Chester Thai ’14, Leah Yao’15: The Episcopal Academy recently hired Joe Shanahan as Manager of Campus Safety to improve and re- vise the school’s current security plan and protocol. Shanahan brings over 25 years of experience managing officers in the New Jersey State Po- lice, including those deployed in high schools and in the recovery efforts following hurricane Sandy. Scholium had the chance to speak with Shana- han prior to the school year about the changes he hopes to implement at EA.
According to Shanahan, one of the top priorities is reviewing access to the campus. “We’ve been look- ing at visitor management software that we could possibly put in place in different areas. More than anything else,” he emphasized, “[our goal is] making sure that people who are on campus have legitimate business there.” Shanahan also shared his plans to modify the school’s camera monitoring and to expand the card access system.
Somesecuritychangeswillbeobvious to students as soon as they step foot on campus.Forexample,theMiddleSchool and Lower School entrances have been redesigned to pro- vide administrative staff aclearviewof thedoorway.Other changes, however, will be more subtle. “The EA Safety personnel will be wearing a lighter shade of blue shirt so that they are readily visible around campus.” In addition, Sha- nahan noted, “The schedule has been changed to allow for better cover- age during those times when the stu- dents are present.”
Shanahan’s ex- tensive security and operations experi- ence will bring a new perspective to school security. Most recently, he has acted as an opera- tions officer at MetLife Stadium to plan security for the upcoming Super Bowl this February. Following the devastation of Hurricane Sandy, Shanahan worked twenty-hourdays“managingthedeploy- ment of over a hundred troopers… that provided security and helped the recovery efforts after the storm.” He has even run smaller operations in manag- ing school resource officers, combat- ting bullying and teaching cyber safety.
Brian Fish, the new Assistant man- ager of campus safety, said, “Joe is not changing things just to change them but instead he is making wise choices that will have a positive impact on the entire EA community.”
Even so, Shanahan says campus safety at Episcopal will require more than himself or any other single per- son. “Security is a collaborative team response. It involves the faculty, the staff, the parents, and the corner- stone of that is going to be training.”
Shanahan maintained that it is critical to provide faculty and staff with the groundwork to make good common sense decisions in crisis situations. “I can review all the emergency plans I want,” he said. “But you can never really plan for everything that might happen there on campus, so that’s where training really comes into play.
Inaddition,Shanahanspokeof reach- ing out to the Newtown Square fire and policedepartmentandinvolvingthemin Episcopal’sincidentcommandstructure.
“As we move forward, other changes will undoubtedly become necessary. But these will be undertaken only after careful consideration and input from various stakeholders both inside and outside of the EA community.”
With regards to the current state of thecampus,Shanahansaid,“Ibelieveitis safe. I think we can make improvements to that. You’ve seen in a couple of recent incidentswhereschoolsthoughttheyhad a secure environment until that security was breached. You try to do the best you can to make the area as secure as it can be, but in the end, its always possible for someone to find a way to defeat that. But it doesn’t mean that you don’t stop trying.”