|
|
| Author: |
Bret Rachlin |
Created: |
2/15/2008 1:12 PM |
 |
| Education Blog |
By Bret Rachlin on
6/27/2008 3:06 PM
From network video surveillance to access control systems to mass communication systems, schools have many different solutions they can purchase to enhance their safety and security initiatives. Of course, funding those initiatives can be challenging as a great deal of school budgets continue to be cut. With that in mind Campus Safety Magazine’s “12 Common Mistakes Campuses Make When Applying for Grants” (Source: Campus Safety Magazine, 6/26/2008) is especially relevant now.
Some of the mistakes schools make when applying for grants include using boilerplate templates, which ...
Read More »
|
By Bret Rachlin on
6/20/2008 2:38 PM
Teachers in Philadelphia are concerned for their safety and their students’ after the School Reform Commission terminated contracts with two local organizations who provide “safety support workers” in schools (Source: Philadelphia Daily News, 6/11/2008, Teachers union questions safety of schools that lost monitors). Since the changes took place in early May, at least one teacher “complained that it has been harder to maintain control in the school since the district terminated the contracts.” His school went from six safety workers to two.
T ...
Read More »
|
By Bret Rachlin on
6/13/2008 4:10 PM
The Pine-Richland School District near Pittsburgh, PA, is walking the walk when it comes to school security, as it shows off its new state-of-the-art Eden Hall Upper Elementary School, set to open in August for fourth through sixth graders (Source: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 6/12/2008, Pine-Richland focuses on security). Pennsylvania’s Auditor General Jack Wagner, whose office usually focuses on fiscal audits, has added a safety checklist to its public school audits.
“A child needs to learn within a safe environment. We thought it was vital ...
Read More »
|
By Bret Rachlin on
6/6/2008 10:24 AM
Last month’s earthquake in China unfortunately illustrated the tragic repercussions when school buildings are not built to withstand natural disasters like earthquakes. While most schools in earthquake zones in the United States are now designed to mitigate catastrophes resulting from major earthquakes, schools still need to plan for emergencies. Risk RED: Risk Reduction Education for Disasters, a virtual non-governmental organization that consults on reducing disaster risk, developed a two-page school disaster reduction and readiness checklist (Source: Risk RED, 5/15/2008,
Read More »
|
By Bret Rachlin on
6/1/2008 7:39 PM
With Wren adding several new school customers over the past year that are leveraging network video, the following video highlights why network video is the optimal solution for schools' video surveillance needs.
Read More »
|
By Bret Rachlin on
5/30/2008 2:08 PM
Earlier this week SecurityInfoWatch Radio released Episode 27 (Source: SecurityInfoWatch.com, 5/27/2008, School Security Roundtable) of its radio podcast series. This episode focuses on the challenges facing K-12 schools, colleges and universities as those organizations protect their students and secure their campuses. Sharing their thoughts on the school safety and security challenges are independent campus security consultant Dr. Adam Thermos along with Cindy Downing of Honeywell Security and Andy Wren of Wren Solutions. From issues of where to put surveillance cameras, how to use shelter-in-place systems to funding and mo ...
Read More »
|
By Bret Rachlin on
5/23/2008 10:46 AM
CDW Government announced the results of its 2008 School Safety Index this week, providing the current status of public school district safety (Source: SecuritySolutions.com, 5/20/2008, CDW-G Finds Improvements and Declines in 2008 School Safety Index). More than 400 district IT and security directors offered their perspectives on school safety issues for the study. The 2008 School Safety Index finds that districts improved their physical security score by ...
Read More »
|
By Bret Rachlin on
5/16/2008 2:53 PM
This week the Oklahoma State Senate passed Senate Bill 1941, the Oklahoma School Security Act (Source: Tulsa Today, 5/15/2008). SB 1941 would require that schools practice lockdowns two times each year vs. only one time under current law. It also adds electronic communications to the state’s bullying statutes, which hopefully will reduce, and more effectively police, bullying. The bill now requires the Governor’s signature for it to become law.
Like many states Oklahoma is taking proactive steps to provide safer learning environments for school students, teachers and administrators. Most states require or encourage sc ...
Read More »
|
By Bret Rachlin on
5/6/2008 2:42 PM
Last Thursday, KVOA News 4, Tucson, Arizona, profiled Flowing Wells High School's new security initiatives. The news story highlights how the high school has increased security with an improved visitor management process and the addition of network video ...
Read More »
|
By Bret Rachlin on
5/2/2008 2:58 PM
Last week, Wren’s security expert, Jeff Floreno, completed a two day course on conducting campus security audits at the Texas School Safety Center. Here are his comments on the training
I found the Texas School Safety Center’s two day Audit Training course to be very useful for both experienced security practitioners as well as security novices. Although the course content is designed to teach individuals how to conduct school safety audits for the state of Texas, the material is applicable to any state’s K-12 educational sett ...
Read More »
|
|
|
 |
|