Creating a calm learning environment where all children feel safe is a challenge for secondary schools, and for new students, in particular, they can be an intimidating place. Badly behaved pupils can disrupt others and sometimes will damage school property.
Advanced detection devices can tackle anti-social behaviour and problems associated with increasing numbers of students that are vaping. By installing a smart sensor schools can ensure that staff time is not consumed by a minority of troublemakers. These can be placed discreetly in private areas, such as school toilets and changing rooms, that would be unsuitable for video camera surveillance.
Schools have found that the increasing number of students vaping within its toilets becomes a difficult issue to manage and is often associated with anti-social behaviour but monitoring can help. An aggression detection feature allows for the monitoring of anti-social behaviour. By applying machine learning a smart device can learn what the normal sound levels are and alerts when a threshold above normal is detected for a specified length of time.
The device can then pick up when a number of children have gathered together, students shouting, signs of fighting or pupils potentially being bullied by others. An alert will be sent by email to designated staff when abnormal noise levels are detected and action can be taken quickly.
This means that perpetrators of aggression against other students or those vandalising school property within toilets can be stopped and dealt with as soon as an incident occurs. Being able to do this should act as a deterrent but also mean that repeat offenders can be dealt with more effectively by the school.
Security and monitoring company, Ecl-ips, has been helping schools in Worcestershire and elsewhere, by supplying one of the most advanced monitoring devices, the HALO Smart Sensor. John Speller, Facilities Manager at Hanley Castle High School, near Malvern, reported that after installing the monitoring devices, “We have really cracked down on antisocial behaviour in our toilet blocks.”
Matthew Carpenter, principal at Baxter College in Kidderminster, said: “It has transformed the amount of antisocial behaviour in toilets, children are more confident in going to the toilets. It has also reduced the number of students asking to go to the toilet during lessons.”
Meanwhile, there have also been concerns by schools about vapes laced with THC, with some Burnley school children reportedly hospitalised last year. The HALO is the only vape detector on the market that can alert and differentiate between vaping, vaping with THC and intentionally masking vaping behaviour, for example, by using aerosols to cover up vaping.
Charlotte Slattery, Deputy Head Teacher at St Joseph’s College in Stoke-on-Trent, said she would recommend the HALO Smart Sensor to: “Any schools who are struggling to get on top of vaping in schools, or indeed aggression, in the toilets.”
