The Partner Alliance for Safer Schools (PASS) members have been developing a school security assessment tool and a set of school security guidelines to be revealed at ISC West this month. The living document will provide specific recommendations (especially regarding the use of electronic security equipment) divided into “layers” (parking lots, main entrances, classrooms, etc.) and then again into tiers (depending on the level of resources a given school has available).

According to Jim Crumbley, President and CEO of Risk Response Team and the Vice Chairman of PASS, “PASS is a volunteer organization that exists to provide schools, school boards and security teams with information on how to use technology to mitigate risks in a K-12 environment.” Among its members, PASS includes school representatives and end users, security consultants, engineers, law enforcement and manufacturers, and Crumbley assures that the organizations recommendations are strictly manufacturer-agnostic.

The document, which will evolve and change as risks do, is not meant to point out a single silver bullet. Overall, the group says, PASS is striving to change how schools look at their security.

Scott Lord of All Systems and a PASS member adds: “We want to become an organization that helps set standards for not just K-12 but universities, and to set those standards from a security perspective. We want to be like the NFPA of security.”

Adds Crumbley, “We’re proud of the fact that a group of very intelligent and driven individuals have come together and set aside personal agendas to try and give end users the tools they need to protect our schools and our kids.”

If you are attending ISC West this month in Las Vegas, you are welcome to attend the PASS event on Thursday, April 16, at 9:15 a.m. in Room 310.