Why School Security Is So Important Over The Summer Holidays

As schools close up for the summer, security concerns arise amidst increasing numbers of incidents on school grounds. 2020 saw a surge in cases involving school sites where their security had been compromised. Fortunately, there are measures that can be put in place quickly to strengthen security, but it’s important that schools pay more attention to it in order to avoid facing issues.

SCHOOL INCIDENT RATES SURGE OVER SUMMER HOLIDAYS

According to a Farsight Security report, there was a significant increase in the number of incidents affecting school security, likely due to a combination of the school summer holidays and the disruption caused by lockdowns.
There has been a sharp increase in cases of students congregating on school grounds, with these events often developing into anti-social behaviour, vandalism and in rarer cases, even theft and arson. Due to schools being empty for long periods of time over the holidays, opportunistic students and criminals take advantage and unfortunately often get away with it.

INCIDENTS OF THEFT ARE ON THE RISE DUE TO THE PANDEMIC

As a result of the global pandemic, supplies of certain equipment and products have been limited, with laptops, computers and tablets being particularly affected. When you combine this with the increase in remote working and learning, you get a huge demand for these products that simply can’t be met.
On average, secondary schools have 431 computers onsite and primary schools have 70, making them a highly prioritised target for theft. According to D-Tech, a computer is stolen every 53 seconds in the UK at the moment, setting records at an all-time high. This unfortunately means that schools are extremely vulnerable to theft, increasing the importance of security measures, especially over the summer where nobody is onsite.