TACKLING terrorism in general is painstaking work, performed by specialised organs of the state. However, the threat to schools in the wake of the APS Peshawar attack means that parents themselves must push schools to improve their security systems rather than waiting for the government to do so.

Government agencies cannot provide enough security personnel to protect all schools, thereby compelling school managements to hire private security guards. To minimise the financial impact, the tendency is to hire those whose asking rate is the lowest. Such guards aren’t trained in general security and handling of firearms, a shortcoming vividly illustrated in an incident at a Rawalpindi college where one such untrained guard accidentally discharged his firearm and a young student was injured. Untrained security personnel pose an added hazard to children’s safety.

In this scenario, we the parents have to take the lead. Keeping in view my experience in the security sector, I want to share my know­how in this respect. Awareness of the basics will help parents ask the right questions, listed below, of their respective schools to ensure an improved security apparatus.

How can we ensure safety for students and teachers?

— Ask the school if they have a written ‘threat & risk assessment’ carried out by an expert security consultant/organisation, and ask about the safety drills being conducted.

— Enquire from the principal and other staff the plans that are in place for emergencies such as fire, bomb threats, and armed intruders. Are school officials and recognised security experts meeting regularly to discuss safety procedures? Are they holding safety drills at different times of the day? Every school must have a crisis management plan and its functionaries trained accordingly. They must have in writing procedures such as a firefighting plan, evacuation plan, bomb threat response, threat calls response, armed intrusion response, lockdown SOP.

— Ask the school if they have hired the security guards from a professional security company. If your child’s school lacks coherent, detailed, and specific plans, contact the DCO/DPO/CPO and/or civil society/media to pressurise it to implement these SOPs at the institution.

Some guidelines for schools are as follows:

— Get a ‘threat & risk assessment’ survey of your school from professional and expert security consultants/specialists in the private sector so that response plans can be chalked out accordingly. Unfortunately, government people aren’t conversant with modern trends. Each school needs a separate ‘threat & risk assessment’ based on its layout/ floors/ accessibility/ vulnerability/ appeal for terrorists, etc.

— Schools today are conducting various types of drills to protect students, faculty, and staff against armed and violent intruders. The most common type of safety measure involves lockdown drills in which students and adults practise hiding, keeping away from doors and windows, and staying quiet. In case of high threat, there must be secure places with strong doors and windows where maximum number of staff and students can be kept safe.

— Get the school’s crisis management plan and safety/ security procedures reviewed and evaluated by recognised security experts.

— Another type of safety drill involves having local law-enforcement agencies like police, Rescue 1122 or private security professionals teach kids and adults defensive manoeuvres that include not only hiding, but also evaluating when to evacuate the building, and, more controversially, resistance by staff when confronted directly by a gunman. ALICE (Alert, Lock­down, Inform, Counter, Evacuate) is one such programme in the US.

— Training to ensure that if a staff member informs teachers and students that something is happening in a certain part of school, they should know the options eg, where are the windows? Can we run to an exit?

— I would caution against any school security procedures that teach students to formulate their own plans. How can you ask junior school students to make split-second, coordinated, life-and-death decisions? What about special children?

— Talk to students collectively, answer their questions and handle anxiety about school safety. No matter how brave children may appear, incidents such as that of APS Peshawar leave deep-rooted fears that need to be addressed by teachers and parents. Try to remove their misconceptions about armed intrusions/ bomb blasts in schools.

— Ensure that emergency response teams (police and Rescue 1122) have the school’s floor plans and layout drawings. This will help responders make effective rescue plans promptly.

— Schools must rehearse the emergency drills several times a year so that staff/ faculty and students remain conversant with them.

These are just a few guidelines, although by no means exhaustive, to make our schools safer for the students and their teachers. We must not forget that teachers will only be able to impart knowledge if they also feel safe in the school premises.

The writer is a retired military officer dealing with with physical security and intelligence gathering.

Published in Dawn, January 25th, 2015

On a mobile phone? Get the Dawn Mobile App: Apple Store | Google Play