Will cybersecurity receive E-rate funding?
Since 2016, more than 1,300 schools have been victims of cyberattacks, including student data breaches, ransomware attacks, email scams, and other incidents, according to a CISA report.
School security
How to block school security threats now–and in the future
The typical K-12 school system has the same basic security needs as any modern university campus: centralized management and control of security systems and procedures, and a strategy…
The biggest changes to school security in 2018
The complexity of ensuring our schools and education facilities are both safe and secure has grown tremendously. Brass key systems are increasingly supplemented with secure credentials as access…
A unique approach to school security: Bulletproof whiteboards?
What's lighter than a typical whiteboard, will stop multiple rounds of ammunition, and is 2.5 times stronger than Kevlar? According to Hardwire LLC, a company specializing in ballistic…
Obama to unveil gun violence, school security measures
President Barack Obama's broad effort to reduce gun violence and boost school security will include proposed bans on military-style assault weapons and high-capacity ammunition magazines, as well as…
Texas town allows teachers to carry concealed guns in school
In the tiny Texas town of Harrold, children and their parents don't give much thought to security at the community's lone school—in part because some of the teachers…
Leaders eye school safety plans after Connecticut attack
The mass killing inside a Connecticut elementary school has educators across the country reviewing their school security measures, reassuring parents, and asking, "What if?"
Detroit leads way in school security with high-tech scanning system
This article is no longer available.
LA schools step up security after student shooting
Security officers wielding metal detecting wands meticulously searched students Wednesday as they waited in a long line outside a Los Angeles high school where two 15-year-olds were shot…
Districts install x-ray machines to boost school safety
More schools are turning to x-ray machines to strengthen and improve school security—a move that school safety experts say can improve physical safety as well as students’ and…
U.K. schools install facial recognition cameras to curb tardiness
In a controversial move that could make taking attendance a thing of the past, some U.K. schools are using cutting-edge cameras to scan students’ faces as they enter…
SROs: A great investment in campus safety
One of the best security measures any district can employ is a school resource officer (SRO)--a trained police officer assigned to a campus. If an emergency strikes, the…
Campus recovering after massacre
It’s been more than five years now since a 16-year-old student at Red Lake High School in Minnesota shot and killed his grandfather and the grandfather’s girlfriend. He…
More schools take security seriously
As we enter a new school year, I'm happy to see several districts spent the summer making investments in keeping their students, faculty and staff safer. One New…
Train and maintain
One of the more confusing stories I’ve read lately comes from East St. Louis, Ill., where burglars have taken more than $1 million in...
Copper thieves continue to strike
Schools are not immune. I recently wrote about an Oklahoma district hard hit by thieves taking or gutting…
We owe our students more
Once a student becomes a victim of a school crime, he or she becomes more aware of…
Detroit’s commitment to school security
The Detroit Public Schools is moving briskly forward with plans to spend nearly...
Great cooperation between school and law enforcement officials
School and law enforcement officials in Central Florida’s Volusia County are to be commended for their efforts to…
Handcuffs for first graders?
How far can a school go in disciplining students? Twenty states have laws permitting…
Schools: Protect yourselves
Here’s another story that leaves me shaking my head. A Midwestern school district has reported…
Don’t ‘pass the trash’
An investigation in 2008 by the state of Oregon found that 47 schools in the state had made a “pass the trash” deal over the previous five years.…
What price on student safety?
One of the most important security measures any district can employ is a program in which…
Cameras up North
Although security cameras in schools raise staff and student privacy issues, they can be highly beneficial when it comes to...
Practice the plan
Recently police officers moved through a Florida middle school hunting for a gunman that had opened fire on campus. There was blood everywhere. Students were lying on the…
Securing K-12 networks for 1:1 computing
The adoption of 1:1 computing programs and online K-12 learning programs are driving an industry-wide move toward accessible network access. In East Grand Rapids Public Schools, and in…
Lock the gates
It seems a first-grade student recently slipped away from a Massachusetts school with the intention of walking home. Apparently, none of the school staff noticed him leaving. Fortunately,…
Kid vandals?
The criminals seem to get younger all the time. A school in Louisiana recently reported...
3,000 new sex offenders each month
As of June, there are now 716,750 registered sex offenders in this country. What alarms me is that number is up nearly 72,000 over the past two years.…
Protect teachers, too
Most often, talk about securing campuses centers around protecting the students. But there are times that we have to remember that we need to...
More on preparing for a potential campus lockdown
In my last higher-education blog, I wrote about planning for how and when to lockdown a campus. Once the task force is in place and working, it’s time…
Peers judge peers
The idea behind zero tolerance for school violence is generally a good one. But some states and local districts have taken their policies a little bit too far...
Cameras help the human eye
We always have to be cognizant of privacy rights when installing cameras. I could never support cameras in restrooms or athletic locker rooms. But I also don’t see…
Problems happen
Fortunately, the cost of delaying installation of basic security measures didn’t result in much more than an inconvenience for one midwest K-12 district.
Security expert offers valuable insights for schools
Six things administrators can do to enhance the safety of their schools … two key ways to prevent bullying from occurring … how to control access to school…
No access for bad guys
In my last blog, I referenced some of the security measures used on K-12 campuses, according to a Zogby International survey of 400 teachers. The most popular measure…
Teachers speak about campus security
Last fall I was involved with a Zogby International survey, in which 400 K-12 teachers answered all manner of campus security questions. There were some interesting findings. Nearly…
Administrators take top role in security
Everyone involved with our schools has a role in keeping our campuses safe and secure. That includes teachers, staff, parents, students, and law enforcement.
Digital copiers pose security threat
Although stolen laptops and computer-savvy hackers are frequently the focus of school security discussions, information retained when sensitive documents are photocopied poses another very real, although often overlooked,…
Employee in webcam spying flap: Teen had no expectation of privacy
A school technology official at the center of a webcam spying scandal says the Pennsylvania student suing her employer should not have had any expectation of privacy, because…