Three Lessons about School Security
Summit uncovers campus security from team at Newtown Public School District of Sandy Hook
- By Christine Dzou
- December 14, 2020
While student safety is often
revered as a top priority, it is not
uncommon for incident
response protocols to be overlooked
until a situation that
warrants action occurs. Regardless of how
unlikely it may seem to have a severe scenario
unfold on campus, schools should not bet on
that off chance before investing in security
measures that protect students and faculty.
With the tragedy that occurred in Sandy
Hook Elementary School—and the immediate
response to that incident with the complete
buildout of video security across seven
of the schools in the Newtown Public School
District, including Sandy Hook—here are
three lessons shared by Mark Pompano, director
of security; and Carmella Amodeo, director
of technology of Newtown, about safety
preparedness and its importance on campus.
Invest In the Right Technology
Following the events that took place at Sandy
Hook Elementary in 2012, the Newtown
School District had to move quickly to find a
solution to fill their need for on premise
video security. Through generous donations
and grants, Newtown installed a combination
of different surveillance systems to bring
visibility of all school campuses to the forefront
of security officers and faculty.
However, over time, the donated systems
quickly showed signs of ineffectiveness and
unreliability.
“Whenever a camera went down or footage
was lost, it felt like a huge deal,” Pompano
said. “Principals, campus security officers
and faculty were dependent on video security
systems to monitor school perimeters
and ensure security on campus. Any gaps in
visibility felt like we might be at risk of compromising
student safety.”
While the donated systems provided a
baseline layer of security immediately after
the incident, it failed to meet the growing
needs of IT and security staff at Newtown
Public School District.
“We considered replacing the existing system
with newer versions of the equipment
and technology but were surprised to see how
expensive the upgrade would be,” Amodeo
said. “Not only did we have to replace the
cameras that were failing regularly, we had to
consider the costs of replacing the entire system,
which included servers and video
recorders. Those costs quickly added up and
exceeded the portion of our school budget
dedicated to campus security.”
After a series of vendor comparisons, Pompano
and Amodeo chose Verkada. “Not only
is the video security solution easy enough for
non-technical users to manage, it also delivers
new features and security updates automatically
at no additional cost,” Pompano said.
“Because the system gets better over time, it
gives us the peace of mind that we’re always
putting our best foot forward when it comes
to protecting our students and faculty.”
With ambitious plans to upgrade video
security across the district before the start of
the new school year, a simple approach to
installation was a huge benefit. With just a
PoE connection, the cameras are brought
online in moments and accessible on a centralized
management platform.
Before the first bell of 2019, 490 cameras
were deployed across all eight schools in the
Newtown Public School District.
Final Takeaway
Video security technology is imperative to
maintaining situational awareness across
schools. It’s not something that is “good enough”
if it works 75 percent of the time—it needs to
reliably perform as expected. Do your research
and thoughtfully evaluate your options.
Make School Safety a Shared Responsibility
With video security transitioning more from
closed-circuit television systems to cloud-based
solutions, ownership has experienced
a similar transition from physical security
teams to IT teams. Although the responsibility
of school safety may vary across districts
depending on the solution used, maintaining
safety should be a shared responsibility
amongst teachers, faculty and campus safety
officers.
“We’re able to share camera access with
authorized users at no additional cost. It is
incredible that our team now has this powerful
resource to see, share and respond to
events in real-time. If an incident occurs and
we need to share live footage quickly with
local authorities, we’re also able to share view
only access to cameras so they can quickly
assess the situation,” Pompano said.
The benefits of an “all hands on deck” approach are clear, however it’s natural for the topic of student privacy
to become a concern when it comes to video security. With the
camera systems audit log feature, all activity is automatically logged
so administrators have full visibility into user actions within the platform.
“This makes it simple for me to pinpoint activity that falls outside
of normal use cases. I can quickly, and objectively, understand
what’s going on within our system,” Pompano said.
Beyond sharing access to cameras and securely monitoring system
usage, making school safety a shared responsibility requires a collaborative
initiative amongst teachers, faculty and school safety officers.
However, it can be hard to understand where to start building out a
strategy that impacts security on campus.
“Starting with areas that we hear are susceptible to vandalism, or
other blind spots that have been reported as un-permitted entrance or
exit points, we’re proactively mitigating risks that may occur in those
areas,” Pompano said. “The camera system makes it easy to know
what’s going on in those areas without having to actively monitor
those sites. By setting motion alerts, I’m notified any time unusual
motion is detected in frame, and I can quickly direct my team to take
action immediately.”
Keeping schools safe is something that requires strategy and execution.
Talk to those on your team who might know about where
incidents occur most commonly, whether it be security officers,
teachers, or noon aides. By gathering that insight, you’re able to effectively
address issues that are already concerns among students.
Enforce Positive Behaviors on Campus
External factors, such as intruders or suspicious vehicles parked close
to school campus are often perceived as the biggest threats to safety
on campus, however a majority of inappropriate conduct at school
occurs between students. With reported incidents of school bullying
at a record high, schools are starting to rely on surveillance footage to
objectively make sense of a situation and address unacceptable
behaviors.
“Back then, if an incident occurred, all we could do is ask the students
involved what happened; it was a students’ word, versus another.
Without the ability to know for certain what happened, we had to
get parents involved before figuring out what next steps should be,”
Pompano said.“What Verkada has provided for my team is the ability
to isolate incidents of interest in a matter of seconds. By searching for
footage across a certain location with date and time filters, we’re able
to see exactly what happened, then speak to the student about it. Our
hope is that the student learns from their mistake and sees that there
are repercussions to poor behaviors—especially if it risks the safety of
other students on campus.”
With cameras deployed across all seven schools in the district, the
faculty at Newtown Public School district are confident that they are
fostering an environment that is conducive to student learning and
positive school experiences.
Final Takeaway
While video security is primarily focused on monitoring the perimeters
of our school campuses, exterior doors, and areas of open space,
it can also be used to effectively enforce better behavior among our
students. We believe that positive school experiences should be
expected, and we’re doing our best to make sure that safety starts
from the inside.
This article originally appeared in the November December 2020 issue of Campus Security Today.