Graduate Student Wins Award for Designing Safer Schools

A graduate of Sam Houston State University’s Security Studies Department won an international award from the American Society for Industrial Security (ASIS) Foundation for his research on improving security at schools through low-cost, low-tech architectural design.

The ASIS International Student Writing Competition rewards students who conduct research, engage in thoughtful deliberation and write an academic paper on an issue relevant to the security and assets protection profession. As the graduate category winner, Wortham received $1,500 and complimentary registration at one of the ASIS annual events.

With the advent of school shootings in the 1990s, as well as ongoing natural or manmade disasters, such as fires, bomb threats, tornados and hurricanes, it is imperative to make security the top priority in school design, according to “Designing school security: Low cost/low tech solutions for building a better security plan through architectural design in public schools.” To accomplish this, it is critical to have security professionals involved in the planning of new schools or major renovations of existing campuses to present low cost, low tech options to enhance safety, especially in budget-strapped rural areas.

Many schools are designed to be open and to hold the greatest number of students possible, but provide little security or access control. For schools that use sheltering in place in response to crisis, this can result in a “death sentence” because of the large concentration of students in one area as well as the use of large amounts of exposed glass. An example of this was found in the Columbine school massacre, where school officials were unable or unaware of how to lock the library. As a result several students were shot at point black range.

Learn more about Cody J. Wortham's recommendations for school security in the attached press release.

Sincerely,

Beth Kuhles, Publications Officer

Sam Houston State University

College of Criminal Justice

(936) 294-4425

You are receiving this transmission from PR Newswire on behalf of the issuer of the information contained in this email. If you would like to stop receiving information of this nature via email for this issuer, click here for auto-removal. 

Related Posts