Often, fencing around a school is of little use for nighttime security purposes. Some schools put gates on school fences and leave them open at night. If the local community wishes to use the outdoor school facility in the evening and or wants to cross the school property to go to another neighborhood, it is usually best to leave a gate open to avoid having the fence vandalized. From the perspective of nighttime security, it is far more important to have good lighting, good locks, and good burglar alarms, smoke alarms, and sprinklers than it is to have good fences. Many schools for one reason or another have no technical equipment such as burglar alarms to protect the school.
Burglar alarms are more important to thwart vandals and arsonists than they are to catch burglars.
A burglar cannot usually carry off enough equipment during a single nighttime entry to put the school out of business, whereas in a short time a vandal or an arsonist can. Burglar alarms commonly protect the school kitchens, offices, computer rooms, labs and media centers. It is best, of course, if all areas are protected, including classrooms and hallways. Portable classroom units are frequently the last ones to receive communication and security technologies of any kind, but especially motion detectors or door contact burglar equipment. Night watchmen and second and third shift custodial staff can be good deterrents to burglars and vandals.