Focusing On Security Booths for Schools

Consider guard booths for school security staff.

Recently, as I drove onto a school property, a small building greeted me outside the front of the school. It looked like a guard booth or information booth and gave the impression that “someone was watching me." What was my first reaction?

I looked down at my speedometer to see if I was going slow enough! The structure did its job — making me more cautious just by its presence.

Schools have options on how to spend precious security dollars and where they can most effectively house the increasing need for armed security personnel.

In any case, for all schools, the first important security measure is to put locks on all doors. This helps deter unwanted access.

The next step is installing security cameras to help identify where and what is happening when an event occurs. This security step, though, only focuses on monitoring doors and guiding responders. Security cameras do not stop what happens after someone gets inside the building. Security cameras will not deter trespassers or assailants who know the response will arrive too slowly to stop them.

Fences around a school may seem like a good security measure. However, they are often not effective against real assailants.

Meanwhile, uniformed security staff can provide a presence at the school and respond professionally to threats and altercations.

Most security staff usually work in the Principal or Head of School's office at the school or educational facility. This decision to keep "command and control" within the school office started with the best of intentions. It made use of a lack of space, consolidated costs, and provided discipline in the school office.

It can be argued, though, that this initial decision has outlived its usefulness and that security forces need to be relocated outside the school office and building. Here are three important reasons.

1. Uniformed security personnel based inside the school are focused on what is happening inside the school. They are not using their strongest role as a security deterrent outside the school. Remember earlier how the booth outside the school made me slow down my car? If uniformed security staff are stationed in a small exterior guard booth or information booth, they can see what is approaching, provide security, and check in visitors.
2. An exterior guard booth “office space” may be expensive in real dollars, but it is real cheap when you think of its effectiveness as a deterrent.
3. It can be said that we are quickly learning that command and control of uniformed security staff response is really not what school administrators are good at. Also, well-meaning teachers carrying guns may be a nice idea, but they, like all school administrators, really lack the training and experience to know how and what to do in a crisis. This also places staff in a position to determine, without training, the use or non-use of force.

Our company builds guard booths. Because of this, we think about and study the best-recommended security practices for these scenarios. We talk to schools that have decided to purchase guard booths or information booths and ask why they made the decision. What you've read above is a summary of information and answers provided by school officials and guard booth customers.

Drive onto a school campus with one or more guard booths and see how you feel. Or take a look around when you drop your children off at school tomorrow.

Written by John Millet