School Safety Blog

The Arizona Auditor General recently released the findings of an audit conducted of schools throughout the state and their preparedness for an emergency.  As SUSD’s Director of Safety and Security, the safety and security of every person who enters our campuses and facilities rests on my shoulders.  There are many people throughout the district and cities, including our partner public-safety agencies, who share this burden and help support our mission to keep everyone safe in our facilities.  The Auditor General’s report gave our district an opportunity to reexamine the challenges we face in security and how we currently prepare for and mitigate threats and vulnerabilities.

I want to assure you that your children are safe coming to Scottsdale Unified School District facilities.  While no person can ever tell you that a location is 100% safe unless they lie to you, I am telling you that we have procedures in place, we practice our procedures, and we continually meet with our local emergency partners to make our procedures better.  The audit gave us some great points to consider and things to look at from a different perspective.  While I cannot ‒ for security reasons ‒ discuss all the things we have in place to ensure the safety of people on our campuses, I am always open to discuss what I can, answer questions or hear solutions or ideas you may have to increase the safety and security of our facilities and the people on them.  

Josh Friedman, CEM
Director of Safety and Security

Learn More at the Source

According to Common Sense Media, 71% of children have a cell phone by age 12 and 91% have one by age 14.   The survey, conducted in 2021, showed that 57% of children between 8 and 12 and 88% of children between 13 and 18 have smartphones.

This is just one of many surveys that show that children - before they turn 18 - are using cellular phones on a regular basis.  Twenty years ago, cell phones were used for calls; 15 years ago, we had to pay per text message.  Today, plans are unlimited, and kids walk around with computers in their pockets.  We do the best we can to limit the usage of all phones during the school day, but do you know what happens outside of school?

We understand that cellular devices are a tool for both children and parents.  They help with communication and making sure our kids are available or “protected” when their parent is not around.  

It is also a toy that kids are using to do things that can cause great harm now or later in life.  Companies look at social media accounts prior to hiring people, and things do not disappear from the web.  Kids post funny things, political things and things they just may not understand today that will follow them well into their future. Take time to educate yourself, not just on the device and technical solutions to protect your child, but what they are actually doing on their device.

Remember: Kids don’t think about the “big picture” or long-term impacts as they are chatting on their devices with someone they think is a friend.  Stay safe.

Learn More at the Source

Schools are a safe space.  We provide locations for children to come to learn and be children.  That includes the poor decisions they make, the adolescent drama that occurs and everything else that comes along with growing up.  SUSD’s safety and security team works hard to keep the outside drama of the world outside the fences of the campus.  We coordinate with every staff member and numerous other organizations, including law enforcement, to keep problems off our campuses.  We encourage discussions within our campuses about life outside but hope they can be civil and, in many cases, facilitated by teachers in educational classroom discussions.

There are many opportunities for adults to be involved and on our campuses.  We encourage and want every parent to be a part of their child’s school community.  Some parents have lots of time and get involved in school-based parent organization; others don’t have that luxury but spend time attending their child’s specific school activities.  

No matter who is on our campus, we ask that wear your correct identification badge.  Visitors and volunteers should have a sticker visible at all times. The sticker comes from our new Raptor system and allows you to be accounted for, should there be an incident on campus.  Students should be wearing their current year identification badge.  The barcode on the badge also allows students to purchase cafeteria lunches and check out books from the library.  The RFID inside the badge only works with our transportation system, allowing us to be able to tell when a student got onto and off an SUSD school bus. Finally, our staff all received new identification badges this year.  These badges work with our card access systems and timeclock systems. 

Identification badges are tools and not fashion statements.  They don’t need to match your wardrobe, nor do they need to be pretty.  They need to be worn and visible.  The purpose of the badge on all persons on our campuses for everyday use is to be easily able to spot someone who does not belong.  But the main goal is that in the event of an emergency, we can identify and account for every person on that campus.  If the incident is serious enough that people need to be transported to a hospital, we will not be able to look at your student’s phone to determine their identification, nor will we be able to identify you from a “VISITOR” sticker.  Please help us ensure that everyone on campus during the school day is wearing the appropriate identification visible for all to see.