UNITED24 - Make a charitable donation in support of Ukraine!

Homeland Security

FEMA 428 - Primer to Design Safe School Projects in Case of Terrorist Attacks

December, 2003

The purpose of this primer is to provide the design community and school administrators with the basic principles and techniques to make a school that is safe from terrorist attacks and at the same time is functional, aesthetically pleasing, and meets the needs of the students, staff, administration, and general public. Protecting a school building and grounds from physical attack is a significant challenge because the ability to design, construct, renovate, operate, and maintain the facility is spread across numerous building users, infrastructure systems, and many building design codes.

There is a strong interest in the United States (U.S.) in ensuring the safety of students, faculty, and staff in our schools. Schools are integral parts of their communities. On any given weekday, nearly 53 million young people aged 5 to 17 attend more than 117,000 public and private schools where 6 million adults work as teachers or staff (counting students, faculty, and staff, this constitutes more than one-fifth of the U.S. population). Additionally, schools are resources for their communities. Many schools are used as shelters, command centers, or meeting places in times of crisis. Schools are also used widely for polling and voting functions. In some communities, schools are places of health care delivery.



NEWSLETTER
Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list