NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) — From weapons detection systems to panic buttons, school districts across the country have rolled out high-tech measures to turn classrooms and hallways into safe havens, but some experts say the products are useless without the basics.
Kevin Wren, a school safety advocate for the Cook & Boardman Group and an advisor for the Partner Alliance for Safer Schools (PASS) told News 2 physical school security products generally fall into three categories: gun-related, artificial intelligence/cloud and communications-oriented.
“When we look at the guns [category], you have three different folds in there. You’ve got audible detection, metal detectors like a physical detector you walk through, and then you’ve got a camera analytic that picks up a gun,” Wren said. “Inside each of those three [categories] they have their own nuances and case uses for each of those areas.”
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News 2 has covered new, innovative technology aimed at improving school security, including weapons detection systems, panic alarms and even pop-out, bulletproof classroom shelters. However, Wren argues none of that technology is useful if school districts haven’t tackled the basics.
“I’ve definitely seen some technologies being implemented that make me scratch my head around, you’ve just spent $1 million on weapons screening but yet your mass communications system is analog, and it’s a coin toss if your kindergarten teacher pushes it if they can get help or not,” Wren said.
Wren advises school districts to focus on training and school safety personnel before purchasing high-tech, physical security products.
“Sometimes we get easily roped into what we think is pushing the easy button and buying something to say we did something,” Wren said. “Meanwhile we haven’t trained our people on how to appropriately respond to things.”
Last year, the Tennessee General Assembly approved $230 million to address both training/personnel and physical security improvements in schools. Lawmakers outlined how the money should be spent, including $140 million to place a school resource officer in every school, $8 million for additional School-Based Behavioral Health Liaisons, and $54 million for physical school security upgrades.
However, Wren has seen some state legislatures fail to set specific spending standards and guidelines, which can lead districts to purchase technology that might not be beneficial.
“[Lawmakers] are not necessarily funding a school safety director who can provide the mentorship, provide the education, provide the expertise to say, ‘This is the direction we need to go in,’ so what happens is you get a school administrator or superintendent who is handed a check and at no point in their undergrad have they ever received a course on security and emergency management, yet we expect them to be an expert in it,” Wren said.
While high-tech products can be an important tool in keeping students and staff safe in schools, Wren believes they shouldn’t be the end-all-be-all, and none of them beat the traditional safety methods proven to be effective.
“We know 100% a shut, locked door works. We know that. We don’t know what the exact effectiveness is going to be of an AI analytic on a video camera system on picking up a gun coming in from the parking lot,” Wren said. “Before we start looking at these cutting edge technologies, we have to address the basics first, and oftentimes the basics are lower cost or no cost and actually have the maximum impact on that school safety climate.”
