School Insecurity: A Comprehensive Guide for Parents and Educators on School Security, Protecting Your Children, and Fostering a Safe Learning Environment
by Wayne Black
Is your child safe at school?
Who makes the decisions about your child’s safety and security when you send them off to school each day? What does a truly safe school look like? Does your school have an adequate security plan? How can we prevent the unthinkable? It's time to talk about what the parenting books don't teach you: the unmentionable events that occur in US schools every year and how to try to prevent them with invaluable information.
Every time you turn on the news, it seems like there is another active threat on a school in the United States. From Columbine and Uvalde to Parkland and Virginia Tech (to name a few), these unimaginable attacks have brought death, severe injuries and mental trauma upon too many of our country's precious children and teachers. It is 100% certain that another school shooting will occur, yet many people still deny that it could happen at their school. This is a dangerous normalcy bias that puts lives at risk. If it’s predictable, it’s preventable. Just when you think it can’t happen here, it does.
In this comprehensive guidebook for parents and professionals, Wayne Black utilizes over forty-five years of security experience in both the private and public sectors to educate you on:
-Who is responsible for your school’s safety and security
-How to talk to the school board and administration about security policy
-The most effective physical safeguards for preventing an attack
-How to detect and report observable concerning behavior
-The role of security and law officers in schools
-Easy-to-follow pathways for you to push for positive change when and where it is needed plus simple, helpful checklists to quickly assess school safety
It’s time for parents to get involved in their children’s safety at school. In the words of Lori Alhadeff, a parent who lost her daughter at Parkland and founder of Make Our Schools Safe, “Your voice is your power.”
