As school administrators try to stay ahead of security threats, Idaho is becoming a ripe market for private vendors.
For-profit firms are aggressively pitching proposals to school leaders. They’re also lobbying legislators, in hopes of getting their products into schools across the state.
On Tuesday, the state’s point person on school safety suggested a buyer-beware approach. Some new technologies don’t live up to the trade-show hype — but some, picked wisely and deployed properly, can make schools safer for students and staff.
“These are high-dollar purchases, and they can be very effective,” Idaho School Safety and Security Manager Mike Munger told members of the agency’s advisory board.
Vendors are offering emerging technologies with a heavy AI focus, whether they make sense or not, Munger said. One AI platform can run algorithmic searches in student documents, looking for keywords that could flag a potential threat.
Drones are another growth area, he said.
Another new technology can allow school officials to use their camera systems to do more than track traffic in hallways. Schools can add gun detectors to their camera systems to identify someone carrying a weapon.
These technologies aren’t necessarily bad, Munger said, but it’s important for school officials to understand how these technologies work on the ground, and in tandem with the systems already in place.
Vendors are taking a more aggressive approach to marketing, Munger said, as local schools experience high administrative turnover. As districts churn through superintendents and schools cycle through principals, the local schools lose institutional memory about safety and security.
Munger said his agency sees this firsthand. Security analysts go into every K-12 school in Idaho every three years to conduct a “vulnerability assessment,” a review that is the cornerstone of Idaho’s safety strategy. At almost every assessment, state analysts are working with some new local administrators.
“(It’s) almost as if it’s a new conversation,” Munger said.
Tuesday’s meeting was something of a year in review for the safety and security agency — an update on the assessment process, training programs and calls to the state’s confidential tipline.
The See Tell Now! tipline has logged about 720 reports this school year, program coordinator Katie Francis told the advisory board. Almost half of these calls were reports of bullying and harassment — but 38 calls involved the threat of a weapon in school, and 42 calls reported threats of suicide.
“I do feel confident that we are saving kids’ lives,” Francis said.
