School Security?

Area of Science:

• Educational Psychology
• School Safety and Security
• Adolescent Well-being

Background:

• Recent reports indicate a concerning trend of students feeling unsafe in school environments.
• Despite the implementation of active shooter drills, student perceptions of safety remain low.

Purpose of the Study:

• To assess student perceptions of physical and emotional safety in schools.
• To evaluate the effectiveness of current school security training, including active shooter drills.

Main Methods:

• Analysis of student self-reported safety scores on a scale of 1 to 10.
• Review of existing school security training protocols and their impact on student feelings of safety.

Main Results:

• Students reported an average physical safety score of 3.5 and emotional safety score of 5.4.
• A significant number of students awarded their physical safety a score of 1 out of 10.
• Low safety perceptions persist despite mandatory participation in active shooter drills.

Conclusions:

• Current school security training, including active shooter drills, may not be effectively enhancing student feelings of safety.
• There is a critical need for schools to rethink and potentially revise their security training strategies to better address student safety concerns.