School safety encompasses a spectrum of concerns and corresponding measures that can seem endless and overwhelming.

Safe School Design

 S.H.A.P.E.D. & C.P.T.E.D./Environmental Design
 S.H.A.P.E.D. & C.P.T.E.D. (DVD)
 Safe School Design (Book)
 School Safety A to Z

Most schools were built without security in mind, at a time when deadly school violence was unthinkable. As times have changed, concerns about violence have heightened. Facility security can be dramatically improved with appropriate architectural changes.

By applying the concepts of Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED), schools can be made safer and more functional without sacrificing ambiance. A school that feels like a prison is likely to fail as a place of learning.

The following eight questions easily clarify whether CPTED concepts are needed, and likely to make a difference:

1. Can students travel from home to school without encountering unreasonable obstacles?
2. Do areas directly adjoining school property have legitimacy, positive territoriality, and ownership (as opposed to a no-man's land where snipers could hide)?
3. Can office staff see intruders approaching the building at any given time without taking extraordinary measures?
4. Does the school have the ability to stop unwelcome visitors, such as armed students or menacing adults, from simply choosing to enter the school? (Must they ring a bell, pass the main office window, receive permission, or can they slip in through a back door?
5. Do staff have natural surveillance of activity inside the school, without having to step into the hallway, through a set of double doors, or around a corner?
6. Can staff rapidly lock down the school, with students protected in individual classrooms, in case an armed person has entered the building? (Is there a working public-address system, and can the classroom doors be quickly locked?)
7. Does the school's overall climate and atmosphere, as reflected in what occurs on a daily basis (including security measures, orderliness, cooperation, and teacher morale), inspire hope, confidence, appreciation, trust, and respect among students?

   The correct answer, in items 1-7, should be yes. If it isn't, School CPTED analysis should be strongly considered.

8. Are there locations at the school -- hallways, bathrooms, hidden alcoves, dugouts, locker rooms, loading docks -- that you associate with ongoing problems, such as graffiti, vandalism, bullying, or worse activities? The field of Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED) looks at both the physical and social aspects of an environment, focusing on human behavior, seeking ways to encourage desirable behaviors while discouraging undesirable behaviors.

Schools can address the social ecology of the school by implementing universal pro-social measures, (ie. with a violence prevention curriculum,) and they can implement targeted pro-social measures to serve high-risk youth.

The physical ecology of the school is another matter, addressed as follows:
CPTED focuses on the physical ecology of a school, particularly observing natural surveillance, natural access control and territoriality issues. Where it differs from conventional security inspections is in the emphasis on hope-building. CPTED focuses on the primary purpose of the school: to provide a good learning environment. Conventional security is primarily fear-based, and focuses on the secondary issue of security. The former emphasizes what a school is aiming for, the latter what it is running from.

Tod Schneider is the senior crime prevention specialist for the Eugene, Oregon, Police Department, where he has worked for 15 years. He serves as a police liaison to the Institute on Violence and Destructive Behavior (IVDB) at the University of Oregon, sits on the board of the International Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design Association, and is the senior author of Safe School Design.

Tod has run a Saturday Kids Club at a public housing project, has taught the Second Step Violence Prevention Curriculum, and assists in training other trainers on a regular basis. Under a federal grant he designed and implemented a 7-week training for non-sworn School Resource Officers, drawing on local expertise to build a highly successful SWIT (School Whatever It Takes) Academy and Team in August, 2000.

Funded by federal safe school grants to local school districts Tod has inspected over 100 schools in Oregon, including Thurston high school, site of the Kip Kinkel homicides. He is available for school CPTED and violence prevention workshops, keynotes, presentations and consultations.