Feb 2019 AST Magazine Feb 2019 AST Final Magazine | Page 18

As a proven and trusted www.AmericanSecurityToday.com tool, X-ray can be effec- tive as it prevents and in- tercepts contraband, like weapons and narcotics of all shapes and sizes, from getting into secured facilities. February 2019 - Edition 32 The unfortunate re- ality There is no doubt that schools and campuses should be safe havens where students can learn and engage freely and openly. Yet, despite increased awareness on subjects like bullying, proper social media usage to better ac- cess to mental health services, the ques- tion remains “are schools, in fact, saf- er?” We should not rule out anything when it comes to ensuring the safety of our children, teachers and administrators. While we know that unfortunately noth- ing can guarantee 100 percent safety, when multiple layers or solutions are A multi-layered approach used we achieve better results on safety For schools and other secured environ- and violence prevention. ments, evidence points to positive trends in safety when a broad, all-inclusive Firstly, when considering a physical se- plan of overlapping layers of physical curity approach, educators must take security is used in combination with oth- into consideration the unique environ- ment, traffic, population and cam- er programs. 16 Where do we need to go from here?