Campus Safety Voices

Schools across the nation should always be looking for ways to improve security, but often those improvements involve expensive investments in technology and other safety and security measures. So how can K-12 campus protection professionals find the budget for these upgrades?

To find out, I spoke with Mike Newton, who is director of safety and security for the Elizabeth School District in Elizabeth, Colorado. He installed new security cameras and other measures at all of the campuses in his district, resulting in $44,000 savings. That amount of savings is impressive, but particularly so considering Newton works for a small rural school district that has only about 2,200 students on five campuses.

Specifically, this interview covers:
1. What prompted the installation of cameras, signage and door numbers, and what was specifically installed/implemented: 2:12
2. How these upgrades improved safety and security: 7:10
3. How the $44,000 cost savings were achieved: 15:11
4. Advice for other districts wanting to make these types of safety and security improvements while achieving cost savings: 18:24

This presentation is brought to you by CampusSafetyMagazine.com (https://www.campussafetymagazine.com/)

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As manager of public safety and parking services for William Osler Health System, Calvin Millar is charged with developing a hospital workplace violence prevention program.

Drawing from personal experiences in both hospital and non-hospital settings, Millar determined prioritizing customer service was the most effective way to mitigate violence.

Millar elaborates on those experiences, plus:

● How has he been able to measure the success of customer-centric service (9:51)
● How his own mental health nursing background helped in creating the violence prevention plan (11:10)
● Additional training opportunities offered to his security team (13:36)

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Following the murder of George Floyd, police departments across the country conducted internal reviews to ensure leading practices were being followed. While looking inward is extremely important, internal reviews come with bias.

Jason Schiffer, Lehigh University's chief of police and a 2023 Campus Safety Director of the Year finalist, turned to non-police campus leaders to form a committee to review the department, giving them full access to its policies, procedures, and data from interactions with the community (11:08).

As a result, changes were made to the department's use-of-force policy and its sexual violence policy. In this interview, Schiffer shares more on those changes, as well as:

• How and why he completely revamped the department's mission statement with the main focus being student success (1:51)
• Positive outcomes that have stemmed from focusing on student success (7:28)
• How previously serving as a practicing trial attorney has helped him succeed in his current role (9:01)

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Although the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic is behind us, healthcare facilities are still dealing with the residual impacts on human behavior (6:28).

Campus Safety's Amy Rock spoke with Dr. Marissa Randazzo, 
executive director of threat management at Ontic, about the current state of violence in healthcare settings (1:05), in addition to:

• Tips for de-escalating concerning behavior (9:51)
• Free workplace violence mitigation resources (12:38)
• Available technologies and tools that support healthcare workers in combatting violence (13:50)
• Violence prevention policy must-haves (19:13)
• Predictions for the future of hospital workplace violence (21:45)

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Although school, university, and hospital security officers often patrol their campuses on foot, many of them also need patrol vehicles so they can most effectively protect their facilities and the surrounding areas. Unfortunately, patrol vehicles can be very expensive to not only purchase but also maintain.

So how can a campus security department provide its employees with the patrol vehicles they need to do their jobs while keeping costs under control?

To find out, I spoke with Levaughn Smart, who is the Executive Director of Security and Disaster Preparedness for the Palm Springs Unified School District in Palm Springs, California. Levaughn. He is also one of this year’s K-12 Director of the Year finalists and was able to buy a new fleet of patrol vehicles while saving his district more than $200K. 

In our interview, Levaughn discusses:

• The condition of his patrol fleet before getting the new vehicles and why did they need to be replaced: 1:42
•  Why he decided to adopt the vehicle model he chose for his department: 4:33
• How the performance/maintenance of his new vehicles compare to the department’s previous vehicles: 7:43
• The specific ways the new vehicles saved his district more than $200,000: 9:26
• Advice to other campus protection executives on patrol vehicle fleet management. 11:00

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One of the most challenging responsibilities of a school security, safety, and emergency management executive is handling the multitude of technology upgrades required for the protection of today’s K-12 campuses. In most districts of any size, there are a lot of moving parts, supply chain issues, contractors, and in-house employees that all must be effectively managed. But, how do you actually do that? 

To find out, I spoke with Danielle Stevens who is district safety manager for Lake Zurich CUSD 95, who is also one of this year’s K-12 Director of the Year finalists. In only three years, she and her team completed 90% of a 2019 outside security assessment’s recommendations for school safety and security improvements. The remaining 10% of upgrades are currently being evaluated or are underway.

In our interview, Danielle tells us:

• How she prioritized the assessment’s recommendations: 1:45
• How she managed the school district employees and contractors who completed the upgrades: 4:41
• How she dealt with supply chain issues, including a 20-week delay in receiving the two-way radios the district ordered 7:30
• How she is tackling the projects that remain, such as the district’s massive and very expensive video surveillance system upgrade. 8:58

 She also provides some sage advice to other school security directors on how to effectively manage system upgrades. (12:45)

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With so many active shooter attacks happening in America, our nation’s institutions of higher education must prepare for the possibility that a mass shooting could happen on their campus.

That’s why Biola University partnered with the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department (LASD), as well as other local first responders, to conduct a full-scale active shooter exercise. In the exercise, which took place February 28 on Biola’s campus, numerous Biola officers and Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department deputies participated, along with the local fire department, campus staff members, medical personnel, and students to test how the school and local first responders would respond to a mass shooting.

I was there, along with several other media organizations, to witness the event, and some of the video and photos I took during the exercise are at the end of this video. (Note: If you are listening to the podcast version of this right now, you might want to watch the video version on either CampusSafetyMagazine.com or YouTube so you can see the video and photos I took.)

Before the exercise took place, however, I spoke with Biola University Provost and Senior Vice President Matthew Hall. I asked him why senior university administrators like him support full-scale active shooter exercises on their campuses. 1:39 I then asked him how involved he and other administrators
were in setting up the exercise, and why it’s so important for his school to
conduct this type of exercise. 2:47 

I then spoke with Biola Associate Vice President and Chief of Campus Safety John Ojeisekhoba Sr. and asked how his nonsworn department’s involvement in active shooter response is different from sworn police officer responses to this type of situation. 4:41 I then asked about the specific duties of his nonsworn
officers during an active shooter situation. 6:05 

After the interviews, I show some of the photos and video I took of the exercise, which can be viewed on CampusSafetyMagazine.com or YouTube. Please note that some of the images in the video that follows may be disturbing. Viewer discretion is advised.

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Digital hall pass technology, now used by thousands of schools across the country, has proven to curb vandalism and vaping, among other things. However, like with all technologies that collect personally identifiable information, there are student data privacy concerns to be considered.

To discuss both the pros and cons of this technology, we spoke with Cobun Zweifel-Keegan, a data privacy lawyer and managing director of the International Association of Privacy Professionals (IAPP).

Topics of discussion include:

• How digital hall pass technology works (1:32)
• The main benefits of digital hall passes (3:08)
• Student privacy implications that surround these technologies (5:38)
• How student privacy was impacted during the pandemic (13:47)
• Considerations when choosing a vendor (17:26)

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With the rise of active shooter and active assailant attacks happening in our nation, more schools, institutions of higher education, and healthcare facilities are looking for better ways to keep intruders out, all while maintaining a welcoming environment for students, staff, patients, and guests. One of most effective ways to do this is to fortify the glass windows and glass doors on campus.

The question for protection professionals, however, is how to effectively accomplish this. Glass fortification is a complex issue that must be addressed with the help of a professional with years of experience protecting glass openings.

That’s why Campus Safety Editor-in-Chief Robin Hattersley spoke with Brad Campbell, president and founder of Riot Glass. Riot Glass is a manufacturer of retrofit security glazing systems designed to add a significant level of forced entry and/or ballistic protection to any building. 

In this interview Brad discusses:

• Why it is so important for glass openings, such as windows and doors, to be fortified: 2:05
• What type of assessment process he recommends so campuses adopt the right solution(s) for their facilities: 4:31
• The different types of glass protection solutions currently available on the market, and which ones are the most effective at preventing forced entry vs. the types that are best for severe weather, earthquakes, bomb blasts, privacy, and energy savings: 11:45
• Because there is a lot of attention on active assailants right now, the specific solutions to address this threat and how a campus can most effectively protect its glass openings from active assailants and other types of intruders: 18:28

At 22:25 of the interview, we watch a video that demonstrates how these various products work in both a test environment, as well as in real-life.

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Incidents of swatting, or reporting false threats to elicit an emergency response, are on the rise, and many are targeting K-12 schools and colleges.

In this interview, Jeffrey Yarbrough, police chief for the Hutto Police Department and former police chief of Round Rock Independent School District, both in Texas, talks about all things swatting, including why its so harmful (1:11), what the emergency response often involves (13:20), and how these incidents are impacting the mental health of students, staff, parents, and surrounding communities (19:07). 

Yarbrough also discussed: 

• How most of these threats are being communicated (5:43)
• The correlation between mass shootings and increased swatting threats (10:13)
• Lessons he's learned from responding to swatting calls (17:12)
• Suggestions for schools on how to identify false threats (21:14)
• Measures being put in place to increase charges that can be brought against someone who makes a swatting threat (25:37)

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