Kelechi M. Ikegwu – Evelyn Sowells – Howard Hardiman
Department of Computer Systems Technology, North Carolina A&T State University
ABSTRACT. The horrific and tragic deaths that have resulted from infamous school shootings have deprived Americans of the sense of security in what has traditionally been a nurturing and safe environment. This paper will discuss different preventive methods for school shootings. The most current preventive methods are examined for fitness based on a variety of school shootings that have occurred in the past. Then a framework for a new school shooting protection device is proposed and evaluated. Concepts from computer vision, anomaly detection, and electromagnetic propulsion are discussed with respect to the proposed framework. Ideally, the goal of the framework presented in this paper is to prevent deaths and injuries from occurring during a school shooting. With the framework, an efficient and comparatively affordable preventive method could be released in the near future.
The federal requirement for a school safety plan is outlined in the Jeanne Clery Disclosure of Campus Security Policy and Campus Crime Statistics Act, commonly known as the Clery Act. The Clery Act requires all colleges and universities that participate in federal student financial aid programs to develop and publish an annual security report that includes certain safety-related policies, procedures, and crime statistics.
The Clery Act requires that schools include specific information in their security reports, including:
The school’s crime statistics for the previous three years.
Information about the school’s policies and procedures related to campus safety and security.
Information about crime prevention programs and services offered by the school.
Information about the school’s emergency response and evacuation procedures.
Information about the school’s policies and procedures for addressing and reporting incidents of sexual assault, domestic violence, dating violence, and stalking.
Information about the school’s drug and alcohol policies and prevention programs.
While the Clery Act only applies to colleges and universities that receive federal student financial aid, many states and school districts have adopted similar requirements for K-12 schools to develop and implement comprehensive safety plans. These plans may include many of the same elements as Clery Act-compliant security reports, such as emergency response protocols, crime prevention programs, and policies for addressing incidents of violence and harassment.
The most recent changes to the Clery Act were made in March 2020, when the Department of Education published the final rule amending the Clery Act regulations. The changes include:
Expanding the definition of sexual harassment to include quid pro quo and hostile environment harassment, which aligns with Title IX regulations.
Requiring institutions to report stalking and domestic violence in addition to existing crime categories.
Adding hazing as a reportable crime category.
Requiring institutions to compile and publish hate crime statistics for all categories of prejudice, including gender identity and national origin.
Requiring institutions to include specific policies and procedures in their annual security reports, such as those related to prevention and response to sexual assault, domestic violence, dating violence, and stalking.
Requiring institutions to provide survivor-centered and trauma-informed services to individuals who report or experience sexual assault, domestic violence, dating violence, or stalking.
Requiring institutions to include information about prevention and response to cyberbullying and electronic harassment in their annual security reports.
Allowing institutions to provide annual security reports electronically and requiring institutions to make their crime statistics publicly available on their website.
These changes aim to strengthen the Clery Act’s requirements for campus safety and to better address sexual harassment and other forms of violence on college and university campuses.
Every new federal law involving paperwork creates an uncountable number of trade associations and compliance enterprises. A simple web search on “Cleary Act” will reveal half the internet full of pages for more information. Our focus is on the user-side — i.e. making inquiries and pushing back on the gaudy proliferation of regulatory requirements, the integrity of purpose of the law notwithstanding. We maintain this title on the standing agenda on all of our Security colloquia. See our CALENDAR for the next online meeting; open to everyone.
The Builders Hardware Manufacturers Association (BHMA) is an ANSI accredited standards developing organization for building access and egress technology that education industry real asset managers find referenced deep in the architectural and electrical sections of construction contract specifications (as in “Conform to all applicable standards”). Architects, electrical, fire protection and information and communications technology professionals usually have to collaborate on the design, construction. operations and maintenance of fenestration technologies.
Gone are the days when a door was just a door (or “opening” or “fenestration”). Doors are now portals; an easily identifiable control point in the Internet of Things electrotechnical transformation. There are 100’s of thousands of them on large research university campus; for example. As we explain in our School Security Standards post the pace of standardization in public safety management and technology has increased; driven by events. Some of the risk management can be accomplished with integrated technical solutions that are complex and more expensive to design, build, operate and maintain.
A fair estimate of the annualized cost of a door now runs on the order of $1000 to $10,000 per door (with hospital doors at the high end).
Loreto Secondary School | Kilkenny, Ireland
BHMA develops and maintains performance standards for locks, closers, exit devices and other builders hardware. It has more than 40 ANSI/BHMA standards. The widely known ANSI/BHMA A156 series of standards describes and establishes features and criteria for an array of builders hardware products including locks, closers, exit devices, butts, hinges, power-operated doors and access control products. They are listed on the link below:
BHMA has opened one of its standards for public review that is relevant to our contribution to the security and sustainability agenda of the education facility industry; an agenda that necessarily involves a growing constellation of interacting specifics
BHMA A156.4 Standard for Door Controls – Closers. This Standard contains requirements for door closers surface mounted, concealed in the door, overhead concealed, and concealed in the floor. Also included are pivots for floor closers. Criteria for conformance include cycle, operational, closing force, and finish tests.
Given that BHMA consensus products are largely product standards (much the same way UL Standards are product standards) it is wise to keep an eye on a related installation standards found in the fenestration sections of model building and fire safety codes and in ASTM E2112 Standard Practice for Installation of Exterior Windows, Doors and Skylights.
Comments are due May 6th. You may obtain an electronic copies of any of the foregoing from [email protected] and send comments to the same (with copy to [email protected]).
Roxbury Community College | Roxbury Crossing, Massachusetts
The BHMA suite is on the standing agenda of our monthly Construction Specification and Design Guideline teleconference; an informal session that should interest building contractors and design professionals who prepare documents that use the general purpose clause: “Conform to all applicable standards”. That usually means the latest standard. See our CALENDAR for the next online meeting; open to everyone.
The original University of Michigan standards advocacy enterprise (see ABOUT) began following the evolution of NFPA 730 and NFPA 731 since the 2008 Edition. That enterprise began a collaboration with trade associations and subject matter experts from other universities (notably Georgetown University and Evergreen State University) to advocate user-interest concepts in the 2011 edition. A summary of advocacy action is summarized in the links below:
in the appeared in a trade association journal Facilities Manager:
An online presentation by Michael C. Peele (Georgetown University) — one of the voting members of NFPA 730 and NFPA 731 technical committees– was recorded and is linked below.
Public comment on the First Draft of the 2026 Edition will be received until January 3, 2025. You may key in your own ideas by clicking in to our user-interest Public Consultation Meeting Point or by communicating directly with the NFPA.
This title remains on the standing agenda of our Security colloquia. See our CALENDAR for the next online meeting; open to everyone.
Once every eighteen months we spend a week drilling into the National Electrical Code by submitting new proposals or comments on proposed revisions. Today we review the actions taken by the technical committees on the First Draft. Responses to committee actions will be received until August 26th.
Traditionally favored by private and parochial institutions, school uniforms are being adopted by US public schools in increasing numbers. According to a 2020 report, the percentage of public schools that required school uniforms jumped from 12% in the 1999-2000 school year to 20% in the 2017-18 school year. School uniforms were most frequently required by elementary schools (23%), followed by middle (18%), and high schools (10%). (Encyclopedia Britannica)
PRO
School uniforms may deter crime and increase student safety.
School uniforms keep students focused on their education, not their clothes.
School uniforms create a level playing field among students, reducing peer pressure and bullying.
Wearing uniforms enhances school pride, unity, and community spirit.
School uniforms may improve attendance and discipline.
Uniform policies save valuable class time because they are easier to enforce than a standard dress code.
School uniforms prevent the display of gang colors and insignia.
School uniforms make getting ready for school easier, which can improve punctuality.
School uniforms can save parents money.
Most parents and educators support mandatory school uniforms.
Students’ legal right to free expression remains intact even with mandatory school uniforms.
Students dressed in uniform are better perceived by teachers and peers.
Students can express their individuality in school uniforms by introducing variations and adding accessories.
School uniforms restrict students’ freedom of expression.
School uniforms promote conformity over individuality.
School uniforms do not stop bullying and may increase violent attacks.
School uniforms do not improve attendance, academic preparedness, or exam results.
The key findings used to tout the benefits of uniforms are questionable.
School uniforms emphasize the socio-economic divisions they are supposed to eliminate.
Students oppose school uniforms.
Uniforms may have a detrimental effect on students’ self-image.
Focusing on uniforms takes attention away from finding genuine solutions to problems in education.
The push for school uniforms is driven by commercial interests rather than educational ones.
Parents should be free to choose their children’s clothes without government interference.
School uniforms in public schools undermine the promise of a free education by imposing an extra expense on families.
School uniforms may delay the transition into adulthood.
Everyone would basically be 50% happier if everyone dressed a little better. Clothes are everywhere. Everyone doesn’t have to be a clothes hound, but if the girls looked pretty and the guys looked nice, people would be happier and even more optimistic about the future. pic.twitter.com/iQcNPL1cMl
Die Uni Hamburg lädt am Wochenende zur Langen Nacht der Museen Hamburg (@lndmhh) ein: Im Unimuseum wird über den Umgang mit Hamburgs kolonialem Erbe diskutiert. In der Sternwarte darf jeder auch selbst einen Blick in den Himmel werfen. 🔭 https://t.co/U2qbzx6dBYpic.twitter.com/TjouE8xyK0
Die Universität Hamburg gratuliert Physiker Klaus Hasselmann zum Nobelpreis! 🥳Der emeritierte Professor der Universität Hamburg erhält in diesem Jahr den Nobelpreis für Physik für das Modellieren des Erdklimas und die Erforschung komplexer physikalischer Systeme. pic.twitter.com/TKwTvQIBx2
“Being an artist means not numbering and counting, but ripening like a tree, which doesn’t force its sap, and stands confidently in the storms of spring, not afraid that afterward summer may not come. It does come. But it comes only to those who are patient, who are there as if eternity lay before them, so unconcernedly silent and vast.”
.@uihealthcare is a top hospital for maternity care according to U.S. News & World Report. Our hospital is ranked as “High Performing,” the highest rank available. 💛 pic.twitter.com/Cbuv53mBkJ
New update alert! The 2022 update to the Trademark Assignment Dataset is now available online. Find 1.29 million trademark assignments, involving 2.28 million unique trademark properties issued by the USPTO between March 1952 and January 2023: https://t.co/njrDAbSpwBpic.twitter.com/GkAXrHoQ9T
