Attention: English is not my native
language, the text is translated with the help of technical translation tools.
I apologize in advance if the meaning of some phrases will be incorrectly
conveyed.
Analyzing publications in the media, websites of law
enforcement agencies, expert and scientific organizations, as well as
specialized communities in social networks, I noticed some changes in the
trends of statements, statements and comments from officials and specialists.
Albeit with a great delay, but law enforcement services and other legislative
and executive authorities of many countries are slowly beginning to recognize
the fact that schools, other educational institutions and places with mass
attendance of children have become objects of increased danger, that they have
become an attractive target for criminals and terrorists*. There are
also cautious statements that a special approach to their security is needed.
There are few specifics in such statements, but the fact that the threat is
being recognized at a fairly high level can already be called positive
progress, albeit tentatively.
Among those involved in the development of solutions
in the field of security of educational and other children's institutions,
especially in recent times, there is often expressed an opinion, which has a
lot of support in the expert community, about the need to create the
introduction of a single standard (format or template) of safety and security
systems for educational institutions. There are even initiatives that such a
standard should be made international. However, the question arises - how
effective will such a «standardized» approach to the security of educational institutions
be?
Proponents of standardization believe that it will be,
arguing that such unified standards and templates are already used and quite
successfully, for example, in terms of ensuring the protection of such
facilities from fire or natural disasters in dangerous areas. They are
developed on the basis of a long, deep analysis of real and probable emergency
situations, natural and man-made, best practices of rescue services, as well as
modern technical means of detection, warning and elimination of dangerous
phenomena, such as fire, gas leakage (or other dangerous chemicals),
earthquake, tornado, tornado, flood and others. The experience of using such
templates is quite successful, it is indeed true.
However, in the above cases, we are dealing with
unplanned and uncontrollable phenomena of natural or man-made nature. But let
us consider the situation, in a different scenario. In any educational
institution there is a detailed instruction on actions in case of fire, which
is studied in classes, periodically repeated, drills and exercises are held,
throughout the building hanging plans, information signs, signs of evacuation
routes, main and emergency exits, sound warning buttons, sensors, water
sprayers, fire extinguishers other elements of fire protection system. All this
was calculated on the basis of the versions of the occurrence of fire due to
natural causes, such as: short-circuited wiring, electrical appliance
malfunction, lightning, careless handling of fire or even hooliganism. But,
what if the cause of the fire will be the willful actions, of one or more
criminals whose goal is to commit mass murder, using fire and smoke as weapons.
They will have studied all the instructions and fire protocols in advance, and
with this information in mind, they will develop their arson plan. What are the
potential consequences of this scenario? When the perpetrator knows in advance
every move of the potential victims?
Some may say that this is unlikely, I disagree, let's
look at the statistics: in the world, for the period from 2000 to 2023
inclusive, in schools, kindergartens, colleges and universities, there were 249
crimes**, falling under the signs of mass murder and terrorist acts. Of
these, 16 were committed using incendiary devices and mixtures as weapons, 252
victims (140 dead and 112 injured), most of the victims were children.
For comparison, in the period from 2009 to 2012, in Russia, in schools
and other educational institutions there were 1,504 fires (not one of them was
not related to mass murder), in which 42 people suffered (9 dead, 33 injured). [1]
This example, clearly shows that the use of uniform
standards in the field of fire safety is really effective in emergency
situations of unintentional nature, where the casualty rate is only 0.03.
However, in cases where the fire was a consequence of intentional actions such
a coefficient is already 15.8, a difference of more than 500 times.
I have always said it and I will say it again, the
biggest mistake law enforcement makes in dealing with criminals who commit mass
murders in schools and other educational institutions is underestimating them.
An analysis of mass murders and terrorist acts committed in educational and
other children's institutions directly indicates that such crimes are very
rarely committed spontaneously or in a state of passion. On the contrary, most
of them are preceded by careful planning and long, painstaking preparation.
Consider the events at Columbine High School.
If everything had gone according to the original plan of the criminals, it
would have been a tragedy on a scale comparable to «Beslan» or «September 11».
In total, the criminals' plan had three stages of implementation and it was
designed with the school's security protocol in mind. Firing sectors, main and
reserve firing points, were formed according to the directions of movement of
people during evacuation. Yes, their plan misfired, poor technical skills
failed (the detonators of the largest bombs failed), what happened next was an
unplanned improvisation on the part of the perpetrators, but even with this
development of events - 27 victims (13 killed, 14 wounded).
If it had happened not 25 years ago, but in our days,
the result would be different, because today, the detonator does not need to be
made by yourself, the simplest, yet quite reliable version of the remote
igniter can be ordered on the Internet, ready-made, and the whole system of
explosive and incendiary devices can be controlled through an application in a
smartphone or tablet. I am not talking about the possibilities for criminals to
use unmanned aerial vehicles (drones), even those versions that are freely available,
but this is a topic for a separate study.
Based on the above, we can conclude that the creation
and use of a single security standard for educational institutions will not
improve their protection, but on the contrary, will create a dangerous vulnerability
in it. This will give potential criminals the opportunity to build their
attacks, taking into account all the weaknesses of the object and mechanisms to
respond to threats, in different scenarios. If the crime is prepared by the
student himself (almost 45% of mass murders in educational institutions are
committed by their students), then he will be able not only to learn these
features, but also to visually see how this system works, for example, during
drills and exercises.
My opinion in this matter:
I am in favor of a compromise solution. I believe that
there is indeed a need to form a unified (including international) standard for
the safety of educational institutions and places with mass attendance of
children, but in a minimal format. In the form of a set of minimum
requirements, general purpose, providing a fundamental basis for the security
system of an educational institution. What are these requirements?
The presence at the protected object:
- video surveillance system, both inside the building
and on the external boundaries;
- a physical security post;
- a system of technical access control with
identification of visitors;
- a system of technical control of visitors to carry weapons,
ammunition, explosive devices, explosive, incendiary or poisonous substances
into the premises;
- emergency call buttons for the police;
- intercom systems between the premises;
- safe zones in each room.
Also with modern features in mind, I would add to this
list a drone (unmanned aerial vehicle) detection detector.
I am sure that such a minimum set of the above
mentioned basic security measures should be in every school, kindergarten,
college or university. There is no doubt about the effectiveness of these
measures, they comply with the main principle of «Do no harm». However, at the
same time, as I have already said, this should be only the foundation, but the
other elements of the security system should be developed for each object
individually, taking into account the peculiarities of the educational institution,
the nature and degree of probability of threats. This can be different
approaches to the organization and activities of physical security, the use of
technical means of security and access control, methods of engineering
reinforcement, both the entire building and individual rooms, surveillance
systems, control, communication, alarms, alerts and much more.
Note: It is important not to get carried away with
engineering solutions and technical security features in facilities such as
educational institutions. Not everything that at first glance seems useful and
effective in theory is so in practice. I made a detailed analysis of such «means
of protection» with analysis of application and examples in this article.
There are a lot of ways and possibilities in this
direction, and with their proper use at the protected object, the level of its
security can be raised to the maximum possible***.
There are no universal solutions (except for the basic
security measures described above) in ensuring the security of educational
institutions. The main components of an effective security system are its
uniqueness, based on the individual characteristics of the protected object and
limitation of access to this information by unauthorized persons.
It is important to realize that this system is built,
not against petty thieves and hooligans, but against murderers and terrorists
who do it deliberately, consciously, and cold-bloodedly, according to a
pre-prepared plan. Their main goal is to kill as many people as possible. The
main task of the security system is to prevent them.
The creation of such a system should always start with
a deep analysis of vulnerabilities and their expert evaluation, based on which,
experts develop a detailed list of recommendations to eliminate the identified
vulnerabilities, or to minimize their negative effect. All this should be
combined into a single document – «Security Protocol», which after completion
and approval should receive the status of «official» (closed) with a limited
list of officials who have access to its contents. On the Internet site of an
educational institution or its page in a social network, it is enough to inform
about its compliance with the «basic» security standard, all other information
should be closed.
One more important condition to be taken into account:
yes, in the 21st century, schools, other educational institutions and places
with mass stay of children have become high-risk objects and their protection
requires a special approach, but they should not turn into analogs of prisons
or military bunkers. Is it possible? Yes, it is possible.
In this article I will not consider the questions of
what specialists should be involved in assessing the vulnerabilities of schools
and other educational institutions (including preschools) and what means and
methods should be used to create a system to ensure their security. This is a
very voluminous topic that I will include in the second part**** of the
study on comprehensive security systems for educational institutions, which I
plan to finalize and publish in 2025. As for the active discussions on the application
of technical means of safety and security for these purposes, I have already
expressed my opinion about it in one of my previous articles.
Author - Roman Grishin
* Although some may not see
the difference, I still tend to separate these two types of criminals based on
their motivation. For the «School Shooter», mass murder is a way of self-expression,
he is guided by goals he alone understands and tries to convey only his
personal message to others. A terrorist commits a crime guided by the ideology
of a particular terrorist movement (organization) and pursues the goals that
this extremist ideology (or organization) professes.
** Handbook of Crimes and
Terrorist Acts in Schools and Other Educational Institutions (second
edition, revised and supplemented)
*** absolute security does not
exist even in theory, the maximum possible indicator of the effectiveness of
the security system is to reduce, to the possible minimum, the risk of a
successful attack on the protected object and the damage caused by such an
attack.
**** «Ensuring the safety of
schools, other educational organizations and institutions with mass attendance
of children» publication
dated 05 January 2022.
#standardization #standards #safety #safeguarding #school #nursery #kindergarten #college #university #children #analytics #statistics #debate #opinion #effectiveness #Columbine #SafeandSoundSchools #SchoolSafety
.png)
