by Shane Henson — April 29, 2013—While collegiate and professional sports officials have increased the focus on security at their venues in recent years, little has been done for security at K-12 sporting events, according to an article in Security Director News. The National Center for Spectator Sports Safety and Security (NCS4) at the University of Southern Mississippi is working to change that in an effort to keep both players and fans safe, it says.
Some 336 million spectators attend football and basketball games annually at U.S. high schools, which is 2.5 times the number of fans who attend pro sporting events, according to Lou Marciano, NCS4 director. More than 11 million students participate in interscholastic athletics.
NCS4, which has worked with college and pro sports venues since 2006, is partnering with the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS) and the National Interscholastic Athletic Administrators Association (NIAAA) to develop a “standardized sports risk-management practices plan for high school events,” Marciano told SDN. Schools may have emergency management plans established for normal school-day activities, but may not have any in place for after-school sports events and other programs, he said.
NCS4, NFHS and NIAAA have been collaborating for several months to identify after-school security needs. The partners instituted pilot projects at three Mississippi high schools to help develop a curriculum for those responsible for security at their schools that they hope will spread nationwide.
“We are gathering critical emergency management issues from the three districts in preparation for a national focus group to develop risk management training curriculum,” Marciano said. The pilot projects are just being wrapped up. NCS4 “has been very successful in training 900 universities and over 3,000 first responders. So, we’re the ones to do it,” he said.
