A unified approach to assessing safety in educational institutions

Note: it should be borne in mind that the author lives and works in Russia, so in this article, he considers the situation on the example of his country. Measures to ensure the safety of schools, other educational institutions and places with a mass stay of children that he proposes are developed by him for use in Russia, taking into account the existing law enforcement system and the situation there.

Often, after another tragedy, in expert discussions addressing the protection of educational institutions, participants use the term «security level» with various adjectives such as high, low, satisfactory, unsatisfactory, compliant, minimal, etc. However, the question arises: what exactly do they mean by this concept? What can this level be, how is it determined, and what factors influence it?
After studying publicly available information on these issues, I concluded that there is currently no unified (or even widely accepted) system for formally assessing the security level of educational facilities. Most reports containing such evaluations and conclusions are based on the personal opinions of the specialists who prepared them, relying on compliance with regulatory documents, as well as numerous guidelines, recommendations, and informational letters from the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Federal Security Service, the National Guard, and other executive and local government bodies. These documents mostly contain general, and often vague, wording, making it difficult to judge how accurate and objective the conclusions drawn from them are.

After reviewing publicly available foreign practices, I also found nothing concrete; the situation on this issue appears to be similar there, despite the clear need for such a tool.
I am not a proponent of excessive standardization in security matters, but I consider this area an exception. Due to the absence of an assessment system that could, based on formal criteria, objectively calculate the security level of an educational facility with minimal influence from the «human factor»—and since I need such a tool in my work—I decided to try creating it myself.

The table presented in this article is intended to assess the security level of an educational institution against criminal and terrorist threats. The evaluation is based on 64 criteria, covering:

- Characteristics of the educational facility’s territory and location,

- Buildings and structures,

- Presence of physical security and its specifics,

- Technical security measures and their capabilities,

- Additional active and passive protective measures.

Each item, if present and—just as importantly—fully operational, is assigned the number of points indicated in the table. If absent or non-functional (fully or partially), it receives 0 points, and so on for all items. The points are then summed to produce a final score. In addition to the total score, there are factors that negatively affect the final assessment, all of which are outlined in the «Final Score Calculation Formula» section.
When completed, the table clearly shows the level of protection of the educational institution against criminal and terrorist threats, its capabilities, and, most importantly, obvious shortcomings and vulnerabilities in the security system. Based on the resulting score, measures and costs for improving the facility’s protection level can be planned.
Furthermore, using annual assessment data for one or multiple facilities, comparative and trend analysis can easily be conducted, clearly evaluating the situation in this area for a specific school, city, region, or even country over a given period—comparing both overall scores and individual indicators or sections. This is a convenient and, most importantly, objective tool for monitoring the situation. A decrease in the score, even by 1 point compared to the previous period, will immediately indicate a worsening situation and the need for action.

Author’s note: I believe that once completed, this table should be classified as at least «For Official Use Only» (or preferably with a higher restriction level), with very limited access granted to its contents. This information is too critical, and if it falls into the hands of someone planning a mass killing or terrorist attack, it could become a «lethal weapon,» significantly increasing the number of potential victims...

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The tragedy in Beslan, 20 years later.

 

20 years ago, on September 3, 2004, one of the greatest tragedies of the 21st century - Beslan - ended with terrible consequences. Then - on September 01, the day of the beginning of the school year, in this small town in the south of Russia, in the Republic of North Ossetia, terrorists seized a secondary school, more than 1100 people were taken hostage, most of whom were children.

The terrorists booby-trapped the school building, where they held hostages for 2.5 days, including many pregnant women and children under the age of 1 year. The criminals held people without water, food and access to medical care.

On September 03, special units started storming the captured school, some of the bombs were defused, but the criminals managed to detonate the other part of them. They were also shooting the hostages chaotically with all kinds of automatic firearms, as well as with hand grenades. Out of 32 terrorists, 31 were killed, 1 was arrested (currently serving a life sentence in prison).

The victims of the terrorist attack were 333 people, including:

- 186 children between the ages of 7 and 17;

- 17 teachers and school staff;

- 111 parents of students and guests of the school;

- 11 members of the assault special forces and police officers;

- 8 emergency services personnel.

This is a terrible tragedy, which in its scale, cruelty and number of victims - shocked the world. I was not interested in the motives of the criminals, I believe that such crimes do not and cannot have any justification, without exception.

Personally for me the tragedy in the school of Beslan became a starting point, it was then that I began to actively study and develop such a direction of applied criminology as “Ensuring the safety of schools and other educational institutions from criminal and terrorist threats”. Unfortunately, the results of my research do not give reason for optimism, because no one has drawn any conclusions from this terrible crime. In the 20 years that have passed since the tragedy, 218 crimes* (not including 2024) falling under the signs of mass murder have occurred in schools, kindergartens, colleges and universities around the world, 17 of them were qualified as terrorist acts, 18 were connected with hostage-taking. The victims of these tragedies were 2,649 people, of whom 933 died and 1,716 were injured, most of them children.

As it is not sad, but the dynamics of such crimes is not decreasing, schools, kindergartens, colleges, universities and other educational institutions, as well as places with mass presence of children, continue to be «easy targets» for criminals and terrorists, which means that no one and nowhere is safe from the repetition of a tragedy like the terrorist act in the school of Beslan, it is only a matter of time. So for now we can only wait.

Is it possible to completely eliminate the risk of a repetition of such crimes? I believe that no, it is impossible. However, it is quite possible to significantly reduce the risk of such tragedies, as well as the scale of their consequences.

Are there effective ways and methods to counter such threats? Yes, there are.

What is needed for this? The presence of two conditions:

1. Recognition of the fact of existence of the threat, that schools, kindergartens, colleges, universities and other educational institutions, as well as places with mass stay of children, are objects of increased danger.

2. Complete change of the existing approach to the system of ensuring the safety of such institutions. It is quite possible to make them safe without turning them into analogs of military bases or prisons. How exactly, is a topic for a separate conversation, which makes sense only after condition № 1 is met.

Author - Roman Grishin

* Statistical data are taken from Handbook of Crimes and Terrorist Acts in schools and other educational institutions

photo taken from the website: Network edition «Alpha news»

#Beslan #tragedy #terrorist #attack #terroristattack #terrorist_attack #terrorism #murder #threat #conclusions #victims

 

Attack on Gambetta School, Arras, France

Dear friends and colleagues, I ask for your help in terms of information on the tragedy that occurred on October 13, 2023 in the school Gambetta, Arras commune, in northern France. Information in the media is covered indirectly, there are few details, and I need them. I tried to look in the central mass media of France, but there too, there is little useful information, more emotions, reasoning, searching for the guilty and discussing the identity of the perpetrator and the victims.
I am interested in the factual side of this tragedy, first of all the chronology of this event:
- when (time) the perpetrator came to the school;
- how he entered the territory;
- how long he stayed on the school grounds;
- who called the police;
- how long after the information was received did the police arrive on the scene;
- whether the suspect was apprehended on school grounds or managed to escape.
Also interested in eyewitness accounts, police reports, etc., simply put - not opinions, but facts.
In addition, interested in information of a similar nature on two other incidents of the same day:
1. the detention of a man with two suspicious suitcases and a backpack who tried to break into another school in the commune of Arras (this school is 200 meters from the school where the teacher was killed).
2. detention of a man with a knife at the entrance to a school in the commune of Limaye (Yvelines department), this detainee was allegedly also known to the police as a member of a radical terrorist movement.
Have the police made any official comment on the connection between these crimes or their participants?
Any other corroborated information.
Also I will be very grateful for recommendations on the evaluation of the media in France in terms of the information provided, who provides information more objectively and unbiased, which media specialize in criminal journalism, more detailed coverage of incidents, crimes and terrorist attacks, where you can read reviews and comments from real experts in the field of safety (not political analysts).
Thank you in advance for your help.
If there are any questions on the substance of the post, write in the comments.
To contact the author, please write to the project e-mail: mail@orderandsafety.org

#France #Gambetta #Arras #tragedy #school #murder #terrorism #attack