Buildings: Risk Assessments and Safety Audits — from the Public Entity Risk Institute (PERI)

By Vijay Ramnarain
Architectural Consultant
Virginia Department of Education

This article is brought to you by The Public Entity Risk Institute (PERI). Visit their website: www.riskinstitute.org

In Virginia, more than 2 million children between the ages of 5-17 ride in about 10,000 buses to attend more than 2000 schools. Some of these buildings are about 75 years old, and the major proportion is about 25 to 50 years old. In many localities, as population is increasing, the schools are getting crowded. As demands on the limited financial resources available to local communities increase, it is harder to build new facilities and the old buildings are expected to last and serve their communities for longer periods of time. Maintenance is also often delayed or scaled back to save funds for other purposes.

In the United States, schools are an integral part of the community. They serve as resource and community centers after hours and as educational institutions during the day, and the parents expect that the children attending these schools should have a safe and secure environment. However, problems that exist in the community do not stop at the school house door; they permeate into the school environment and the school administration is then tasked with abating these problems and providing a secure and safe learning environment for these kids. In many communities, the school environment is the safest environment that the kids experience in their daily life. Consequently, in order to resolve the safety issues that affect a school, it is important to involve the leaders of the various segments of the community such as business, social, civic, political, religious and educational as well as the law enforcement community.

A SAFE SCHOOL

A safe school is one that provides a safe and secure physical environment, and also ensures the emotional safety and well being of all its users including students, staff, administrators, parents, and other visitors.

School safety is affected by random acts of physical violence; bullying; threats; intimidation; sexual, religious, and/or racial harassment; and other non-acceptable actions committed on school property. And, after 9-11, school safety can also be affected, either directly or indirectly, by acts of terrorism. These acts of terrorism can be directed at the school itself or the school could be impacted by the residual effect of acts of terrorism on the surrounding community.

SAFE SCHOOL PLANNING

A first response to the need for safety planning is the implementation of CPTED principles. In “Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED), Applications of Architectural Design and Space Management Concepts” by Timothy D. Crowe, it is stated that “the proper design and effective use of the built environment can lead to a reduction in the fear of crime, and to an improvement in the quality of life.”

The concept of CPTED is that manipulation of the built environment can produce behavioral effects that will reduce the incidence and fear of crime, thereby improving the quality of life. These objectives can be attained by reducing those elements in the physical environment that could support criminal behavior—as an example, improved lighting around a school building can provide opportunities for enhanced surveillance and deter acts of vandalism.

The overlapping strategies of CPTED are:

• Natural Access Control — spatial definition
• Natural Surveillance — observation of intruders
• Territorial Reinforcement — create or extend a sphere of influence to help users develop a sense of ownership of the space

For its principles to succeed, normal users must understand the principles of CPTED, and these must also be practical. Using the “Three-D” approach to space assessment, normal users can easily determine how appropriately is his space designed and used.

The Three-D’s are:

• Designation of space: Its designated purpose, its intended use, does it support its current use? Is there a conflict?
• Definition of space: Definition of the space, its ownership, its extent, factors affecting the use of the space, rules on use of the pace, signs indicating the same; are there any conflicts between the designated purpose and use?
• Design of the space: How the design supports the intended function, the desired behavior, the desired use of the space; is there a conflict between the intended use and acceptable behavior

DEVELOPING A SAFETY ASSESSMENT PLAN

Schools must develop an assessment plan to help them determine their strengths, their existing areas of weakness, and their needs. The plan will also enable them to plan to respond to any disaster and to also be able to assess the existing conditions in their buildings. This assessment tool will provide the schools data that they can use to make necessary changes in policies, plan for improvement to areas that are found to be vulnerable. The data collected can also be used as a basis to request funds to implement the measures that need to be implemented.

This plan will impact all existing schools whether old or new. However, for schools that are still in the planning stages, the school districts and their designers should work with a crime prevention specialist and their local law enforcement authorities to review the drawings and make adjustments to address safety concerns.

For new facilities, the FEMA Risk Management Series publication of December 2003, “Primer to Design Safe School Projects in Case of Terrorist Attacks” makes a series of valuable suggestions. It is available on the FEMA website at http://www.fema.gov/plan/prevent/rms/rmsp428.

Site Design

According to the Primer “Because the economics of development dictate the construction of schools, security concerns should be evaluated carefully. Conflicts sometimes arise between security site design and conventional site design. For example, open circulation and common spaces, which are desirable for conventional school design, are often undesirable for security design. To maximize safety, security, and sustainability, designers should implement a holistic approach to site design that integrates form and function to achieve a balance among the various design elements and objectives. Even if resources are limited, significant value can be added to a project by integrating security considerations into the more traditional design tasks in such a way that they complement, rather than compete with, the other elements.” (Page 2-4, Site and Layout Design Guidance).

No Child Left Behind Law

Under the new NCLB law, parents have the right to transfer their kids out of schools that are designated as persistently dangerous for two years in a row. One measure of a dangerous school is the number of weapons identified in the schools. It is therefore important for schools to develop tools and adopt policies that will avoid a school being labeled as such. An annual assessment is a tool that a school can use to identify and address these issues.

Terrorism

Are our schools prepared for a terrorist incident on school property? According to a National Association of School Resource Officers (NASRO) survey of 658 school-based police officers:

• 95% schools vulnerable to terrorist attack
• 63% somewhat vulnerable to terrorist attack
• 32% very vulnerable to terrorist attack

Security Planning

In security planning, the myth is that “It can’t happen in our community.” Oklahoma City , the NYC bombings, and the DC sniper attacks have told us that it can happen in our community be it a small town or a large metropolitan city. But two questions that need to be asked and answered during the process are: What are we securing against? and what levels of security is needed or will be provided?

CPTED Strategies

The concept of CPTED will help a school district and specifically a school answer the second question. CPTED strategies include:

• Provide clear border definition of controlled space.
• Provide clearly marked transitional zones that indicate movement from public to semipublic to private space.
• Relocate gathering areas to locations with natural surveillance and access control or to locations away from the view of would-be offenders.
• Place safe activities in unsafe locations to promote the natural surveillance of these activities and increase the perception of safety for normal users and risk for offenders.
• Place unsafe activities in safe spots to overcome the vulnerability of these activities with the natural surveillance and access control of the safe area. Re-designate the use of space to provide natural barriers to conflicting activities
• Improve the scheduling of space to allow for effective use, appropriate “critical intensity,” and temporal definition of accepted behaviors.
• Redesign or revamp space to increase the perception or reality of natural

  surveillance.

• Overcome distance and isolation through improved communication and design efficiencies.

DESCRIPTORS OF A SAFE SCHOOL

A school’s physical condition and appearance is a reflection of the management and the level of maintenance of the school. Keeping the facility in good repair, improving poor lighting, maintaining attractive landscaping, and getting rid of trash are all important to school security. The following describe the do’s and don’ts to maintain a safe school.

• No Graffiti - A safe school should be free of graffiti and should have a zero graffiti tolerance policy. All graffiti should be removed as soon as possible, preferably before the start of school in the morning. Make use of the “3-R Method": Read, wRite (take a picture) and Report (to law enforcement). The law enforcement people can identify whether these are gang related or just school graffiti.
• Clean Facility - The facility should be clean and well maintained at all times. A clean and well maintained facility send a message of a well cared for facility, providing a safe environment for users and deterring vandals.
• No Sign of Vandalism - Damage caused by acts of vandalism should be repaired as soon as possible. It should be left to linger so that it does not create an uncared for feeling among the users.
• No Students Loitering Around Campus - Students should not be walking around the campus during classes unless they have a written permission to do so and are going to specific areas.
• Posted Rules for Visitors -Post clear, bold rules for visitors to the school. The rules should state what is expected out of them (report to main office etc.).
• Campus Free of Crime, Drugs, Violence - Develop policies that spell out without ambiguity the behavior and expectations form the student body. The policy should also indicate the consequences for violating the rules. These rules should be implemented uniformly in all cases. Involve the students in dealing with these issues, develop and install an anonymous tip hot-line where students can leave messages anonymously about illegal activities on the campus. Involve law enforcement personnel as needed.
• No Gang Activity - Monitor the behavior patterns, dressing, styling, grouping or other sings that would indicate the presence of gangs in the school. Use the help of law enforcement to identify signs that would indicate gang activity.
• No Weapons on Campus -Develop and implement a zero tolerance policy, encourage use of the hotline by students to report the presence of weapons. Have staff trained in the use of metal detectors to search for weapons and ensure that law enforcement personnel is present to participate and supervise the search for weapons.

THE SAFETY AUDIT

Team Building

Include all segments of the community in the review and approval of the school audit document. The student body is a very important group that should definitely be encouraged to participate; this will give them an ownership and a stake in the success of the project. Views differ and there is no best way of how to do an audit. Some school districts use paid professionals who come with their own documents, do the audit and submit their report. While this is a very good way of doing it, the professionals do not necessarily have a stake in the future of the report.

Other localities have used volunteers, such as retired educators, parents, local businessmen, law enforcement personnel, staff, administrators and students to do the audits. Whichever method is selected, the process should be clear, the expectations spelled out and a timeline set for the final report.

Besides an inspection of the site and the building, the audit process should include interviews with the staff including janitorial personnel, administrators, and students. Each of these functions at a different level in the building and is aware of things that others may not be aware of.

The audit should include a walking inspection of the entire school facility including the areas listed below. The audit should also include a review of the school’s policies concerning issues such as data collection methods; prevention and intervention programs; staff development; student development; parent and community involvement; role of law enforcement; crisis management plan; ADA; and emergency response plan as well as the school’s plan on development and enforcement of policies.

SCHOOLS AREAS WITH SIGNIFICANT PROBLEMS

Some of the areas the can present significant problems include:

• School grounds
• Parking Lots
• Cafeterias
• Corridors
• Classrooms
• Locker Rooms
• Restrooms
• School Buses
• Labs and Preparation Rooms
• Other after school activities

School Grounds

• May have poorly defined borders. Verify that the site boundaries are defined; if in the middle of a neighborhood, is there a need for physical elements along the perimeter?
• Poor building layouts because of additions at different times, resulting in creation of isolated recessed areas.
• If vehicular separation is not achieved between buses and automobiles, it could result in potentially dangerous situations.
• Field houses and ball fields are away from the main building and isolated.
• Surveillance is not always possible.
• Surrounding neighborhood may impact the school grounds. Some schools have to inspect their play areas and ball fields daily for hazardous materials.
• Basketball, volleyball courts, etc. are hard to supervise.
• Inadequate signage-does not clearly convey instructions to visitors and site users. Is main office entrance clearly indicated? Is there a no trespass sign?
• Unsafe play equipment – Is ground surfacing adequate? Does play equipment meet the recommendations for public school playground equipment? Is there adequate supervision while children are using the playground? Is there a fence around the play area?
• Is the lighting around the site and building adequate for ease of supervision at night? (A night time trip is recommended to verify).

Parking Lots

• May have multiple entrances/exits, making it harder to control incoming and outgoing vehicles.
• Often located in outermost parts of site making it difficult to supervise.
• Are parking areas for visitors, students and staff properly designated, and is there proper signage indicating these?
• Does landscaping obstruct view of parking lot form building?

Cafeterias

• Often are overcrowded because the present school population exceeds the design population.
• The seating layout is usually designed for ease of operation by staff rather than for optimum use by students. Ganged seating creates lunch groups that are not desirable. Dining style seating should be provided along with the regular seating.
• The lack of adequate sound proofing creates noisy space. These spaces should be better designed or renovated using CPTED concepts to provide a more pleasant environment.
• Most cafeterias have an institutional environment feeling to them.
• Poor use of colors makes them look drab. Use colors and paintings/murals to enliven the space.

Hallways/Corridors

• There are often blind corner spots where hallways intersect-provide mirrors to avoid pedestrian conflicts.
• Lockers on both walls often create a conflict between moving students and students opening lockers. Lockers should be placed at a different location if possible, and the hallways should be wide enough to allow for easy flow of traffic.
• Because they are crowded during class changes, they are difficult to supervise.

Classrooms

• Relocatable units/modular classrooms are usually far from the main building. They are difficult to supervise and often have no voice/data communication systems with the main building. All modular spaces should be connected to the same system as the main building.
• Regular classrooms are difficult to supervise inside from hallways, unless the doors have a vision panel.
• In many schools, the classrooms are multiple-use spaces and there is no

  ownership of the space. Are these rooms locked when not in use?

Locker Rooms

• They are usually in isolated locations thus difficult to supervise, unless the coaches have a direct view into these rooms.
• Lockers are identical in design and color and this could lead to conflicts.
• Avoid drop in ceilings in these spaces as these provide a hiding place for illegal materials.

Restrooms

• Typically in remote locations at the end of hallways, and difficult to supervise.
• Avoid drop-in ceilings.
• Use graffiti resistant toilet partitions.
• If possible use dual set of doors
• Remove entrance door - verify Fire Codes
• Use automatic door closers tied to fire alarm system
• Consider removing mirrors from inside the bathrooms, or consider different bathrooms layouts (in new facilities) that would place the lavatories and mirrors outside the bathrooms.

School Buses

• They are often crowded to accommodate the increase in school population in most localities, they are noisy.
• Difficult to supervise.
• Mixing of elementary, middle, and high school students can create conflicts and bullying.
• Drivers not usually trained in crisis management.
• Install cameras as a deterrent.
• Equip each bus with a two-way communication system.

Labs and Prep Rooms

• Is there a standard conduct policy that clearly spells out the responsibility when using the lab?
• Labs should have two (2) exits
• Protection of gas, water and electrical outlets from vandalism
• Adequate ventilation.
• Fume hoods should be in working condition.
• Storage areas properly secured against theft.
• Restrict emissions from chemicals.
• Protection from fire
• Provide fire extinguishers
• Eye-wash fountains (25 PSI for 25 minutes minimum)
• Master control for gas, water and electricity

PLANNING FOR DISASTERS

The multi-hazard approach as presented by the U.S. Department of Education helps to plan for different types of diasters. Drills can help expose weaknesses in your plans whether they are tabletops or actual drills. Drills involving the student body or only the faculty or only the school’s command staff will highlight any weekness in the plan, security or the building. Examples of drills that a school may want to do include:

• Gunfire drills, refuge in place indoors, or evacuate into building if gunfire outside
• Flash Floods
• Tornadoes drills
• Hurricanes. Is there a weather radio in the office?
• Earthquakes
• Plan for Hazardous Material Spills
• Winter Storms

PLANNING TO RESPOND

Planning a school’s or district’s response is a very important part of any plan. All schools in the Unitied States need to trained and use the Incident Command incident management system. It is the organizational system that fire, police, local government, and schools use now and it spells out each responder’s responsibility. Training can be done on-line through the FEMA classes. IS100, IS200 and IS700 are three classes that are recommended for school command staff to take. Below are additional things to consider in a school’s response plan:

• Train staff to be part of the response team.
• Set up an organizational system that spells out each responder’s responsibility.
• Designate a PR to work with media.
• Inform parents of alternate pick up places in emergencies
• Coordinate with local EMS
• Set up Incident Command System (ICS)
• Familiarize staff with terminology
• Incident Command
• Command Post
• Search and Rescue
• Emergency Operations Center (EOC)
• Principal Information Officer (PIO)

USE OF TECHNOLOGY

This is another area of concern for some schools. Below are things to remember if using cameras on campus:

• If using video cameras, ensure that placement will cover areas that are hard to supervise visually.
• Consult with experts as to the types needed and whether exterior lighting has to be modified to suit the camera.
• Place monitors in an area where they will be always be monitored.

SCHOOL EXTERIOR AND PLAY AREAS

Below is a checklist of items that the assessment will evaluate and decisions a district will need to make to help encourage a safe campus.

• School grounds are fenced. If yes, approximate height _____
• Drug-free zone signs are posted.
• Shrubs and foliage are trimmed to allow for good line of sight. (3'-0"/8'-0" rule)
• Boundary edges are free from trees and telephone poles.
• Parent drop-off and pick-up area is clearly defined.
• The school ground is free from trash or debris.
• Vehicular access to play areas is restricted.
• Playground equipment has tamper-proof fasteners.
• Visual surveillance of parking lots from main office is possible.
• Accessible lenses are protected by some unbreakable material.

These are additional items that the assessment will focus on:

• Outside hardware has been removed from all doors except at points of entry.
• There is two-way communication between classroom and main office; duty stations and main office; and relocatable classrooms and main office.
• “Restricted” areas are properly identified.
• Students are issued I.D. badges.
• There are written regulations restricting student access to school grounds and buildings. The entrance lobby is visible from the main office.
• The bathroom walls are free of graffiti.
• Switches and controls are properly located and protected.
• School files and records are maintained in locked, vandal proof, fireproof

  containers or vaults.

• The school maintains a record of all maintenance on doors, windows, lockers, or other areas of the school.
• If a classroom is vacant, students are restricted from entering the room alone.
• Staff members who remain after school hours are required to sign out.
• All school equipment is permanently marked with an Identification Number.
• An up-to-date inventory is maintained for all expendable school supplies.
• There is a schedule for maintenance for checking the following:
  • lights,
  • locks/hardware,
  • storage sheds, portable classrooms.
• There is a control system in place to monitor keys and duplicates.
• A record of Fire Inspection by the local or state Fire Officer is maintained.

FINAL REPORT

The final report can be in a narrative style, or in a tabular form indicating weaknesses discovered and remedies or solutions, if any, that are proposed. They should be presented to the school principal in a timely manner so as to allow him to act upon the recommendations. The team (especially if consisting of community volunteers) should be made aware that recommendations, for example those not having a fiscal impact or those where there is danger to life and limb, will be implemented on a priority basis. Other recommendations will be implemented as the budget permits.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Vijay Ramnarain is an architectural consultant with the Virginia Department of Education.

In January 2006, PERI held a free online symposium to explore strategies for addressing violence in our nation’s schools. The program, entitled “Confronting Violence in Our Schools: Planning, Response, and Recovery,” offered practical advice for dealing with school violence — not just the high profile incidents that make headlines but the real issues of school violence that schools and communities face everyday.

The Public Entity Risk Institute (PERI) is a nonprofit research organization that provides education and training resources on topics related to risk management and emergency management. PERI’s website, www.riskinstitute.org, offers free E-Training programs and a Publications, Tools, and Resources library with information on emergency planning and response, disaster recovery, school safety, workers’ compensation, and other key topics in risk management. PERI’s also maintains a national database of public sector liability and workers’ compensation claims data for benchmarking and performance measurement. The Data Exchange is a voluntary program that allows participating organizations to compare their liability and workers’ compensation losses with their peers and learn from other jurisdictions.