Today we are living in an uncertain world, and just sending our children off to school is scary. With the recent events in this country this past month, you need to ask the question, “how can we keep our children safe?”. With three school shootings taking place in one week; Texas, New Orleans and Kentucky; it marks the 11th school shooting of 2018 and we’re only one month into the new year, what can we do to make our school’s safer?
It’s scary to think of all the safety measures that need to go into place today in our schools. The first lines of defense that all schools need to have today are locked doors with a buzz in system. These doors should have a camera pointing at the person at the door, along with an intercom system. With the buzz in system in place, a person at the door can state why they are there and show their ID before the doors are even opened. Here at Central Jersey Security Cameras, we sell cutting edge access control systems such as CDVI Atrium as one of our top selling products. Access control is a way of limiting access to a system or to physical or virtual resources. In computing, access control is a process by which users are granted access and certain privileges to systems, resources, or information.
In access control systems, users must present credentials before they can be granted access. In physical systems, these credentials may come in many forms, but credentials that can’t be transferred provide the most security. For example, a key card may act as an access control and grant the bearer access to a classified area. Because this credential can be transferred or even stolen, it is not a secure way of handling access control.
A more secure method for access control involves two-factor authentication. The person who desires access must show credentials and a second factor to corroborate identity. The second factor could be an access code, a pin or even a biometric reading.
There are three factors that can be used for authentication:
• Something only known to the user, such as a password or pin.
• Something that is part of the user, such as a fingerprint, retina scan or another biometric measurement.
• Something that belongs to the user, such as a card or a key.
For computer security, access control includes the authorization, authentication and audit of the entity trying to gain access. Access control models have a subject and an object. The subject, the human user, is the one trying to gain access to the object – usually the software. In computer systems, an access control list contains a list of permissions and the users to whom these permissions apply. Such data can be viewed by certain people and not by other people and is controlled by access control. This allows an administrator to secure information and set privileges as to what information can be accessed, who can access it and at what time it can be accessed.
One of the latest and greatest features we have to offer is a feature that unfortunately today is becoming more necessary in our everyday lives, “building lockdown” feature. For example, this would allow a school to press either a fixed or mobile button to instantaneously lock down the entire school by locking every single-entry door in the building. This feature would allow a school to fortify the building so no unauthorized persons would be able to enter.
Cameras should be placed at each exterior entrance of the school as well, so the front desk can see who is moving around the outside of the school at all times. Next would be proper placement of cameras inside the school. Each hallway and stairwell needs to be protected. Cameras installed inside the schools keep your children protected on so many levels. They will protect your children from bullies, protect teachers from falsely being accused of something and can protect your child from a teacher that may not be treating your child right. Many schools are now even adding cameras to the actual classrooms. This is often the proof to show parents how their child is behaving in the classroom, or proof of how a teacher may interact with your child. Cameras in the classroom often serve as not just protection for the child and the teacher, but to go back and see how both teacher and child can improve in the future.
Here are all the school shootings so far in 2018:
• January 3: A 31-year-old man shot and killed himself in the parking lot of his former elementary school in Michigan.
• January 4: Shots were fired at New Start High School outside Seattle. No one was hit or hurt.
• January 5: A bullet from a pellet gun shattered the window of a Forest City, Iowa, school bus full of students while in transit. No one was injured.
• January 9: A 14-year-old male student killed himself in the bathroom of an elementary school in Arizona.
• January 10: A bullet hit a building at California State University, San Bernardino. No one was injured.
• January 10: A student at Grayson College in Texas accidentally fired a bullet during a gun training session with an instructor. No one was hurt.
• January 15: Police in Marshall, Texas, responded to reports of gunfire just after midnight on the Wiley College campus. A stray bullet entered one of the dormitories, but no one was hit.
• January 20: A Winston-Salem State University football player was shot and killed during an event at Wake Forest University.
• January 22: A 16-year-old shot and injured a female student several times at Italy High School in Texas.
• January 22: Someone in a pickup truck fired at a group of students gathered in front of Net Charter School in New Orleans. One boy was injured.
• January 23: A 15-year-old student at a high school in Kentucky shot and killed two students and injured 17 others.
There was also a student shot outside a Jersey City school at dismissal. A Lincoln High School student was shot near an elementary school at dismissal time. The 10th grade student was shot just one block away from where the student attends high school. Both schools were placed on lock down following the shooting.
School shootings have become all too familiar in the wake of massacres at Virginia Tech in 2007 and Sandy Hook Elementary School in 2012 that sparked outrage but little policy change. U.S. schools have already faced 11 shooting incidents this year. Within one week’s time, these unfortunate events have taken place in Texas, Kentucky & New Orleans. A student bringing a gun onto school property and firing at peers or teachers seems to occur most often, though that’s not always what happens. Two of the shootings this month were later identified as suicides. And in one instance, a 32-year-old man shot at a school bus with a pellet gun.
Gunfire ringing out in American schools used to be rare, and shocking. Now it seems to happen all the time. On January 22nd, a school cafeteria outside Dallas and a charter school parking lot in New Orleans. And before that, a school bus in Iowa, a college campus in Southern California, a high school in Seattle. The scene in Benton, Kentucky, on January 23rd was the worst so far in 2018. Two 15-year-old students were killed, and 18 more people were injured. But it was one of at least 11 shootings on school property recorded since January 1st, and roughly the 50th of the academic year. Our nation’s schools should be some of the safest spaces in our communities.
Most of the incidents were suicides and resulted in no injuries, but they highlight communities’ growing concerns about guns and school safety. At this point last year, there had been five school shootings nationwide. Twenty-four shootings — nearly one in six — occurred after a confrontation or verbal argument intensified, because of the presence of a gun rather than in spite of it. Every town said it’s also fairly common for a school shooting to result from a confrontation or verbal argument that escalates. Regardless of the individuals involved in a shooting, or the circumstances that gave rise to it, gunfire in schools and at colleges and universities undermines the sense of security that all students should have in their learning environments. By tracking this data, every town hopes to begin a reasoned discussion about effective means to promote school safety. Of shootings perpetrated by minors at primary and secondary schools and for which the source of the firearm was known, more than half of the kids obtained the gun at home, likely because an adult did not store it locked and unloaded.
Experts have also begun to document the effects that fatal school shootings have on students. “These incidents can affect students’ decision about whether to stay at their school, affect their cognitive skills, and influence their behavior at school,” according to a 2015 study titled “The Effect of High School Shootings on Schools and Student Performance”. Authors Louis-Philippe Beland and Dongwoo Kim found that enrollment in ninth grade drops following a deadly shooting, as do standardized test scores in math and English for up to three years after a shooting.
A quarter of U.S. parents said they fear for their children’s safety while they are at school, according to an August 2017 Gallup survey. Parents’ concern about children’s safety reached a high after the 1999 Columbine shooting and has spiked sporadically in the wake of other major school shootings.
Here are some words spoken by the parents of the children stuck inside the school during these incidents:
“I still want him to come because he’s learning so much here. This is a great school, he’s improved so much here.”
Another parent said she hopes to see some changes to ensure nothing like this will ever happen again.
“We don’t need this happening when they’re in school, when they’re trying to learn,”
“But it’s a scary thing to have happen at your child’s school, you drop your child off at school and you don’t except this kind of thing to happen, you expect them to be safe at school.”
“I’m just aggravated that you can’t even go to work or school without something like this happening,”
The only thing your child should have to worry about is their grades and who their date to the dance is going to be… they should not have to worry about their safety! They should be able to walk around school knowing they are safe. Your child should not have the fear of looking over their shoulder as they walk from class to class. They should be able to traipse right down that hallway to the girl they have been anxiously and eagerly awaiting asking to the next school dance. Let’s make schools safer!
SHOOTINGS ARE NOT THE ONLY SAFETY ISSUES IN SCHOOLS:
A STABBING
A stabbing also occurred within the first month of the new year. The incident on Thursday, January 18th, occurred in a classroom at New Rochelle High School around 8:50 a.m., when a 15-year-old boy asked to use the bathroom, stabbed a 16-year-old boy twice in the torso on his way toward the door, then ran out of the school. It is unclear what the victim was stabbed with because no weapon was recovered at the scene.
The victim told police that he is not sure why he was stabbed by the suspect, whose name has not been released and who has a violent past. Police said they know the suspect from an assault in May 2016, when he stabbed another student in the chest during a fight outside Isaac E. Young Middle School. The suspect had a lengthy history of behavioral issues even before the 2016 stabbing. Police have not found any connection between the stabbing and an assault that took place a day earlier, when the stabbing suspect was attacked by a group of teenagers in Gemelli Pizzeria on North Avenue. The stabbing suspect was uncooperative after he was attacked in the pizzeria on Wednesday afternoon, and no one has been arrested in that incident, which he said involved bottles and chairs being thrown.
A FIRE
Two students have been charged with setting fire to the boys’ bathroom at Veteran’s Memorial Intermediate School in Vineland earlier this month, police said. A small fire in the boys’ bathroom activated the sprinkler system, which then resulted in flooded conditions on the school’s ground floor. The two 14-year-olds face a charge of arson in the January 2nd fire that forced students and staff to be evacuated sending the student body out into frigid conditions, when an alarm sounded. No injuries were reported, and the damage was minimal and confined to the bathroom, police said. Students returned to the school soon after the fire, police said.
Today we are living in an uncertain world, and just sending our children off to school is scary. With the recent events in this country this past month, this is how we can keep our children safe. We’re only one month into the new year, and there has been so much tragedy. Being halfway through the academic year, it’s time to start planning to get the security your school needs.
Keep in mind, no two schools are the same when choosing a company to install cameras and alarms to your schools. A company that offers a package is not really your best bet. You want to go with a company that will come to each school and does a safety audit to best meet the needs of each school. A school safety audit is something that should be done at least once a year to ensure all the systems are working properly and are still meeting your school’s needs. This audit of the school should not just be limited to security cameras and alarms in the school, it should also include every point of entry and door access protection. Another tool your school board can use when looking for the company that is going to install your security system is to look them up in the Better Business Bureau. You want to use a company that is BBB accredited so you can look back on the company’s track record. Keep in mind too, when choosing the company or any company that may work in your schools, be sure that the staff is all background checked. Central Jersey Security Cameras will come work with your school district and school budget to best protect your most valuable assets, your children! Our staff is background checked and highly trained in installation of all aspects of security systems. Central Jersey Security Cameras is Better Business Bureau Accredited A+. One of the parents of a student in the New Orleans incident said she hopes to see some changes to ensure nothing like this will ever happen again. Start with getting the security your school needs. Call Central Jersey Security Cameras today and let’s start making the plans to have your school as safe as it can be for next school year 732-333-0227