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In the wake of two devastating school shootings in 2018, Britney Fortner, then Program Coordinator at the Austin Police Department, found herself asking a critical question: How can we better protect schools from violence? It turned out that relationships in the community are the answer.
Fortner was leading the department’s Threat Liaison and School Safety Outreach programs during the Parkland shooting on February 14 and the Santa Fe High School shooting just months later on May 18. These tragedies set her on a path that would shape the rest of her career in school security.
“When both of those events took place, we as an intelligence center started asking ourselves: what could we do to mitigate these risks and these threats?”
That question would guide Fortner through several career moves, each deepening her expertise and commitment to proactive school safety.
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From Policy to Practice: Building a Career in Threat Management
After her time with the Austin Police Department, Fortner became a Behavioral Threat Assessment Grant Specialist at Texas State University. There, she helped implement behavioral threat assessment protocols across Texas’s K-12 and higher education institutions, training staff to identify and respond to signs of risk before violence occurs.
She later transitioned to YES Prep Public Schools, first as Manager and eventually as Director of Safety and Security. It was there that her role expanded from policy into practice.
“I learned a lot in that role because I was doing a lot more related to physical security,” Fortner reflects. “I did a lot of work related to mitigating risk when it came to school safety and really got my feet under me.”
Today, Fortner holds her dream jog, Director of Safety, Security and Threat Management, a role that allows her to blend communication, strategy, and relationships into one mission: keeping students safe.
“It truly is my dream job,” she declares.
School Safety Starts in the Relationships Within the Community
Fortner believes strongly that safety doesn’t begin at the school gates. It starts in the neighborhoods, families, and communities that surround a campus.
“We’re trying to catch individuals that have a grievance early, so that we can put interventions in place to help that person and take them off the pathway of violence,” Fortner explains. “But if that person is not in our community and we don’t know of their grievance or what they’re planning, and they’ve already decided they’re going to act, at that point, it is almost impossible to stop something from happening.”
Because external threats are difficult to predict, Fortner emphasizes the need for comprehensive, layered preparedness.
“You must have the appropriate measures and layers in place to be able to respond as quickly as possible,” Fortner states.
While physical security is a critical aspect of her work, Fortner notes that it cannot come at the expense of the learning environment.
“Our families have an expectation that they’re going to drop their student off and that their student is going to not only be safe, but feel safe and learn.” Fortner asserts, “While security is my top priority because that’s my job, our top priority in the school district is always going to be educating students.”
This philosophy drives her approach to campus safety: preventing harm while ensuring that schools remain welcoming, nurturing places for students to grow.
Communication and Trust Are Cornerstones of Security
Fortner didn’t begin her career in security. She studied public relations and business at the undergraduate level, and earned a master’s degree in higher education. Early roles included Event Manager for The Allan House and Administrative Assistant at the National Institute for Staff and Organizational Development (NISOD).
These experiences, Fortner says, gave her a skillset that’s often overlooked in the security world: the ability to build trust and communicate clearly.
“Communication is so important for safety and security. Communicating expectations, communicating policies and procedures, communicating when something has gone wrong or not as intended, all of it is essential,” Fortner remarks. “It’s important to be able to communicate enough so that you’re providing transparency to what is going on, but not divulging all of your safety processes, because that creates vulnerabilities.”
Being transparent without compromising security is a delicate balance. But Fortner believes it’s necessary to earn trust, foster cooperation, and avoid creating unnecessary fear among students, parents, and staff.
Community Relationships Are the Foundation
Ultimately, Fortner circles back to the insight that reshaped her approach after Parkland and Santa Fe: relationships are the foundation of effective school security.
“The most important part of this job is the relational piece,” Fortner declares.
While threat assessments, lockdown drills, and surveillance technology are critical tools, Fortner emphasizes that security professionals must first build strong connections with the communities they serve. Without those relationships, early intervention becomes more difficult, and safety systems can falter.
As schools continue to face complex safety challenges, Fortner’s message is clear: the best security plans are built not just with policies and protocols, but with people in mind.
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