Access control strategies for schools are crucial for maintaining security, but they need to be carefully considered.
Making schools a safe and comfortable place for children to receive education has become a full-time job for school districts and administrators. Unfortunately, school shootings have become a regular occurrence, and until this problem is curbed, it is up to every individual school to take their security upon themselves. Access control is one of the more significant aspects of security that all schools should take very seriously. If you can stop security threats at the front door, you can provide a safer experience for everyone in the building.
Main Entrance
One of the best ways to provide stronger access control for your school is to establish a main entrance—use signage and wayfinding to direct all traffic to this entrance. Having everyone come in the same way makes monitoring easier.
There are some things to keep in mind about establishing a main entrance. This will cause significant congestion for many schools as students and faculty enter the building en masse. It also creates a choke point that puts everyone at risk during morning entry. It’s important to discuss your options with a security specialist who can advise how best to implement a main entrance for your particular school with minimal risk and morning disruption.
You can also enhance your main entrance by adding weapons detection systems and other forms of security in order to stop any problems at the front door.
One-Way Doors
Any doors that are not at the main entrance are good candidates for becoming one-way doors. These doors cannot be opened from the outside but can be accessed by anyone inside the building, allowing for easy egress without compromising security. The purpose of one-way doors is to limit the ability of anyone to get inside the school, particularly through any entry point that is not closely monitored.
All doors, including the ones at the main entrance, can benefit from magnetic locks. Magnetic locks make it less likely for a door to be left ajar by accident, providing easier access control by minimizing unintentional security risks.
Training
When thinking about better ways to tighten security and provide better access control, many people forget about the human element of every security plan. It doesn’t matter how good your surveillance system is or what kind of credentials your access control system takes if everyone in the school isn’t trained in appropriate security procedures. If they don’t understand the systems in place or how their actions could undermine their own safety, they could make a mistake that circumvents your security systems and leads to disaster.
Administrators, educators, custodial staff, and even students all need to be properly informed and trained. Fire and active shooter drills are important training for how to respond during a time of crisis, but proactive security training can help you teach everyone in your school how to maintain security and avoid dangerous scenarios from occurring.
Parents
Whether it’s elementary, middle, or high school, the students are children, and their parents are part of the equation. Parents can be tiring to deal with in some cases because they’re worried about their children, and they have their own opinions on what makes a school a safe and comfortable environment to learn in.
It may not always be easy to get parents on board with the steps your school is taking to provide a safer environment for students to learn, but it’s important to remain as transparent as possible about what security measures are being implemented, why these options were chosen, how they can provide a safer environment, and what parents need to do in order to help the school remain secure. This should go over drop-off and pick-up procedures, how to pick up a child before school has been let out for the day, who is authorized to do so, and any other important factors your school needs parents to know.
TRUST THE PROFESSIONALS AT ARK SYSTEMS
Located in Columbia, Maryland, ARK Systems provides unsurpassed quality and excellence in the security industry, from system design all the way through to installation. We handle all aspects of security with local and remote locations. With over 30 years in the industry, ARK Systems is an experienced security contractor. Trust ARK to handle your most sensitive data storage, surveillance, and security solutions.
Contact ARK Systems at 1-800-995-0189 or click here today. Check us out on Facebook and Twitter as well!