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Security issues and solutions at primary and pre-primary level

Charterhouse is an independent, co-educational pre-primary and primary school situated on 18 acres in the Honeydew area, and with a high school – Charter College – under construction at a location nearby.

Warrick Dodge, the principal at Charterhouse, explains that schools are a very soft target and there is always the threat of intruders, often with the misconception that there is a lot of cash on site.

"School properties are generally unpopulated in the evenings, which makes them easy targets for break-ins, and Charterhouse is situated on a large area with the buildings surrounded by sports fields. We are linked to ADT, which has proved to be very successful in the case of break-ins and unwanted intruders. The company has also assisted in providing drive-by patrols to watch the cars at after-hours functions at the school.

"Access control is in place, but there is a fine line between accessibility and inconvenience. The school gates remain open at times when students are being dropped off and collected, at all other times the gates are locked and can only be opened by people who know the codes to punch in.

"We have internal people manning the gates at all times.

"There are also the external threats of lightning and fire. We are in the process of installing a lightning protection system that warns teachers and pupils to get off the open fields in the case of lightning by sending an alarm if there is a dangerous level of lightning in the area.

"Fire equipment at the school is inspected on a regular basis for compliance. For example in the science laboratory, there is legislation governing the storage and disposal of the different chemicals that the students use in experiments. Gas bottles also have to be stored to compliance behind a special reinforced wall that has passed the relevant inspection by the authorities.

"Computers have been stolen before during a break-in and now they are all bolted down. When the high school opens next year we will be using only laptops, which will be stored overnight in a specially-built strongroom.

"Internally, there are also threats that could arise which could compromise the security and safety of the staff and students at the school.

"The first step we take is to have all staff prospects professionally screened. The ground and cleaning staff of 15 people permanently employed at the school, wear hats and uniforms marked 'Charterhouse School' for the purpose of identification by staff, pupils and parents. If there is a need to employ casual labourers we do not take them off the street, we go on recommendations from long-term permanent staff.

"The intercom system we have to communicate from the office to each of the classrooms also plays a vital role in the security of all at the school. With this we can communicate situations directly to the teachers in the classrooms timeously.

"We have also employed the services of close-protection officers from EC Security who accompany pupils on all school outings. These officers are trained for medical emergencies as well. Also, if pupils are going away on school trips we only use reputable companies to transport them, and I have turned buses away from other companies that we have tried because the buses did not seem roadworthy.

"Another internal threat is that of IT security, all our admin computers have various anti-virus software programs installed and Internet access by the students is severely restricted and always supervised.

"Petty crime by pupils has not been a problem at the school (apart from the odd accusation of being a cheat at marbles!) but we do have secure lockers that pupils can rent to store personal items such as wallets and cellphones.

"I do understand that the threats will be different at the high school and we are looking into the appropriate security measures for that facility.

"Security is an ongoing issue and the threats change all the time and we endeavour to be pro-active rather than reactive. The first line of defence is the children and we educate them on how to avoid dangerous situations and to immediately report anything suspicious, but often the parents need to be educated as well! We can install any number of physical and electronic security systems, but the children and parents need to comply with the rules and be aware at all times."

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