By Bret Rachlin on 12/29/2009 12:08 PM

Earlier this month the New Jersey State Senate passed a bill, which will require schools to conduct school security drills to improve emergency preparedness (Source: PolitickerNJ.com, December 10, 2009, Girgenti-Ruiz Bill To Require Schools To Conduct Security Drills To Improve Emergency Preparedness Approved In Senate). Now schools will conduct a monthly security drill in addition to a monthly fire drill.  Back in May I reported on this bill's initiation from the New Jersey Senate Education Committee.

According to the article, the bill explains that a “security drill is specifically intended as an exercise to practice procedures to safely respond to an e ... Read More »

By Bret Rachlin on 12/23/2009 2:22 PM

Budget cuts to the Woodland Joint Unified School District (Woodland, CA) will negatively impact the district’s school security program, as the jobs of several campus safety supervisors and one school resource officer (SRO) will be eliminated (Source: Daily Democrat, December 12, 2009, Woodland district’s budget cuts leave holes in school security).

While the district will leave most of the safety and security duties up to the principals and vice principals, the one remaining SRO will mainly respond to emergencies. This means that the SRO will have little time for early intervention to mitigate or prevent incidents from occurring, as SROs typically work with “parents and students to get to the bottom of problems or address tensions at schools before they escalate into aggression.”

Unfortunately, the article doesn’t mention on what basis the dist ... Read More »

By Bret Rachlin on 12/18/2009 4:52 PM

With so many school safety and security issues needing to be addressed, it’s hard to imagine having to worry about cafeteria safety, too. From the recent stories about the quality of meat served in school cafeterias to Eastchester Middle School’s cafeteria upgrade in New York, (Source: USA Today, December 16, 2009, In New York, a model for how to improve a school cafeteria) improving cafeteria quality has moved higher on the school administrator’s to-do list.

After three years of violating several food safety rules, Westchester County Department of Health fined Aramark, Eastchester’s cafeteria manager, $3,400. Eventually, Aramark lost the contract for Eastchester to a lower bidder, and Eastchester Union School ... Read More »

By Bret Rachlin on 12/11/2009 4:01 PM

Instead of attending school earlier this week, Asian students at South Philadelphia High School planned to meet outside of school during school hours after a series of assaults last week (Source: Education Week, December 7, 2009, Philly Students Plan Walkout in Wake of Attacks). The assaults took place among black and Asian students, resulting in ten student suspensions. While accounts of the incidents differ, some Asian students claim school security guards “often turn a blind eye.” According to regional superintendent Michael Silverman, the racial tension “started in the community and came into the school. I don’t know how you separate the school from the community.” He indicated that school officials “have met with school security guards to discuss the need for consistent discipline.”

Overall, South ... Read More »

By Bret Rachlin on 12/4/2009 2:12 PM

Recently, a school security specialist picked up a suspicious suitcase containing what appeared to be pipe-bomb materials in front of a group of students at an elementary school in Omaha, Nebraska (Source: KETV.com, November 30, 2009, School Officials Review Safety Protocols After Object Held). The specialist handled the suitcase after calling 911, but prior to the police arriving. Fortunately, it was not a bomb, but only objects students who were playing with a BB gun left behind.

The incident has led the school to review its safety procedures to ensure safety and security professionals follow the proper protocol concerning mysterious objects that could cause harm. Additionally, the school is training its safety patrol students on how to deal with suspicious packages.

Overall, this elementary school should be commended for engaging in this level of ... Read More »

By Bret Rachlin on 11/24/2009 2:57 PM

Recently, a Ballston Spa High School (New York state) student was arraigned in court for allegedly setting off fire crackers in school (Source: Associated Content, November 19, 2009, Ballston Spa High School Receives Unwelcomed Fireworks Show). Witnesses say that the student “threw the pyrotechnics into a crowd of students in the school cafeteria and caused students to run for cover.” Hopefully, the video surveillance system captured the event, so investigators can use the video to support their case.

At least, this school had some video in the cafeteria, as many schools often install cameras in only a select few locations across their campuses. This high school now sees that it was valuable to add video to its cafeteria, but there are four other ways schools can use video more effectively:
Read More »

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By Bret Rachlin on 11/20/2009 3:50 PM

How reliable is the school safety information contained in the New York State Department of Education’s software application designed to track schools across the state (Source: Poughkeepsie Journal, November 16, 2009, Schools’ safety data unreliable since 2006)? Unfortunately, it’s not very reliable according to a Poughkeepsie Journal investigation. In addition to failing schools incorrectly, the report indicates that data from more than 5,000 schools in the state are useless. What’s more, “despite a law mandating it, the state also never contacted districts whose schools had these ‘failing’ grades.”

The article goes on to highlight several schools who explain the inaccuracies of the data, showing that they either fixed any safety issues or that those issues never even existed. The state removed the flawed information from its web site, but a state spoke ... Read More »

By Bret Rachlin on 11/9/2009 3:22 PM

This week's blog post comes from our guest, Elizabeth Harper, 2009 Winner of the Wren SRO Scholarship.  While this post is longer than our normal posts, it provides insight into the work of SROs, as she encourages SROs to apply for this year's awards program.

Last year at this time, I was balancing two positions. By day, I was the School Resource Officer (SRO) for Fallston Middle and High Schools (working through the Harford County Sherriff’s Office). After hours I was a student, pursuing my criminal justice degree at Harford Community College. So, when I received the news that the tuition reimbursements my department had once offered were being eliminated due to budget cuts, I was faced with the challenge of finding an alternative route to finance my education – something I consider important to my work as an SRO and as an individual. Read More »

By Bret Rachlin on 11/4/2009 9:35 AM

Last Tuesday I participated in the 10th annual “Principal for a Day” event, shadowing Principal Peter McKnight at the South Atlanta School of Law and Social Justice. Over 160 business leaders followed principals around for the day across Atlanta Public Schools, so that we could learn and appreciate the level of effort principals put forth during a typical day. Moreover, the program enables community business leaders to initiate and build relationships with their school counterparts, providing insight from the business world, while also gaining perspective from observing the similarities and differences that exist in school env ... Read More »

By Bret Rachlin on 10/30/2009 3:19 PM

Earlier this month a West Virginia county gathered first responders together for a table-top exercise to focus on its emergency response procedures. The county used a mock chemical spill as its emergency (Source: WVNS-TV, October 17, 2009, “First Responders Gather for Table Top Exercise"). The mock chemical spill targeted an area near a school, along with a hospital and several businesses, to simulate the kind of chaos that can ensue in the case of an emergency.

Training drills help emergency personnel determine how prepared they are and what areas require additional practice. Concerning chemical spills, many schools’ emergency plans center on spills occurring within the school. However, what happens when the spill is from outside the school? Recently, a chemical spill near Indianapolis, IN, prompted a nearby school to keep its students and staff in ... Read More »