School Safety and Security

Years ago, I ran a small private school with 110 students in grades 9-11. I know how many demands consume a busy administrator's attention and time. I also know firsthand how difficult it is to get the owner of a private school to spend money on even the most critical items. With that in mind, I offer the following talking points for the small private school owner and her board of trustees.

How exposed is your school?

When I asked the question, which is the title of this article, I had in mind your exposure on three fronts:

• Legal
• IT Infrastructure
• Public relations

IT Infrastructure

I will not scare you off with a lot of tech-speak regarding your IT infrastructure. But I highly recommend hiring an IT expert to review your school's IT infrastructure and make recommendations. By recommending this approach, I am a practical business person. Let's say your IT backend crashes, and you lose all your student and business data. And you have no resumption of a business plan or data backups in place. You will have a tough time making an insurance claim and getting your school back up and running.

An impartial IT consultant will confirm that your technology infrastructure has kept up with the times. Sadly, many organizations are still running Windows XP, for which support ended in 2014. Those Windows XP computers are easy targets for hackers.

You cannot

A tragedy like Newtown or Parkland could never happen in a private school, right? I certainly hope that it never does, but there are no guarantees. There are so many variables to consider in all of the mass shootings that have occurred since the Columbine attack in 1999 that it would be foolish to say that such events could not happen in a private school. Statistically, the odds of such an event are low. However, when it comes to the safety of our children, it is simply unacceptable to gamble. We, as parents and school administrators, must take steps to prevent disaster from occurring on our watch.

Equally unforeseen are natural disasters such as tornadoes, flooding, and earthquakes. Granted, certain regions of the country are more prone to these events than others. But you only have to read the news reports to realize that things can and do happen when and where you least expect them to.

So, against this gloomy backdrop, let's look at what private schools can do to protect their communities.

Protection

As I researched this article, I was impressed by the number of organizations that my search string "emergency response policy and procedure for schools" produced. You will find plenty of relevant and useful reading when you use a search string with a narrow focus.

As Benjamin Franklin wisely noted, "A pound of prevention is worth a pound of cure." While Franklin was referring

The recent events at historic Saint Paul's School in Concord, New Hampshire, raise questions for us considering private school. The story was hard to miss as it seemed to air virtually non-stop for a week. Against that backdrop, let's look at things from our parental perspective.

What are the odds of this happening in the school our children attend?

Probably not very likely at all. Statistically speaking, very few incidents such as this occur in private schools annually. I searched carefully to see what I could find about private school scandals past and present. There weren't many, perhaps a handful or so of incidents annually. You can find my search results at the end of this article. The sensational coverage of the Saint Paul's story tended to blow the incident way out of proportion, in my opinion. I would think that the risk of similar events happening elsewhere is insignificant.

This video offers an overview of Saint Paul's School, Concord, New Hampshire.

How could something like this happen in a private school which prides itself on 24/7 supervision of its students?

All private schools, including Saint Paul's, take their students' safety seriously. In the case of boarding schools, their responsibility extends to 24/7 supervision while the students reside on campus. With day schools, things work differently because school opens in the morning and dismisses at the end of the day. As a

Editorial

Yet another horrific shooting. More innocent lives snuffed out. Twenty children sitting in their safe, familiar classroom. Gone.

These shootings have become an all too familiar story. I now think twice about visiting public places. I still go. But I am wary. The same defensive mechanism which kicks in when I drive is now present in my thinking. But let me back up a bit and explain my aversion to violence. This video gives an overview of the issue.

As a classicist I am quite familiar with our love of violent spectacles. Chariot races, gladiator contests and mock naval wars are all, as far as I am concerned, precursors of 21st century video games and movies. That does not mean that I like them. Not one bit.

My first taste of real violence was during the terrorist activities which took place in the Province of Quebec back in the 60s when I was a teen. I knew nothing of violence prior to that, having been raised in a leafy green English neighborhood in Montreal called Westmount. My family had lived there for several generations. But the French Canadians were tired of feeling oppressed and shackled economically and socially by a minority population, i.e., les Anglais. They started blowing things up. I was out for a walk one day heading north on Roslyn Avenue. I heard what I to this day recall as a thump. Not

A private school handbook is essentially a set of guidelines for life in the school community. The reason why I am devoting an entire article here on Private School Review is to underscore the importance of handbooks. Both you and your child need to understand that the school's handbook is linked to the contract which you signed with the school. Private schools are not like public schools in this very important regard: students have rights in a public school; but they do not have rights in a private school. They are governed by what is known as contract law. That contract which you signed with the school spells out all the obligations of the parties to that contract. Somewhere buried in the fine print will be a statement to the effect that one of your child's obligations is to abide by the rules and regulations of the school and its community as set forth in the school's handbook and elsewhere.

Most handbooks are comprehensive, very detailed documents which seek to cover every conceivable aspect of school life. They are generally rather lengthy documents too as you will see when you review the examples listed at the end of this article. Take time to review your school's handbook. Discuss and confirm that your child understands the seriousness of this document. While the school will explain the content of its handbook at the beginning of school, assume nothing. Make sure that she understands that failure to abide by the terms