S-One turns to AI to tackle safety risks as school gyms open to the public

Schools across South Korea are opening their gymnasiums to the public at a growing pace, but a shortage of on-site staff and the risk of safety incidents are placing an increasing management burden on individual schools. As more institutions unlock their sports facilities during evenings and weekends, a new category of intelligent safety solutions — covering unmanned facility operation, real-time incident detection and aging-infrastructure diagnostics — is emerging as a practical answer.

The government and local authorities have been actively pushing to open school sports facilities to address a shortage of public athletic venues in urban areas and revitalize local communities, according to industry sources Tuesday. The Ministry of Education has been running a large-scale project since 2023 with a goal of building 200 combined school-community facilities by 2027.

On the ground, however, many schools remain reluctant to open their gates because of the safety management burden and liability exposure that comes with public access. Staffing an entrance checkpoint and verifying that all visitors have left after hours — on evenings, weekends and school holidays — is a practical necessity, yet assigning a dedicated on-site attendant after teachers have gone home is rarely feasible.

The structural liability problem compounds the difficulty: if an accident occurs while the facility is open to the public, responsibility falls squarely on the school. According to the Korea School Safety Insurance Federation's 2025 school safety accident and compensation statistics, 133,487 of the 220,136 school safety accidents recorded last year — 60.6 percent — occurred during physical activity, underscoring the urgency of preventive measures.

In response, the security industry is rolling out integrated unmanned systems that combine Internet of Things and AI technology to open and close facilities safely without on-site staff and to head off dangerous situations before they escalate.

The Gunpo-Uiwang Education Support Office in Gyeonggi Province has piloted S-One's gymnasium unmanned management system at three schools in its district rather than maintaining permanent staff. The system integrates security infrastructure — access control and door management — with facility controls covering lighting, ventilation and heating and cooling in a single platform.

Once an administrator registers a schedule in advance, the system automatically switches on the lights and ventilation and unlocks the doors at the designated time. When the session ends, it guides visitors out through staged voice announcements, confirms via interior sensors that no one remains inside, and locks up automatically. Any intrusion or anomaly detected after closing triggers an emergency dispatch through the control center. An official at a middle school in Uiwang said the school had struggled with the burden of opening facilities on weekends when no duty staff were present, but that the system now handles everything from access control to equipment management according to the preset schedule, allowing safe operation without any personnel.

Intelligent video-analysis algorithms monitor the gymnasium in real time for accidents and unexpected situations during operating hours. S-One's intelligent school safety package equips existing AI-enabled CCTV cameras with seven algorithms capable of detecting signs of fire, unauthorized entry into restricted zones, loitering outside school hours, fence intrusions, school violence and smoking. When an anomaly is detected, real-time alerts and footage go directly to the smartphones of school administrators and education support office staff, enabling an immediate first response.

Smart sensors also guard against hidden facility hazards — leaks and fires — that aging buildings can harbor. According to Ministry of Education data, 23.7 percent of the nation's 61,251 school buildings — 14,531 structures — are more than 40 years old. The service life of key infrastructure such as water supply and drainage pipes is only 15 to 20 years, meaning a leak or electrical fire in an unoccupied building can quickly escalate into ceiling collapse or large-scale flooding.

S-One is conducting around-the-clock pipe leak response consulting at 60 schools in Incheon. IoT sensors attached to water supply pipes, distribution panels and fire alarm receivers collect real-time data on minute anomalies in water pressure and electrical current, flagging irregularities before water stains appear on walls and alerting both administrators and the control center immediately. The approach has reduced the administrative effort and cost of after-the-fact repairs.

S-One's AI-based school safety solutions ease the management burden on individual schools while keeping public infrastructure accessible and users safe, and the company has won recognition as a realistic alternative for facilities navigating the tension between openness and security.

"Schools are becoming everyday community infrastructure shared by local residents, not just places of learning for students," an S-One official said. "Stable facility access requires an integrated operational framework that covers not only access control but also user safety and the condition of building systems." The official added that the company would draw on 45 years of accumulated security monitoring expertise combined with advanced AI and IoT technology to help build a safety infrastructure that allows schools and other public facilities to open their doors with confidence.