Viral Solutions

EDITOR COMMENTARY

Viral Solutions

  • By Sydny Shepard
  • December 01, 2018

We all have a Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn account and we have all seen a post go viral. For whatever reason, despite the topic of the post, the content is deemed relevant by thousands, sometimes millions of people who decide to view, comment, like and share these posts to their timelines.

Lately, I’ve seen a trend in the virality of campus security solutions. While I have seen a few campus security posts before the tragic string of violence on campuses this year, the number of posts and the people sharing them exponentially increased after the words “campus security” became a bit of a buzz phrase following the shootings in Santa Fe, Parkland and Marshall County.

The first Facebook post I saw go viral following the Parkland shooting was a woman sharing a photo of a rubber door stop. While the item looked fairly innocent in her hand, the message she shared was disheartening. She wrote about how she puts one of these door stops in her nieces' backpacks because in an emergency situation, they can be placed under a door that swings into a classroom to stop an active shooter from entering.

The post went viral, gaining 1.3 million shares in just a few days. The comments praised the woman for displaying an inexpensive solution that could save lives, but most were disappointed by the need of a rubber door stop rather than effective security.

In the following months, Facebook pages known for creating and sharing viral videos picked up several campus security solutions to showcase to their followers. The videos showed in-classroom bulletproof shelters, shatterproof glass and bullet resistant backpacks. These solutions were widely shared, some of them reaching over 3 million views in a matter of days.

Why is this? It is because more people, including teachers, parents and administration are making the decision to find solutions on their own. Schools are no longer waiting for an incident to happen before they implement effective security solutions. Campuses themselves are actively looking and researching security solutions that might work on their campus. They are looking for the round peg that fits in the round hole.

This article originally appeared in the November/December 2018 issue of Campus Security Today.

About the Author

Sydny Shepard is the Executive Editor of Campus Security & Life Safety.

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