“Your greatest threat will not come from without – it will come from within.”
This is a quote from Campus Safety Conference Texas keynoter Molly Hudgens, who opened up this week’s event with her remarkable story.
On September 28, 2016, Molly, a school counselor, was able to convince one of her students to give her a loaded gun he had brought to school with the intention of killing teachers and a police officer.
While Molly acknowledged the importance of technology in keeping people safe, she also acknowledged technology is moot if we don’t put in the time and effort to build relationships. Because Molly had developed a relationship with this struggling teen, he felt comfortable confiding in her, believing she was the only person capable of talking him out of doing something he didn’t really want to do.
Molly’s message was so influential and eye-opening (not to mention, she’s as sweet as pie), that it was echoed throughout the entire three-day conference by fellow speakers, attendees and sponsors.
More than 250 attendees from around the world, including Lebanon and Bangladesh, made for some great networking opportunities and chances to develop new relationships with other campus security professionals.
Powerful keynotes about the importance of human interaction and emergency preparedness panels chock-full of subject matter experts opened up discussions about a wide array of campus security issues, including acts of violence, extreme weather, emergency notification, sexual assault and mental health.
Dozens of breakout sessions, tabletop exercises and workshops spoke to best practices regarding topics such as de-escalating toxic situations, drug prevention, access control, incident management, Clery compliance and digital threats.
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Over some coffee, good food and adult beverages, more than 50 sponsors, including event sponsor Transact, chatted with attendees interested in purchasing or learning about available security technologies.
Some lucky attendees even walked away with impressive sponsor-provided raffle prizes — including a Star Wars drone — at Monday night’s networking reception.
If you missed us at CSC Texas, you still have the chance to hear Molly’s story, converse with like-minded professionals and see the latest security products at CSC East, happening Aug. 6-8 in Charlotte, N.C. We hope to see you there!
