Oosto Parent’s Survey: 59.4% Support Additional Security Measures In Schools Such As Access Control And Real-time Video Surveillance

A significant number of U.S. parents of school-aged children feel insecure about, and support increasing, security measures in their children's schools, according to a survey conducted by Oosto following the Uvalde school shooting earlier this month.

Survey findings

When asked if parents felt their children's schools were safe, more than 11% of respondents stated that their child’s school is either somewhat or very unsafe.

Moreover, 18% of respondents have refrained from sending their child to school in the past year for fear of their safety, and 20% of respondents considered moving their child to another school, city, or country. In brief, 59.4% of respondents support additional security measures in place.

Additional access control measures

Thirty percent of the responders support better equipping and training teachers

Of those that preferred a security measure, 38.6% of U.S. parents support access control at school entrances, 28.2% support CCTV and video surveillance, and 28.8% support the use of real-time video surveillance to detect potential threats.

Thirty percent of the responders support better equipping and training teachers. The survey was based on survey results from two thousand U.S.-based parents (June 2022).

Gun violence

“There have been 265 mass shootings so far this year in the U.S. according to the Gun Violence Archive, and we simply return to the ‘old normal,’” said Avi Golan, CEO of vision AI technology leader, Oosto.

“This has become a very personal issue for me and I’m tired of talk and social media debates that amount to no change. We’re starting to get sensible gun reform initiatives proposed, and that’s a good start, but we also need very tactical plans in place to help teachers and administrators better protect their schools.”

Security technologies

Let’s act now and at least have the technologies in place to help expedite a better response"

In an opinion column recently published in SourceSecurity, Golan wrote, “There is no single technology that will prevent this type of tragedy."

"But, let’s act now and at least have the technologies in place to help expedite a better response while we simultaneously debate the deeper questions about the nature of education, mental health, and guns in American society. We owe it to our children.”

School Safety Emergency Summit

Mr. Golan will be one of several panelists who will address the issue of school safety at the School Safety Emergency Summit.

The Summit is being hosted by Carnegie Mellon University’s Biometrics Center and will be moderated by Ben Chapman – U.S. education reporter for The Wall Street Journal and will include distinguished panelists from the school security space including Guy Grace, Retired Director of Security for Littleton Public Schools, Colorado and Chairman of the Partner Alliance for Safer Schools (PASS); Michael Matranga, CEO of M6 Global security consultancy and former U.S. Secret Service agent; Bruce Montgomery, National SLED-FED Market Leader with Honeywell and 25-year law enforcement veteran; and Professor Shlomit Yanisky-Ravid, Yale Law School.

Real-time security and safety alerts

The summit will also include a 20-minute session with Prof. Marios Savvides, head of Carnegie Mellon University’s Biometrics Center.

Prof. Savvides will review some of the latest developments in computer vision and artificial intelligence, and how these can provide security and safety alerts in real-time including early warning signs that can be identified through the help of Vision AI.