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Security in School Administration Offices
National
School Safety and Security Services
encourages school officials to include security for school administration
offices in their school safety planning. This includes safety
considerations for office areas in school buildings, as well as entire
school district administration center facilities.
Potential
Areas and Reasons for Concern
Dealing with irate parents may appear to be nothing new to
many building administrators. There are also a number of documented cases
of threatening and disruptive behavior by irate parents, disgruntled
employees and former employees, and other adults who target school
superintendents and other central office administrators. In 1994, a
former school employee shot a Florida superintendent six times, killing
the superintendent and then leaving the district's downtown central office
only to later kill himself.
While student safety is unquestionably a priority, too often educators
fail to include administration office safety, and the safety of school
office employees, in their risk reduction and crisis preparedness
measures. Unfortunately, workplace violence is a growing concern for
large and small corporate offices nationwide, and school administration
offices are no different.
In fact, the nature of school operations could place district employees in
a position of higher risk than the employees who work in some other types
of corporations. Consider, for example, that:
School building offices typically
house the principal and assistant principals, counselors, and other school
leaders who deal regularly with issues of discipline, school-based crime,
interpersonal conflicts, and individual students who may have intense
social and emotional issues. They also deal regularly with parent
conferences, some of which may involve parents who are angry, frustrated,
and/or very irate.
School district administration
offices typically house the offices of the superintendent, board members,
personnel department, treasurer, special education staff, and student
services hearing officers and staff. Disgruntled current and former
employees, suspended and expelled students, irate parents, job applicants,
and other high-risk individuals are very likely to attend hearings,
meetings, and visits for other purposes at these types of
offices.
The ever-increasing political nature of school board meetings, and for
that matter school politics in general, often draws a presence and
attention to school administration offices and the individuals housed in
these offices. It is not uncommon for highly-charged meetings and
emotional issues to result in escalated undesirable and threatening
behavior.
Improving
School Administration Office Safety A
number of measures can be taken to reduce administration office safety
threats. These include, but are not limited to:
Develop a threat assessment protocol that applies not only to dealing with
threats made by and/or to students, but also to threats made to school
administrators and office staff. (A number of cases have been
documented where threats have been made to harm not only building
administrators, but also district-level coordinators, supervisors,
directors, and even superintendents.)
Include administration offices, both at the building and district levels,
in school security assessments conducted for your district.
Develop crisis guidelines for school administration sites as would be done
for actual school buildings
Train administrators and school office staff (including secretaries and
receptionists) on appropriate security policies and procedures, threat
assessment and management, office safety measures, and district crisis
guidelines
Incorporate crime prevention into school office layouts and central office
designs, including in reception areas, secretarial offices, and inside
administrative offices and meeting rooms
Evaluate methods for reducing and controlling access to district central
offices and support facilities
Establish basic procedures for conducting potentially high-risk meetings
and hearings
Assess physical security measures, including the use of security
technology, for reducing administration office safety risks and for
preparing to manage incidents of crime and violence in office settings
Evaluate the contents, in addition the layout, of administration offices,
as well as communication methods that would be used in a threatening
situation There
are many risk reduction measures that can be taken to improve school
administration office safety. The failure to take appropriate steps
for reducing security risks at school office facilities may place school
employees at greater risk and may also lead to greater liability on the
part of the district should an incident of crime or violence occur that
could have been prevented by reasonable safety measures. For
information on our services related to administration office safety, see
our training and
security
assessment pages, or contact Ken
Trump directly to discuss your needs. To
read more on the subject, read free-lance writer Ruth Sternberg's article
entitled "Acts
of Aggression" in the November 2000 issue of The School
Administrator published by the
American
Association of School Administrators (AASA). |