The more school security assessments we perform, the more we see how different actual school security practices often are in contrast to what school security policies and the expectations of school leaders are. One purpose of a school security assessment is to see what the reality in schools is in contrast to what we think is taking place. This is important because effective school security involves creating a reasonable degree of consistency in the application of school security policies and practices so school security incidents will not occur.
Our team of school security experts has regularly helped school and public safety officials to identify and correct these deadly school security gaps during school security assessment projects. School security assessments are an excellent opportunity to find and fix gaps in school security that can result in tragedy. While school security experts and school security assessments can help to identify these types of gaps, there are other ways that school and public safety officials can try to identify and correct potentially dangerous gaps in school security before someone gets hurt. By developing a mindset that constantly asks if the way schools operate matches what written plans and procedures spell out, people who have responsibilities can often spot and then correct situations where the written guidelines do not match actual practices.