Is Your School Addressing These Safety and Security Basics?

Written by a state-level school safety expert, this article describes the three major elements of school safety – physical barriers; security devices and procedures; culture and communications – and reviews a five-level framework for managing active security threats in relation to their proximity to classrooms: deter potential threats; detect actual threats; delay the pace at which a threat develops; deny unsafe contact with students and staff; and, in the last necessity, defend spaces where students are present.