What Are Your Responsibilities As A School Security Officer?

As a school security officer, you’re entrusted with an extremely important responsibility: keeping school grounds safe for students, faculty, staff, parents, and approved visitors. 

Yet, that primary responsibility is really composed of various duties that require you to maintain a high level of attention to detail, a great deal of empathy, the ability to handle challenging situations with professionalism, and much more. 

In the following article, we’ll highlight some of the key responsibilities of your position. 

Maintaining A Safe And Secure Campus

As we mentioned in the introduction, your main objective as a school security officer is to make the entire campus safe and secure. 

This is mainly accomplished by identifying potential security threats and taking appropriate steps to rectify or mitigate them. 

To achieve these objectives, you’ll need to perform the following measures:

• Performing regular patrols of the school grounds to look for any suspicious persons, unusual activities, and signs of any security breaches. 
• Double-checking all doors, windows and other points of entry to confirm that they are locked when not in use. 
• Monitoring external and internal security cameras and responding to all alerts or alarms. A security officer may also be responsible for scheduling regular maintenance and tests of the security cameras and devices to ensure that they are working properly. 
• Collaborating with school officials and local authorities to develop and implement emergency response plans for a variety of scenarios, including fires, extreme weather conditions, and active shooter incidents. 

Building Meaningful Relationships With The Community

Another key responsibility of your role as a school security officer is to develop positive relationships with those you are serving, namely the students, parents, faculty and staff. 

Forming these relationships not only allows you to establish a sense of trust with the school community, it also helps you identify any potential risks so you can resolve or mitigate them quickly and effectively. 

Some of the various responsibilities in this area of your role include: 

• Being approachable and friendly so you can build a solid rapport with the students. 
• Forming bonds with the faculty and staff by consistently performing your duties professionally. 
• Participating in various school activities and committees to show your support for the school community. 
• Encouraging students, faculty and staff to feel comfortable enough with you to report any suspicious activities or concerning behavior. 

Enforcing School Policies and Procedures

As a security officer, you’re not only bound to perform your duties according to all state and local laws, you’re also expected to enforce all current school policies and procedures. 

This part of your role involves ensuring that students, faculty and staff are following the rules and regulations established by the school administration. 

A few of the main responsibilities in this area of your role may include, but are not limited to: 

• Conducting supervised searches and confiscating any contraband such as illegal drugs and weapons. 
• Investigating all reports of misconduct and/or violations of school policies. 
• Collaborating with school administrators and local law enforcement officials to all serious or potentially criminal disciplinary issues.  

Providing Support 

In addition to maintaining a safe and secure school environment, your role as a school security may also involve providing support to students who are experiencing personal and/or family issues. 

Some of the responsibilities needed to effectively perform this part of the role include: 

• Demonstrating empathy and understanding by listening to students.
• Identifying students who are struggling and providing the appropriate resources and referrals they may need.  
• Collaborating with school counselors, faculty and administrators to ensure that the at-risk students receive the support they need. 
• Being a positive role model for all students and offering them extra guidance when necessary.

Following Current Best Practices 

Finally, as a school security office, it’s important to stay up-to-date with all of the current security best practices, trends, as well as all local laws, rules and regulations. 

Doing so may require: 

• Attending or participating in additional school security training courses involving such topics as active shooter response, emergency preparedness, and crisis management. 
• Reading security industry publications to stay informed about the latest trends and best practices. 
• Communicating and collaborating with other school security officers and local law enforcement officials in an effort to share information and ideas. 
• Frequently evaluating and, if necessary, updating school security plans and procedures to ensure that they are effective. 

The Tools You Need To Be A Responsible School Security Officer 

When you choose to be a professional school security officer, you’re taking on some very serious responsibilities. After all, your community is entrusting you with their greatest resource: its children. 

By knowing what is expected of you, you can take the necessary steps to ensure that you can perform your responsibilities to the best of your ability. 

One of the ways you can assure your community that you are qualified for this role is to enroll in the school security training and education courses available from Cardinal Point Security Group. 

Taught by experienced industry professionals, our customized training courses cover a variety of topics such School Safety Practices, Anti-Bias Education and more. By enrolling in our courses you’ll have the knowledge and experience you need to become a PA state-certified school security professional.

To learn more about our virtual and in-person school security training courses, contact our team of school security experts today.