A national survey conducted by Zogby Int’l and sponsored by ADT Security Services shows that more than 10 percent of K-12 teachers believe their school is unprepared to protect its students, according the company.

Asked for reasons to explain how they felt, four in 10 said their school was not doing enough to help protect students, while three in 10 said they believed their school is vulnerable to an attack by outside predators.

Other frequently mentioned concerns include students bringing a weapon to campus (24 percent), student involvement with gangs (12 percent), violence at other schools (12 percent) and a lack of awareness of on-campus dangers (10 percent).

“As shown by the recent murder of a beloved high school football coach at a small town in Iowa or an assault by a student on a Philadelphia teacher, school violence is truly a national problem that affects all school districts,” says Patrick Fiel, ADT’s public safety advisor. “One of the keys to success is creating a dialogue between parents, teachers and administrators to create solutions for this growing problem.”

Overall, three out of four teachers surveyed say their schools are somewhat prepared to protect students on the campus. More than half of those teachers said their school has an awareness of potential dangers and security measures in place to handle them.

When asked about the security measures their campuses employ, the teachers most frequently mentioned visitor check-in (90 percent), visitor identification badges (80 percent), cameras (57 percent), police officers on campus (32 percent), alarmed doors (32 percent), security guards on campus (28 percent) and visitor identification systems (12 percent).

“When it came to the safety of my students, if I had a choice in my budget for another vice principal or cameras throughout my campus, I’d chose the technology,” says Mary Liz Singleton, a retired school administrator, who prioritized safety while principal of Elgin High School in central Texas. “Teachers can’t teach and students can’t learn if they are not in a safe environment.”

The survey of 400 K-12 teachers was conducted by telephone between July 29 and 31, and the margin of error was +/- five percent.

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