School Security & Safety

Parents: Check the Security at Your Child’s School

Building security is vital. Look at the access points to your child’s school. Are doors and gates that provide entry to the school campus locked from the outside during the day? Does the school have enough monitored indoor and outdoor security cameras in working order? Anyone coming to the school should be required to come in through one entrance and sign in with identification. What are the procedures in place for visitors?

Students should have just one entrance/exit to use at the beginning and the end of the school day. Adults must monitor the entrance/exit and report anything out of the ordinary. Some schools have metal detectors in place at the student entrance as well as the office entrance. Some schools have safety personnel or school police on campus at all times. Each situation is different and specific measures for building security and safety in each school should be determined locally.

Silvestri Junior High School is located on a busy, four-lane street, just over two miles from the south end of the Las Vegas Strip. We were one of the first middle schools in Clark County to construct a barrier gate to the open courtyard.  All visitors were forced to come into the front office, sign in, and receive a pass. All exit doors were locked from the outside, but opened from the inside allowing people to exit in an emergency. Students were required to enter and exit from one supervised set of doors in the rear of the school, unless escorted by a parent coming to a meeting, or being picked up to leave early. School campus monitors, teachers, and administrators monitored the other doors during busy times to make sure students did not open other exits, mainly before and after school.  

Even with all of these security measures in place, we had a few memorable breaches. A boy was given a pass to go use the restroom by a teacher during class.  He went straight to a hallway door to the outside and let in his friend who had been suspended for fighting. This friend wanted access to “get even” with other students. His plan was foiled by a third student who told a trusted teacher what was happening. Other situations occurred with older high school siblings wanting access to “protect” their middle school siblings. One such pair got inside and was not waiting by their sibling’s classroom door, but instead by the classroom of the person who had allegedly threatened their sibling.  One of our campus monitors caught them just before the dismissal bell rang and escorted them to the office. 

Schools need to update security cameras and control every access point throughout the day. Some schools have installed metal detectors and require everyone to pass through them in order to gain entry. 

Parents and school officials can and should work together to find cost effective solutions to school security and safety.