How to Keep a School Site Secure

Providing a safe learning environment through ‘smart’ on-campus security is one of the most important responsibilities for schools across America.

Over the past few years, school security has been prioritized with greater investment of time and resources in safety measures. It’s a school’s direct responsibility to implement solutions that consider the various nuances of a school’s environment. From implementation of best-practice protocols and training, through to preventative technologies and systems to heighten the on-campus security and capabilities in times of an emergency – schools are capitalizing on more sophisticated ways to keep schools’ sites more secure.

Here are some of the most effective strategies and methods that your school can implement to advance its school site security.

Safety Prevention

The physical safety of students is the primary concern for all education providers in America. Therefore, the first and most important step to upholding school security is adopting a School Emergency Operations plan. This allows you to implement a security infrastructure that provides protection, enables students to attend school with peace of mind, and fosters an enhanced learning environment.

All schools must have an emergency plan in place to outline necessary protocols and ensure student safety in an emergency. When reviewing your emergency plan, it’s important to outline all protocols in a systematic and logical manner. Involving a multitude of stakeholders during the planning process is also beneficial to ensure no procedures are overlooked.

Another key prevention method is creating a positive and supportive environment in which students help one another, discourage violence or bullying, in turn helping promote a safer school environment. Combining a strategy that facilitates security protocols and student-based support has proven the most effective way to foster a supportive and safe learning experience.

Safety Monitoring

To help facilitate the long-term well-being of staff and students, it’s necessary to monitor your school regularly. Adopting the most advanced technology into your school security systems allows you to monitor who is entering and leaving the school grounds at any given time. It also enables you to understand the school community and interactions within the space giving credence to addressing issues at their core.

One key technology that schools can incorporate into all security monitoring procedures is video surveillance, providing your school with 24/7 coverage of who is on the premises and their movements. Having the ability to monitor your school site at any given time allows you to reduce external threats and offers greater perspective in an emergency. The addition of cloud-based solutions can enhance security controls and allow a deeper understanding of how your school operates. When an emergency does arise, features such as motion sensors allow you to find footage of specific regions and can receive vital information to act quickly against any threat towards student safety.

Safety Warnings

A coherent school emergency operations plan ensures that both staff and students have a thorough understanding of protocols associated with an emergency event. However, a plan of action is not enough. Efficient communication is a vital factor in your ability to react to an emergency or threat. Alerting emergency systems facilitates the communication of essential information and enables you to inform staff and students of the important updates during an emergency.

The LENS solution can address communication needs and provide reassurance in the event of a lockdown or emergency. LENS is an emergency notification system that fully automates communication processes during an emergency. LENS promptly notifies proper authorities and everyone in the school grounds of the emergency. This integrated technology solution greatly improves your school’s ability to respond to a threat or an emergency; helping to protect staff and students 24/7.

It’s vital to ensure your school site is safe and secure to protect your students and teachers. By implementing the right processes and procedures, your school can facilitate a positive learning space for students. This will ensure that staff and students have the right knowledge and awareness to handle situations as they arise.

For more information regarding emergency notification solutions like LENS and video surveillance, contact Eastern DataComm for a consultation to adopt the most appropriate solutions to protect your school.

School Safety During an Emergency

When an emergency strikes your school, the situation must be handled quickly and effectively to minimize further risk and incidents. Does your school provide a safe school environment during an emergency? It’s vital that each situation has been carefully planned for and that a comprehensive implementation plan is actioned.

There’re many school emergencies that can occur such as: fires, floods, student injuries, dangerous animals, gas leaks, missing students, hostage, or bomb situations and many other events. When your school can effectively manage an emergency, your school has the opportunity to provide additional support to students and educators, while developing effective coping mechanisms for everyone involved.

Here’s what your school should be doing to keep safe in an emergency.

Regulatory Compliance

Schools must be aware of the latest local regulations and written policies and procedures when it comes to handling emergency situations. If your school wants to effectively manage emergency situations, you can regularly practice, monitor, and review existing policies and procedures with educators, and pass on the necessary information and steps to students. By doing this, your school can ensure both students and educators are clear on the complying with legal and organisational regulations. If you want to be proactive and maximize your school safety, you can display a floor plan of the school with the required steps and procedures near exit doors and in classrooms. This enables students to easily review the required actions for an emergency and become familiar with them.

Delegate Educator Roles and Responsibilities

For a school safety plan to be successful during an emergency, it’s essential for the roles and responsibilities to be delegated to the appropriate educators and employees. These roles should be frequently discussed in meetings and practiced each month for everyone to be aware of what their role entitles and what their responsibilities are in the event of an emergency. The safety of students is the number one priority of schools and it’s important you do everything possible to maintain a safe environment for everyone.

Develop Evacuation Plans

Evacuation plans are used when a school must immediately leave the area as the school facility is no longer safe and there’s risks of danger to the wellbeing of students and educators. Evacuation plans are vital and must be implemented and practiced in all schools. To further protect the safety of your school, you can display the plan on a map in a prominent area throughout the school so it can be reviewed. The one-page map must be simple and have an assemble location and step-by-step overview of the evacuation process.

Here are 7 key steps in an evacuation plan:

  1. Sound the school warning alarm
  2. The nominated employer or supervisor can dial 911
  3. The nominated employee can collect an emergency pack (mobile, first aid, attendance list and records)
  4. All educators must direct students to the nominated assembly locations (often a large open space such as an oval or sports court)
  5. Check student attendance list
  6. Wait for emergency services and agencies to attend
  7. Remain at assembly location until advised by emergency services it’s safe to return to the school facilities.

Plan for School Lockdowns

In some emergencies, your school employees can manage a lockdown without the need for emergency services. More serious situations like threats of violence from intruders will require emergency services. When emergency services are needed, the school must act fast by locking doors, closing windows, and getting students and educators to hide under tables and stay down low out of site from intruders.

Here are 8 key steps in a lockdown plan:

  1. Sound the school warning alarm
  2. The nominated employer or supervisor to dial 911 (if required)
  3. Immediately lock all doors, windows, and access points, while closing blinds (if available)
  4. Ensure everyone is hidden and stays down low out of site from the intruders
  5. Check the attendance list of students
  6. Educators should provide support to students – try to calm them down and remain quiet
  7. Liaise with emergency services and delegate communications across the school
  8. Remain in lockdown until emergency services give all clear

Improve School Safety with an Emergency Pack

If your school is organized and prepared with an emergency pack, you can improve your school safety during an emergency. An emergency pack contains a range of supplies that might be required should an emergency situation occur. Your school can ensure the emergency pack is always prepared by scheduling monthly checks during your audit and practice of emergency plans. What should your emergency pack contain to improve school safety during an emergency?

  • Portable first aid kit
  • Portable emergency contact list (laminated to prevent damage)
  • Tissues
  • Plastic bags
  • Fully charged mobile phone
  • Copy of evacuation and lockdown plan and procedures
  • Reading books to entertain distressed students
  • Bottled water and plastic cups

An emergency pack can contain a range of items which can be tailored to the needs of your students and your school.

To improve safety during an emergency, your school must constantly review existing plans and procedures, undertake audits and find new ways to advance your plans and procedures, educate both employees and students and regularly practice the required steps and procedures with employees and students. By considering these factors and implementing new precautions to ensure your plans are up-to-date and effective, your school can provide a safer school environment during an emergency. By having a clear plan for the management of emergency situations, your school can quickly reduce the risks of harm and closely monitor students who are unable to concentrate or cope during an emergency.

What Teachers need to do in an emergency lockdown

Your worst nightmare is here. You’ve heard an alarm, there is an intruder in your school. Do you know what to do in a school emergency lockdown?

An emergency lockdown is used when a threat or incident occurs on the school premises. When a lockdown takes place, teachers must act quickly, and undertake tried and tested procedures and precautions to ensure a safe school environment for students.

How to Protect Schools from Intruders

Every school has a duty of care to provide a safe environment for students and educators. School is more than just a place to prepare you for a job, it’s a place for students to grow, interact with others, develop their skills, and get a real education. It’s for this reason schools must provide a safe working and learning environment for students, to help them achieve their best academically and develop socially. One of the many responsibilities of schools is to take the necessary preventative measures and protocols to protect students from intruders by implementing an efficient safety plan. Here are some ways your school can protect students and educators from potential dangers like intruders.

Eastern DataComm New Website Launched

We are thrilled to announce the launch of our newly designed website. Visit us at https://easterndatacomm.com/ to see the new website. After four months of work and commitment, we are delighted to reveal our new website officially on March 23, 2021. We wanted to make the new website user-friendly, easy to navigate and align with our new brand.

As an innovation leader in communication solutions, we need to make our customized solutions easy to understand, and our services are accessible for our existing and future clients. We strive to provide the most comprehensive solution on the market with our LENS (Lockdown & Emergency Notification System.

Our objective with this new website is to provide our visitors an easier way to learn about Eastern DataComm’s services and review information based on your Industry or interest.

We hope you have a great experience as you explore our new website.

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