How can schools protect children from predators and intruders on the playground?
From time to time we do see dangerous individuals come to a campus who pose a threat to staff and students. We have to look at the physical location of the playground in relation to the boundary of the campus, and need to look at the proximity to roadways. It's not just people. One of things that we've seen time and time again is a playground next to a major roadway, where the only thing stopping a car that's out of control is a chain link fence. We want to think in terms of either a distance to protect our kids from any of these types of threats, or possibly a physical barrier or appropriate fencing. The next thing we want to do is make sure that we're using intelligence structured supervision of children. If we're a staff member between children and the potential threat, or in other words, if you're a teacher, where should you be in relation to the children, in terms of someone trying to walk in. Sometimes I go to schools and an individual is walking down the sidewalk far closer to children than the staff are, because they're in the shade, up next to a building, or we have three teachers standing talking, when they should be spread out in a way they can protect the children. Thoughtful application of basic supervision techniques is one of the most important things.
