Security Experts Rank Top Five Safest School Districts In Region
ELK GROVE (CBS13) — Is your child in a safe school? Security is becoming a growing priority in schools across our area and now districts are putting the dollars down to invest in it.
CBS13 checked in with one of the leading security companies in our region, Quality Sound. They've installed thousands of security systems in our area, and they've done so for more than 50 years.
A lockdown alert is something no parent wants to hear in their child's school, but with a rise in active shootings comes more business for Quality Sound. The Stockton-based company that services and installs security systems for 2,000 schools in the region.
On their staff are Bill Minch and John Greff, former members of the military and law enforcement, and both student resource officers.
CBS13 asked which schools are considered the safest in our area. The security experts at quality sound say out of 900 school districts in Stockton, Modesto, and Sacramento region, Elk Grove Unified, Natomas Unified, Sacramento City Unified, Stockton Unified and Winters Unified, all fall into the top five.
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Those districts all have two things in common: a closed campus and an automated alert system.
"Once we automate the sequence, you know, it's going to notify people on their email, text messages, call the police, those kind of things," Minch said.
These security experts say the safest schools take all the thought out of a lockdown situation where every second matters.
"Instead of having to remember every single step, you're taking human error out of the equation and putting it in the convenience of one button, Minch said. "Time is something we do not have when it comes to any time of emergency, especially an active shooter situation.
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So if you're walking through your kid's school, you should look out for digital signs and in-class safety buttons.
"If you walk through and you see a big yellow 'lockdown' button, that's a sign they're doing the right thing," Minch said.
Quality Sound said the schools with the worst security systems in our region are still using a telephone system to communicate during an emergency.
"If the internet goes down, everything stops working," Minch said.
These experts say it's a "poor choice" to use a platform that relies on power to function and the schools that rank the highest have a wireless system, and the dedicated staff who are trained on it.
The technology to keep your kids locked in and secure is changing all the time. In fact, these security experts tell us they're updating this technology every two to three years.