> Resource Guide: Reports & Articles

 

New: Report To The President On Issues Raised By The Virginia Tech Tragedy
 

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Appropriate and Effective Use of Security Technologies in U.S. Schools
A U.S. Dept. of Justice research report meant to serve as a guide for schools and law enforcement agencies.

Indicators of School Crime and Safety
U.S. Dept. of Justice site presents data on crime and safety at school from the perspectives of students, teachers, principals, and the general population.

NPR : Schools Eye Classroom Chemical Cleanup
Schools across the country are grappling with how to clean up classroom chemistry labs, where dangerous chemicals are often left unguarded. (4:22 min. Click on the headline or the audio icon to listen to the story. You'll need an audio player to hear it, and you can find the right one for your computer at http://www.npr.org/audiohelp/audioplayers.html).

Preparedness in America's Schools
A Comprehensive Look at Terrorism Preparedness in America s Twenty Largest School Districts (America Prepared Campaign; September 2004)

School Safety Threats Persist, Funding Decreasing: NASRO 2003 National School-Based Law Enforcement Survey
Report on a survey taken by National Association of School Resource Officers

Secret Service Safe School Initiative
The findings from the study suggest that some school attacks may be preventable, and that students can play an important role in prevention efforts.

Working Smarter to Leave No Child Behind: Practical Insights for School Leaders
Although school safety and security are not the prime considerations of the "Leave No Child Behind" Act, this RAND White Paper provides background information about the Act for school leaders and parents who are concerned with overall improvements to school performance and accountability. Articles

ABCs of Safety
The latest trends in security and life-safety for educational facilities.

Balancing Safety and Security in the School Environment
Article on fire-, safety-, and security-related challenges in schools. Pages 10-18 of the PDF format of Fire Protection Engineering, Fall 2003 (Society of Fire Protection Engineers magazine).

Big Schools Reborn in Small World
The metal detectors that once guarded school entrances have disappeared, and fights in the hallways are equally rare, now that this New York school has been re-designed to house six smaller schools.

[D.C.] Council Seeks Role in School Security Plan
In the midst of an academic year that has seen one student gunned down in school hallway and another killed outside a school, lawmakers are considering changes that would give the city's police chief the added responsibility of overseeing school security.

[D.C. Mayor] Williams Wants Police in Schools
Mayor Anthony A. Williams will announce plans tonight to have D.C. police take over security at the city's public high schools.

FEMA Program Helps Schools Develop Emergency Response
The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has introduced a planning process to help schools develop procedures to respond to all types of disasters, including school violence.

Howard County Schools 2003 Tabletop Exercise
An exercise was designed to practice and evaluate the Howard County Public School System s emergency response procedures for an indirect emergency.

Metal Detectors and Pep Rallies: Spirit Helps Tame a Bronx School
It is as much about cracking down on the school system's version of petty criminals - the chronic hall-walkers and the persistently disruptive - as it is about enhancing the school experience with dances and freshly painted walls.

New Jersey Gov. Outlines New Homeland Security Initiatives for Schools
Acting Governor Richard J. Codey recently discussed details of the school security plan he outlined in his State of the State speech.

Paying for Protection
Education administrators face difficult choices as they try to preserve educational quality with less-than-adequate finances.

Police to Guard 12 City Schools Cited as Violent
A task force of 150 police officers will help impose order on 12 of New York City's most violent schools under an initiative announced by Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg to curb school violence.

Schools Advised of Joist Problem
The outdated design of structural steel supports, common in older schools and blamed on the collapse of a New York school roof, is now a concern nationwide.

Schools Prepare for a Nuke Disaster
A Connecticut school district stages the area's first-ever student relocation drill as if it were a real nuclear emergency.

Schools Prepare for Terrorism
If terrorists ever strike Allen High School in suburban Dallas, school police officer Carl Osburn says authorities will be ready.

Shattering the myth of wired glass
Children and young adults are seriously and permanently injured every year as a result of the dangerous use of wired glass vision panels in areas where impact safety glazing is required.

State Fire Marshals Association Announces Safe & Secure Schools Project
In and inset to an article in Security Technology & Design, NASFM president James Burns discusses the Safe and Secure School Project.

Walking Tall on Hallway Beat
Describes how one New York City police officer assigned to patrol a public school is making a difference in school safety.

Wichita schools build safe rooms to withstand storms, tornados
Using federal grant money matched with part a $285 million bond issue, school officials in Wichita, Kan., have built tornado-proof safe rooms at 26 schools.

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