Campus Safety Summit Explains How Schools Can Reopen Safely During COVID-19

COVID-19 has forced every school district and institution of higher education in the United States to make drastic changes to practically every aspect of campus life. Our sister publication’s Campus Safety Online Summit (CSOS), held July 7-8, addressed many of the pressing concerns relating to the reopening of schools.

A wide variety of campus decision makers were in attendance, including directors/AVPs of safety and security, facilities directors, risk managers, law enforcement, student affairs, operations, emergency managers, IT/technology directors, principals, faculty/teachers, security officers and more.

The show began with the announcement of this year’s winners of the Campus Safety Director of the Year award. Eric Clay, CoxHealth’s director of public safety won the healthcare division, while the winner of the higher education division was Edgar Rodriguez, Quinnipiac University’s former chief of public safety.

The K-12 sector had two protection executives who came out on top: Demario Boone, who is chief at Peoria Public Schools, and Guy Grace, who is director of security and emergency planning at Littleton Public Schools.

Both the higher ed and school divisions had runners up: Western Carolina University Chief of Police Steve Lillard and Montgomery Independent School District Chief of Police Marlon Runnels.

After that, the show featured presentations on a whole host of topics related to the pandemic, including mental health, risk management, encouraging and enforcing mask wearing and social distancing, identifying when a student or staff member might be infected, emergency operations plans, mutual aid agreements, Clery compliance, contact tracing, social media safety and what an educational institution might look like during and after COVID-19. Other topics covered included vaping and bullying detection, free speech and campus unrest, cyberbullying, verbal de-escalation, bystander intervention and more.

Additionally, event participants were treated to a wide variety of helpful resources from CSOS sponsors. When attendees visited the sponsors’ profile pages, they could enter to win fun raffle prizes, such as gift cards, Apple AirPods and free admission to one of next year’s Campus Safety Conferences.

Attendees also received a virtual swag bag and were provided with certificates of attendance.

Many participants raved about the Campus Safety Online Summit.

“This Year’s Campus Safety Conference proved that hard work and organization can overcome insurmountable conditions of a pandemic and still present members and audiences hard hitting information that is relevant to the difficulties shared by campuses nationwide,” said University of Delaware Fire Marshall Keven McSweeney.

“Nearly every workshop I attended was engaging and completely applicable to my role,” said Sonya Smith, who is the director of pupil services for the Hawthorne School District. “Thank you for a well-planned and thoughtful event.”

Although the live event has concluded, all of the presentations are now available on demand for free. To watch any or all of the presentations, click here.

Additionally, on December 1-2, Campus Safety will be holding its second Online Summit this year. Further details about the virtual event will be announced on CampusSafetyMagazine.com, as well as in its newsletters.

Be sure to also save the date for next year’s in-person Campus Safety Conferences, which will be held in Las Vegas, June 14-16, 2021; Bethesda, Maryland, July 11-13, 2021; and San Antonio, Texas, July 21-23, 2021. For more information on next year’s events, visit CampusSafetyConference.com.

This was first posted on our sister site, Security Sales & Integration.

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