Jason Stoddard and Paul Timm came to us live from the floor of the Maryland Association of School Business Officials Conference in Ocean City—our first episode recorded from a trade show floor! 

In this episode, Jason and Paul discuss the importance of establishing national standards, certification and advocacy for school safety directors. Jason also emphasizes the need to master fundamental safety practices, develop positive school cultures and enforce consistent discipline before pursuing more advanced technological solutions. 

More highlights include Jason’s challenges of transitioning from law enforcement to an educational environment, the evolving threat landscape facing K-12 schools and how to address it, and the need to return to the basics of school safety and security with emerging threats including cybersecurity. 

We are so excited to bring you our next episode featuring guest Jermaine Galloway, known nationally as the Tall Cop! 

Through his nearly 20-year career as a police officer, Jermaine began providing training for substance abuse prevention, education and enforcement strategies. To date, the Tall Cop has trained more than 825,000 professional and community members. 

Join us as Jermaine and Paul discuss his tactics for identifying potential substance abuse within schools and communities, and how he stays alert for new drugs that are coming to the market. 

In this episode, our host Paul Timm catches up with Kevin Wren, a School Safety Advocate with The Cook & Boardman Group.

Kevin's extensive background in school security began at age 15 as a student advocate in Georgia and evolved through roles as a school resource officer, firefighter and EMT, eventually leading school security and emergency management departments in South Carolina. He later went on to win the Campus Safety Director of the Year award in 2016.

Kevin discusses major topics and trends in school security today, including the importance of having a holistic school security management plan, weapon-screening technology, AI surveillance and prioritizing the needs of your school over the latest tech trends, behavioral threat management and the necessity of keeping doors locked, and more.

This week, we’re being schooled by students—and it turns out, we have a lot to learn! 

Emma Mann, student ambassador for Safe and Sound Schools and Vanderbilt University student, shared a unique perspective on school safety and security in the eyes of a student. In fact, there’s a lot that administrators and staff DON’T know when it comes to social media, what students talk about or struggle with, or how to engage students in conversation around safety. 

Emma joined Paul Timm in this episode of The Changing Face of School Security to discuss the impact of social media on safety, the importance of students getting involved in school safety efforts, building relationships and communication between staff and students and more. 

If you told Missy Dodds years ago that she would be working as a school safety advocate, she probably wouldn’t believe you. However, life always has its twists and turns. 

Missy got her start in teaching at Red Lake High School. On March 21, 2005, her life took the biggest turn: gunfire erupted in the school. Missy had locked her classroom door moments before, but the gunman entered by shooting the tempered glass view panel next to the door. 

Missy Dodds, parent ambassador for Safe and Sound Schools, joined Paul Timm in this episode of The Changing Face of School Security to discuss her recovery journey as a school shooting survivor, changes in access control and relationships with law enforcement, the importance of community involvement in school safety and more. 

Cybersecurity and online safety are more important than ever in today’s digital age. Today’s youth probably doesn’t remember a time when the world wasn’t digitally connected. The onset of the Internet as an everyday tool has opened a world of opportunities, both positive and potentially harmful. 

With schools incorporating more digital tools into their daily routines, students and educators alike have a greater opportunity—and necessity to learn about cyber safety. 

Continuing the topic of cybersecurity, Antoinette King, CISSP, PSP, DPPS, SICC joined Paul Timm in this episode of The Changing Face of School Security to discuss cybersecurity education in schools, with an emphasis on digital citizenship and online safety, converging physical and cyber safety in the digital age, and the impact of the digital world on physical safety and mental health. 

Technology as an everyday tool has created more complex and diverse cybersecurity threats in our nation than ever before. Since it's become an integral part of learning in schools, it’s important for educators to learn and teach the importance of cybersecurity and help mitigate the threats we face. 

The government saw a need for accessible materials covering school safety, and SchoolSafety.gov was born. There, school leaders can find evidence-backed resources on topics like cyberbullying, mental health, school violence, threat assessments and more. 

Don Hough of CISA joined Paul Timm in this episode of The Changing Face of School Security to discuss the role of CISA in school safety and SchoolSafety.gov, cybersecurity in school security, and the evolving threats that schools face, including targeted violence. 

“I love u guys.” 

These were the last four words Ellen and John-Michael Keyes received from their daughter, Emily Keyes, in a text message on the day she was held hostage and then killed in the Platte Canyon High School shooting. 

For victims’ families and friends, this is a real-life nightmare. And for the Keyes, this nightmare was their catalyst in creating a nationwide organization led by those affected by and with an interest in school safety. 

John-Michael joined Paul Timm in this episode of The Changing Face of School Security to discuss the mission of the I Love U Guys Foundation, the Standard Response Protocol (SRP) and the Standard Reunification Method (SRM), and the importance of emotional health in schools, supported by a “Dashboard of Wellness”. 

When COVID-19 first made waves, it caused a major disruption in schools and in turn, greatly affected students’ mental health and behaviors. 

Student mental health is a growing cause for concern today, not just for the students themselves, but for overall school safety. It’s important that schools have protocols in place to prevent and respond to threats, bullying, and violence appropriately. That’s where a behavioral threat assessment model can be valuable.

In this episode of The Changing Face of School Security, Dr. Melissa Reeves, Ph.D., NCSP, LCMHC, and expert in mental health and behavioral counseling in schools, joined host Paul Timm to discuss behavioral threat assessments, Dr. Reeves’ professional experience in school crisis prevention and intervention, and programs that aim to support mental health in schools, especially for at-risk students.