS
• NO MORE CODES!
• Drills should be taught to students before they
  are practiced including an explanation of why
  they are important

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Drills Schools Should Practice

• Evacuation
• Lockdown
• Shelter in Place
• Reverse Evacuation
• Severe Weather
• Bus Evacuation

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After Action Review

• Following a drill or exercise
• Review what happened
• Get Input from Staff
• What went right what went wrong
• Make changes to drill procedure based on lessons
  learned
• Make appropriate modifications to the EOP

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IN SUMMARY

• Best practices include many policies and
  procedures from lessons learned.
• We need to be more proactive and develop new
  practices before an incident. This will keep us
  from having to learn it from our mistakes.
• All of us have good new ideas that work for our
  school/campus or organization. Keep sharing your
  best practices. Together we will make our
  schools a safer place.

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Resources and Contact Information

• Texas School Safety Center, Texas State
  University- San Marcos 877.304.2727
• www.cscs.txstate.edu/txssc.htm
• Jose Contreras jc83_at_txstate.edu

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