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The world of K-12 education brings to mind the archetypal images of playgrounds and lunchboxes, marching bands and football games. But clearly the “dear old golden rule days” of school have not been immune to pressures that are giving security directors greater concern and increased responsibility, even at the lower grade levels.

Security is a top priority for school systems. Nonetheless, it is a reality that funding which provides a safe, secure learning environment often must compete with traditional financing that pays for books and buildings. Fortunately, federal, state, private foundation and corporate grants are available to pay for security programs — if you know where to find them.

This year will mark the 10th anniversary of 9/11, and for many high-risk areas, security remains a work in progress. A perfect example is all the hype that various airports are generating for using—or more to the point, how they are using—body scanning equipment.

Canaries can have a short but significant life in a coal mine. Significant because, in their traditional role, they were used to identify the dangerous and costly fumes known as methane and carbon monoxide which could cause the loss of the business of the mine, the brand of the mine owners, and the skilled human assets of their workers.

As one of the easiest and most economical ways for a school to dramatically improve overall visitor security, a professional visitor management system from EasyLobby is a good safeguard. This includes Watch Lists such as each states’ registered sex offender database that will alert lobby attendants and administrators when someone on this list tries to check into the building. EasyLobby can display results within seconds when a match occurs.

Seemingly every day, there is an incident at the grammar, middle or high school which calls for quick action from a school or district security official as well as clear, fast, accurate communications to the appropriate stakeholders ranging from parents, students, and teachers to law enforcement and the media.

In IP video surveillance understanding the relationship and interdependencies between bandwidth (any/all cameras and storage playback), the network switches and Virtual Local Area Networks (VLANs) can be daunting. But it doesn’t have to be. Also, how does this relate to the operational and business needs and goals of the physical security organization?

You don’t want to just know who is in the building but why they are there, how they got in and even details of packages that are delivered. Old-fashioned methods of paper log books and have a security person check ID badges don’t work any longer.

What about America as a violent, high-crime society? All facts and statistics show that most crime peaked per capita in 1993.

With the increasing introduction of more powerful security systems, is ease of use easy to believe?