If you are a parent or faculty member, it might be easy to look at your current safety measures and settle. After all, that app or electronic lock probably cost you a pretty penny. But is your school as safe as it can be? We would wager that it isn’t. A school safety plan is hardly ever devoid of issues, which is why we put our heads together to create Badge Messenger®.
A lot of school safety articles talk about popular solutions, but they don’t identify potential issues a school can continue to have. A more profound school safety issue is when your method for protecting students creates additional problems. Proponents and distributors of school safety tips hardly ever admit these issues, and this practice can inhibit your school’s safety.
We know this because we know school security, including the downfalls of popular safety measures the manufacturers don’t tell you. If you knew about them, then you might question whether or not you should allocate your money differently.
Let’s talk about electronic locks. Locks can be great. They keep people out. Electronic locks make it extremely difficult for people you don’t know to slip by unannounced. But they have an innate problem. Locks keep people out, but they can also keep people in.
One considerable critique of door locks in barricades is they allow for a threat to remain barricaded inside the school, protected from first-responders. When security doors were first implemented, in some instances there was no way that a first-responder could make his or her way inside the school to help. This method also can trap students behind locked doors, among the threat that is terrorizing the school.
What about a school safety officer? Resource officers and active-duty police are another pair of popular school safety solutions. But these have come under scrutiny recently for a rise in student arrests for crimes like drug possession. Parents believe sending kids to juvenile corrections isn’t the answer and schools should handle the problems without jail time.
What about new school safety plans? These can be a great solution. The problem with school safety plans, however, is that they degrade if you don’t constantly practice and adapt them to your changing school. It seems that every school safety feature has a downfall.
Just when we believe we are employing the best school safety methods, we discover safety solutions seem to have inevitable drawbacks. When we set out to create Badge Messenger, we knew this was the case and hoped to make a product as versatile as possible.
Badge Messenger does not rely on an app, is free of cellular reliance, works during power outages, is small enough for everyday use, not reliant on your school’s WiFi, has a long battery life, can be operated with one hand, and is immensely customizable.
We know schools need to be safer, and we know we must limit the drawbacks associated with all safety measures protecting our students across the country.
So if you’re an administrator or teacher, look at your current safety measures and question whether or not they have limitations. The chances are you will find a handful. But we’ve created a whole range of resources to better secure your school, whether you’re using our product or not.