As I work on the June issue, which focuses on school security, it is disheartening to see another active-shooter incident in our K-12 schools, this one in a Dallas high school. The light in all this darkness are the folks who over the past 15-20 years, since Columbine really, have been working diligently to raise awareness of the need for improved security at our schools, in addition to more mental health support and resources for our youth.
And while these incidents continue to happen at a disturbing rate, amazing strides have been taken to help schools to be better prepared, through improved security, empowered staff and students, and a more coordinated and faster response by first responders in and outside the school.
One organization that has been leading the way in this regard is the Partner Alliance for Safer Schools (PASS), which was formed in 2014 to bring together expertise from the education, public safety and industry communities to develop and support a coordinated approach to making effective use of proven security practices specific to K-12 environments, and informed decisions on security investments.
At ISC West 2025 earlier this month in Las Vegas, PASS held a Town Hall to go over all the new updates to its soon-to-be-published 7th edition of their Safety and Security Guidelines for K-12 Schools. As PASS Chair Guy Grace told me during our conversation for my upcoming article on the latest edition, there are some “important and incredibly helpful new updates” in all areas, from access control to video to visitor management to communication of all systems to better prepare students and staff. It is truly remarkable to see the time, work and effort from the staff and team at PASS, who provide these incredibly helpful guidelines to so many schools – at any point in the journey – of better securing their schools.
I also had the opportunity to speak with Jeremy Gulley, Superintendent, Jay School Corporation in Indiana, who is on the PASS Board of Directors and has spearheaded some real changes in Jay County by bringing the community together and leveraging the resources and guidelines from PASS. For example, the K12 schools have been able to bring on a school resource officer, add wearable panic buttons that allow staff members to signal an emergency in seconds (as proposed by “Alyssa’s Law”), implement an anonymous threat reporting app called the Sandy Hook Promise app, and add a weapons-detecting dog who the kids “all love,” Gulley reports.
More to come in our June issue!
-Paul Ragusa
