Along with locked entrances, we need to be vigilant about not propping doors open, even for brief periods of time.

All schools should require every visitor to the school, parents included, to sign in at the office and wear an identifying visitor badge. School staff members sometimes find themselves challenged by parents who question why they need to follow these procedures, and it can be helpful to practice a few responses to those questions such as, "Hi, did you have a chance to check-in at the front office? We are asking everyone to sign in and get a visitor badge. It helps us to know who is in our building in case of an emergency." Alternatively, you can say, "Hi, did you have a chance to sign in at the front office and get your visitor badge? You might not know about our policy - it helps us to know who is in our building in case of an emergency, so we can keep everyone safe."

It's also critical that security cameras be monitored. Many schools use them as a backup so that information can be gathered after an incident. But, in order to prevent theft, fighting, sexual assault, or other issues from occurring, we need to monitor our cameras in real-time. Does your school have a person assigned to do this?

Realistically, the types of school safety issues we are most likely to experience are things like a chemical leak in the community that releases fumes in our geographic area, weather-related incidents, injuries, accidents, medical emergencies, fights between students, and the death of a staff member or student that occurs outside of the school. All of these require a different type of response, so we need to be prepared by studying our crisis response protocols and rehearsing our responses ahead of time.