School security has never been more top of mind than right now. The steady rise of violence in and out of the classroom has school administrators and staff, board members and parents searching for answers and exploring a more proactive approach to safety and visual security in schools.
ID Wholesaler recently hosted a webinar with Beekmantown Central School District’s Director of 21st Century Learning, Gary Lambert. Located in upstate New York, the Beekmantown Central School District is comprised of two separate campuses with a total of 2,000 K12 students.
Lambert – a 25-year education veteran – provided keen insights on how to successfully integrate visual security within schools by sharing his own school’s success.
Highlights of Gary Lambert’s presentation:
- You may not be able to reconfigure the physical layout of the building, but you can focus on what happens when someone gets into the building by using ID badges.
- Always know who is in your building at all times.
- All school staff, faculty, students and administration should get a personalized ID badge or school safety card.
- For visitors to your school, you’ll benefit greatly with visitor ID badges or a visitor management system.
- Frequent visitors don’t have to scan in each time because their records are already on file. Instead, you can provide pre-programmed/authorized RFID tags for easy visitor entry into the school.
- It’s very difficult to rehearse and drill everything you need to know in an actual school security situation.
- Having your school’s drill actions pre-planned and triggered by a one-button lockdown makes the situation easier to manage.
- Student IDs are just as important as staff IDs.
- Encourage ID use by broadening the types of applications where ID badges are required: library books, media center, lunches, sporting events and school dances.
- Safety is not an issue where you want to wait for something to happen. Allow all school staff with IDs to create or reprint badges from anywhere with cloud-based ID software.
- Cloud-based, full-feature CloudBadging software has eliminated the need to manage your ID program from one computer and location.
- At Beekmantown, each school location gets an access list for their building and is able to create and reprint ID badges.
- With CloudBadging’s single license for unlimited users, card production is much more streamlined and flexible to use.
- You can’t do everything, but that doesn’t mean you couldn’t do something.
- Many schools think that security is such a daunting task. Because they can’t do everything, they’re paralyzed by inaction.
- You can’t do everything. But that doesn’t mean you couldn’t do something.
- Don't get paralyzed by the complexity of school security. There are many ways that you can do something to improve your school’s security.
- When working with vendor companies, consider security a partnership, not a school district-vendor relationship.
- Partner with companies that have a similar security vision, like ID Wholesaler.
- Read their customer reviews to learn how their products and services have benefited other organizations.
- Trust their long-standing industry reputation and photo ID thought leadership.
If your school is looking for a stronger security strategy or ways to enhance your existing security protocols, call a knowledgeable ID Professional today at (800) 321-4405. We’ll listen to your school’s needs and create an effective, affordable solution.