|
Does going to school automatically equal being safe? It should, but it doesn’t.
Still fresh in the minds of many Americans are the tragic shootings at Columbine High School, Virginia Tech, and other schools and universities in recent years. Though not the first events of their kind, these shootings served as a wake-up call for school officials, students, parents, community members—and anyone who plays a role in educational facility design and construction.
Educational facilities—from pre-K to post-secondary—are exposed to any number of threats on a daily basis. From non-permitted visitors and student violence to drugs, weapons, and even environmental and biological hazards, the range of safety threats an educational facility must address can be overwhelming. But with careful and comprehensive planning, it quickly becomes less daunting.
Collaborative efforts
The most successful design and construction projects begin with collaborative planning efforts that involve the client, designers, faculty, students, and community members. By including as many of these constituents as possible, it becomes easier to tailor the facility and the surrounding site to address safety concerns. That said, certain safety concerns, especially environmental concerns, are prevalent on all educational levels. Others vary by type of educational facility.
For example, preschools and K-5 schools are likely to need “soft” safety features such as a secure main entrance, clear lines of sight, enclosed play areas, limited public access, operable windows, and keyless entry systems. Soft safety features go unnoticed as being safety features and are ideal in school planning to avoid the look of a correctional facility. They are best incorporated at the start of the design process.
High schools and post-secondary learning facilities, on the other hand, are more likely to need “hard” safety features such as interior locking doors, security cameras, metal detectors, motion detectors, and alarm systems. Hard safety features are noticeable as safety features, but are equally as important as their counterparts.
In most cases, a combination of soft and hard security elements can promote a more ideal safety situation. Here are several examples of safety design and construction elements in educational facilities.
Safer Strategies
There are many ways educational facility designers and planners can make buildings and campuses more secure places for students and faculty. Here are several strategies—divided into soft versus hard safety features. A combination of soft and hard safety features should help tailor the overall safety measures for any educational facility.
Elements of Soft Safety
Single, Secure Main Entrance. This is likely the most important safety aspect to consider when designing a school, regardless of whether it is new construction or modernization. A single, clearly identified main entrance channels visitors directly to administration, prevents unauthorized personnel from accessing the campus, and allows administrative staff to monitor who comes and goes.
Clear Sight Lines Throughout. Clear lines of sight both inside and out allow faculty to monitor campus activity from every vantage point. This is especially important for student circulation routes, playgrounds, and even entrances to student restrooms. Schools should be free of building clusters that conceal portions of the campus from sight. Windows between classrooms and hallways can allow teachers to see into the hallway should an emergency arise.
Operable Windows. Regardless of the emergency, equipping each classroom with at least one operable window gives students and teachers an escape route if needed. Operable windows also double as a sustainable feature when coupled with individual room thermostats.
Keyless Entry. Keyless entry or card access is beneficial on many levels. It can monitor who goes in and out of a locked area along with when they come and go. Keyless entry systems can be programmed to grant certain individuals access during specific time frames. Also, if a key holder quits or is fired, the system can be immediately programmed to block access to that individual.
Individual Learning Academies. Small, focused learning academies can promote connectivity among students, preventing the disconnect between students and their schools that can spiral into aggressive behavior.
Defensible Spaces. Avoid creating hiding places around buildings that cannot be supervised. These include building and site wall configurations as well as landscaping design. Lighting can also provide better surveillance by staff, community, and local law enforcement.
Elements of Hard Safety
Interior Locking Doors. As simple as this form of security is, many schools, especially older ones, are not equipped with doors that can be locked from the inside. In the case of the Columbine shootings, 10 deaths and 12 injuries might have been avoided had the librarian had the ability to lock the doors from the inside, where many were seeking refuge.
Security Cameras. Video surveillance is especially useful on larger campuses, like high schools and post-secondary education facilities, where it is not feasible to have security personnel stationed throughout the site. A single individual can monitor the entire campus from one location.
Metal Detectors. Educational facilities located in higher crime rate areas might take advantage of entryway metal detectors, especially if gangs and violence are prevalent on campus.
Motion Detectors and Alarm Systems. In the event of a break-in, motion detectors can set off an alarm to alert authorities. These systems, coupled with audio/visual surveillance, can allow authorities to speak to the intruder from the monitoring station to let them know they are being watched and the police are on their way. These systems are widely successful in the reduction of vandalism. —JT
|
Del Sur Elementary School
Del Sur Elementary School, in San Diego’s Poway Unified School District, is a single-building campus featuring outdoor preschool and kindergarten play areas that are completely enclosed within the shell of the building and are neither visible nor accessible to outsiders. A two-story, mall-like classroom wing provides clear, visible sight lines both horizontally and vertically. Large interior windows at the main entrance allow administrative staff to monitor interior activity from both front and rear access points, which channel visitors directly to administration for check-in.
Intervening doors separate the administrative wing from the academic mall so that it can be locked down in case of an emergency. Each classroom door, off the mall, can be locked from within the room, and there is a school-wide intercom system for announcing emergencies and directions. Security also lies within the school’s state-of-the-art fire alarm and fire suppression systems, which are linked to the local fire station.
 |
An interior photo of Del Sur Elementary School shows visible sight lines—both horizontal and vertical—for enhanced security.
RMA Architectural Photographers |
Bob Murphy Community Day School
An alternative school located in an industrial business neighborhood, Bob Murphy Community Day School in Rialto, CA, requires special safety considerations because it serves at-risk students. A site design in a U-shape affords the adjacency of administration with the main entrance, which is equipped for thorough security screening. Administration also has direct views to the quad, lunch shelters, and play fields for visual monitoring
. The site design for Bob Murphy employs the classroom buildings as a barrier from the street along the main roads, but provides clear views into the campus from the secure main entrance, which is located in a cul-de-sac off the main street.
As a specialized school, Bob Murphy merges students from a variety of different neighborhoods, and in turn, merges rival groups. Multiple lunch structures act as non-physical barriers as a means of separation. Each classroom within the school is equipped with private male and female restrooms, keeping students from wandering the halls. Large windows connecting teachers’ workrooms with the classrooms allow for constant visual monitoring.
Audio/visual security systems located at strategic points throughout the campus allow for remote monitoring by administrative staff. This system has dramatically deterred vandalism on the campus, and the reduction in graffiti has in turn promoted a decrease in student violence.
Perhaps the most prevailing security system on the campus is the welcoming and scholastic atmosphere that has been brought about by the secure design. Students who take pride in their school and their academic achievement are less likely to cause harm to the campus or other students. Additionally, partnerships with local businesses provide students access to real-world career opportunities, further enhancing students’ prospects for rewarding academic and professional careers. In turn, the businesses feel invested in the students and double as neighborhood watch.
 |
The site plan for Bob Murphy Community Day School illustrates how the arrangement of the buildings helps shield students from street violence and creates visible sight lines from any point on campus.
NTD Architecture |
Twelve Bridges Middle School
Located in Lincoln, CA, Twelve Bridges Middle School of the Western Placer Unified School District offers an array of more typical safety features, such as visible sight lines, controlled access, interior-locking doors, operable windows, and a single, secure main entrance. It is the less-typical design features, however, that make this school and its campus stand out.
Students, who are divided into learning academies, can connect with their peers in project-based learning environments. These schools-within-the school allow teachers to closely and more effectively monitor a smaller student population.
These social learning centers may not appear to be connected to school safety, but in fact, they are a modern-day phenomenon of safer schools. The small group collaboration fosters connectivity among students in an age where a lack of student connection can be the basis for security threats. This proactive strategy is a growing trend in addressing school safety issues by keeping them from becoming issues in the first place.
Custom-built safety
Each example above shows how safety design was used to best meet the interests of the individual campuses. While safety and security concerns can vary greatly from school to school, the need to include safety elements in every design should never be overlooked. Designing schools for safety no doubt addresses the unfortunate fact that schools are not intrinsically safe by virtue of nature. Rare but significant tragic events that take place on school campuses remind us that the safety of students can be compromised in an instant.
By using design to protect students and faculty from threats against their safety, architects, facility planners, and educational leaders are bringing back the secure, learning-rich environments that schools are meant to be. And should the need to protect against an emergent threat arise, it is comforting to know that students and teachers are equipped with facilities that are designed with safety in mind.
Jay R. Tittle, AIA, is a partner with NTD Architecture in its Los Angeles office, serving as Education Practice Leader for the firm. Reach him at jtittle@ntd.com. |
