How to Stay Safe Going Back To School – Consulting, Training, & Awareness

Public and private schools, charter schools, and faith based educational programs are under equipped with the tools and training to handle threats to safety including suspicious people on campus, student bullying, and active shooters. AEGIS Security & Investigations provides dynamic workshops designed to impart knowledge, physical training, and situational awareness to students, parents, teachers and administrators. If you feel your school isn’t as prepared as it should be, YOU NEED OUR HELP.

LAPD recently reached out to K-12 students to remind them about safety basics , which is critical to ensuring everyone obeys the laws. However, since school shootings, like that at North Park Elementary just last year in San Bernardino and Sandy Hook just a few years ago, have increased in recent years, we think it is critical to introduce active shooter training programs to all schools. For teachers and administrators, such training programs can literally save lives.

When it comes to preparing your school for the back-to-school rush of safety briefings, there are several steps. The first step is conducting a professional security audit that includes a full policy review. including emergency management, active shooter response, local law enforcement and medical response capabilities, training, policies and procedures, communication systems, adherence to safe schools regulations, anti-bullying initiatives, the school wide positive behavior support plan, memorandums of understanding, and mutual aid agreements.

The second step is conducting a full vulnerability assessment of the physical property to include access control, screening, lighting, camera systems, the use of contractors, visibility, environmental factors, and targeting.

The third step is conducting an analysis of each observation, assessing its individual characteristics and then classifying it for further action. Once the analysis is complete, countermeasures should be defined for each shortfall.

The fourth step would be penetration testing. This would be a real test of security arranged by the security consultant and administrators. This test is not designed to scare students or faculty but rather to determine vulnerabilities and readiness.

The final step in the initial process is education of school faculty and staff related to understanding the warning signs of various kinds of bullying as well as psychological disorders. Per the Office of Elementary and Secondary Education, when violence is witnessed, a correlation with decreased school attendance and academic performance is found across the board. Students who suffer from bullying and other forms of school-based violence tend to perform poorly, earning average grades of D and F. The only way we can begin to resolve school violence in the long term is with better recognition and treatment.

AEGIS Security & Investigations offers active shooter training programs designed for people at levels within any organization. These trainings are the first step in understanding you and your organization’s capabilities and responses to an incident. Taking the steps to become better prepared in hostile situations cannot only save your life but help save the lives of those around you.

The civilian active shooter training provided by AEGIS are intended to build on “run, hide, fight,” the long-standing method of saving yourself in these events. Workshops run from an hour to several hours dependent on the needs of the organization and individuals. Our most highly sought after workplace violence training program is our one-hour plus add-on Run, Hide, Fight Live Fire Demo; participants begin with a lecture and basic training on how to handle the situation and are then exposed to sample scenarios in which they practice those same skills. The effectiveness of this scenario can be viewed when on CBS here.

AEGIS Security & Investigations is a Los Angeles region company that is licensed and insured in the State of California to provide high-end armed and unarmed regular and temporary off-duty police officers, bodyguards, security officers, loss prevention agents, and event staff. Additionally, we offer services for private investigation, consultation, people locates, and background investigations. Our trainings and workshops in the field of security licensure and counter-terrorism have been featured in news media and are renowned for their efficacy. For more information or to contact us, visit www.aegis.com.

By Chelsea Turner & Jeff Zisner