Rock Hill school security leader: ‘We need our kids to feel safe’

Kevin Wren served on a school safety committee in high school and later trained and worked as a firefighter, EMT and school resource office.

“I have been trying to get this job since I was 15,” joked Wren, the Rock Hill school district’s director of risk, safety and emergency management.

Wren earned a national honor for his work last week. He was named national safety Director of the Year for K-12 schools by Campus Safety magazine.

He was chosen from 10 finalists named earlier this year. He was named a winner of the ninth annual awards during a conference in Washington, D.C.

Wren and Rock Hill schools’ safety program are to be featured this fall in Campus Safety magazine and on its website, CampusSafetyMagazine.com.

Wren, who took the Rock Hill schools job in 2013, attributed much of his success to the groundwork that was laid by others before he arrived.

“I walked in at a great time,” he said. “I was able to come in as a kind of turbo boost to what they already had going.”

He said district safety initiatives have included online employee training, capital changes to improve school security and cameras.

“You are not going to learn anything until you feel safe, so we need our kids to feel safe,” Wren said. “And we want our parents to feel safe about sending their kids to learn with us.”

Under Wren’s leadership, school district officials said, Rock Hill schools rolled out a district-wide online safety training system that has led to an 18 percent decrease in accidents and claims.

Wren said the Safe Schools Online training teaches the staff how to respond in a variety of situations, such as fires, health emergencies, lock-downs and other situations.

The training has been changed as needed, he said. This year, the district added a two-hour Darkness to Light online training that teaches staff members how to recognize the signs of child abuse, including sexual abuse, and how to respond and provide help.

He said Rock Hill schools also standardized security cameras across the district and placed them at strategic locations, including entrances, bathrooms and hallways. He said the video can be accessed from the district office instead of from each school site.

Wren also spearheaded more than $5 million in security-driven capital improvements involving school structure upgrades. The upgrades improve access control, visitor management, digital radios and fencing at Rock Hill schools.

For example, he said, some of the fencing forces people to go to one access point to enter a school, which makes it easier to monitor visitors.

He also developed and delivered an emergency management planning system with role-specific and site-specific components, quick reference guides and comprehensive scenario protocols.

“We have great training, and we are putting in the infrastructure to prevent unwanted guests,” Wren said. “You hear districts all the time say safety is our No. 1 priority. Well, we are doing it.”

Campus Safety magazine recognizes outstanding campus public safety, security and emergency management leaders and the policies, procedures and technologies they use to protect school and college campuses.

Before taking the Rock Hill school job in June 2013, Wren served as deputy director of security and emergency preparedness for the Charleston County school district. He also served as a school resource officer and training officer for the town of Mount Pleasant and a public safety officer in North Augusta.

This story was originally published July 31, 2016 at 5:32 PM with the headline "Rock Hill school security leader: ‘We need our kids to feel safe’."