School safety, security, and violence prevention resource

The time that many Americans have been waiting for is almost upon us. In less than a week, countless American citizens will be heading to schools to cast their votes; votes which may very well change the course of our history as a nation. Yet as we prepare ourselves for this momentous event, there are other aspects that we must be aware of and one of them is the impact of the elections on school safety.

To be honest, I did not really think about this myself. Shame on me, the concept of school safety totally eluded me in this case. Thanks to Kenneth Trump, the president of the National School Safety and Security Services, my eyes were opened to the potentially disastrous effects of the elections being held in schools. An article containing his sentiments was published early this week:

The November 4th General Election, with massive voter turnout and high emotions, adds to already existing potential school security threats including non-custodial parents, sexual predators and others with ill intentions who might want to get access to schools, according to Kenneth Trump, a national school safety expert.

“It makes no sense that schools spends millions and millions of dollars on controlling school access throughout the school year only to open their doors a couple times a year to anyone and everyone without really knowing who is in their buildings,” says Kenneth Trump, President of the Cleveland (Ohio)-based National School Safety and Security Services.

Trump, who has advocated for years to move polling places out of schools to other places in the community, notes that a small, but growing, number of communities have done so. Many schools instead designate Election Day as a professional development day for teachers while students stay home.

But many schools remain open for both education and polling, Trump says. Voters add to traffic congestion at student drop-off and pick-up, overloaded school parking lots, and strangers wandering around schools.

“Permanently moving polling places out of schools to other locations in the community is very prudent considering best practices taken to improve school access control in the past decade. Unfortunately, many elected officials and school districts fear political resistance by some voters in their communities, and have dodged the issue. Sadly, it will probably take a high-profile national tragedy to bring about this needed change on a large scale nationally,” Trump said.

Did these thoughts come to you prior to reading this post? Indeed, Trump has a very good point in saying that we spend a lot of time, money, and effort on securing schools and keeping unauthorized people out of the campuses. Would allowing everyone to enter the premises for a day really pose a serious threat?

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