America’s Educators Turning to School Security Technology
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Sean Toohey is a freelance journalist and digital media specialist with extensive experience covering news, developments and emerging trends in security, real estate, MEP engineering and the trades industry for brands such as the Motorola brands Avigilon and Pelco. Currently focused on building management trends and technologies impacting the multi-tenant rental industry, his work explores best practices for landlords and contractors.
Schools in America are not as safe as they should be. At least 18 separate school shootings have already been recorded in the first 5 months of 2025, 12 targeting college campuses and 6 against K-12 schools.
While the number of reported attacks dropped slightly between 2023 and 2024, incidents of gunfire and possession of firearms on school grounds have eclipsed 300 a year since 2022.
Alarmingly, active harmer events are not the only common threat currently facing American schools, with educational organizations experiencing a 35 percent increase in ransomware attacks between April 2023 and April 2024.
These figures suggest traditional methods of gun control and observational security alone may not be fully equipped to meet school safety demands. The solution, in the eyes of some security experts and educators, lies in the smart deployment of school security technologies.
The Rising Adoption of School Security Measures
Data from the 2021-2022 School Survey on Crime and Safety (SSOCS) helps to illustrate the rising adoption of school security measures among American educators, demonstrating how a majority of U.S. schools are enhancing safety measures using dedicated technologies.
The 2021-2022 SSOCS report contains the most recent data on the subject, revealing the steps public schools in America are currently taking to address rising threat levels, including:
- 97 percent control access to school buildings during school hours.
- 93 percent use school security cameras to monitor high-risk areas.
- 70 percent issue verifiable credentials to faculty and staff.
Surveyed educators were also asked about measures their schools took to address threats 10 years previous, illustrating how the adoption of these school security measures has risen:
- 4.4 percent more now control access to school buildings.
- 31.5 percent more now use security cameras to monitor high-risk areas.
- 7.8 percent more now issue verifiable credentials to faculty and staff.
However, while the rising adoption of these security measures suggests educators are taking steps to combat threats, the continuing commonality of attacks against schools indicates that these solutions alone are not enough, and that a wider approach to security may be needed.
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The Advanced Capabilities of Smart Security Technologies
As more schools turn towards dedicated security measures, more educators gain the ability to build upon foundational security infrastructure. Where siloed measures may have failed to reliably identify and address threats in the past, interconnected smart technologies succeed.
For example, smart security cameras with AI video analytics features can now autonomously detect unique stimuli associated with threats. If cameras detect weapons, unusual motion or aggressive behavior, instant alerts are sent to operators warning of the specific threat and its location, ensuring operators across the campus are informed of emerging incidents promptly.
Where smart security technologies really excel, however, is in the development of automated emergency responses. Stimuli detected by one device can be used to immediately activate another, enabling school security personnel to dramatically reduce incident response times.
In practice, this means as soon as a camera identifies a weapon, a sound sensor hears a gunshot or an access system detects a forced entry attempt, the entire school can be placed on lockdown and police can be called, with on-site staff able to view security feeds remotely.
Supporting Efficient & Informed Security Responses
Smart school security systems can also empower smaller school security teams to handle complex threats. The ability for AI-powered, integrated systems to analyze large amounts of data across multiple devices continuously helps operators perform key roles more efficiently.
Camera, sensor and access control feeds can be accessed remotely via any secure mobile smart device, providing on-site teams a comprehensive view of emerging events at all times.
This can extend across both physical and cybersecurity infrastructure, helping schools take a more proactive approach to threat detection and response. With security feeds and data highlights made easily accessible from a unified management system, even schools with limited access to physical resources can plan, adapt and enact informed threat responses.
Conclusion
While many educators have taken steps towards strengthening security measures in recent years, the continuing commonality of attacks against schools suggests existing measures may not be enough.
Traditional protections like gun control, siloed cameras and access control remain important, but efforts to improve these measures using smart technologies can help teams take a more proactive approach to school security.
By developing integrated systems that can detect threats and enact appropriate responses automatically, security dealers and integrators can help educators to deter and address targeted attacks.
