How Much Is School Safety Worth To You?

I would love to conduct a survey of my own and find out what people all across the United States think about this issue.  Everyone has been going on about school safety for years.  From school security to pedestrian and bike safety to school bus safety and bullying – people from various sectors have been giving their opinions on these issues.  I am including myself in this count as I have been writing about school safety issues for quite some time now.  Yet if we were asked, exactly how much are you willing to spend on school safety?  What would our answer be?  $10 a month?  $100?  $1000?

Over in Kentucky, they are sending a message – a message on how much school safety is worth to the authorities.  WTVQ has a report on this:

Kentucky’s General Assembly is sending a message that school safety is worth only half of what it was in the previous years, after 58 percent of funding for the safe schools allocation money was cut for the ’08-’09 school year.

Kentucky is among the top in the nation for school safety, but in the wake of a deadly school shooting in Knoxville, Tennessee, it begs the question: How much is your child’s safety worth to you?

School safety is generally a number one priority in most school districts followed by their students’ education, but with a 58% cut in their safe schools allocation money, it has many school administrators making a tough decision between school safety and education.

With the funding, schools can use the money for everything from educational programs aimed at preventing violence, to behavioral intervention plans, to salaries for school resource officers.

Now, many districts have to decide between dropping those programs, or using their general fund dollars to pay for them.

Jon Akers, the executive director for the Kentucky Center for Safe Schools, says, his biggest fear is that we become complacent and assume that because there wasn’t a school shooting in the past year, that the funds are no longer needed.

“I’ve handled two cases already this week of aggressive behaviors in our schools in the state of Kentucky, where principals are afraid that students are going to manifest some kind of very serious behavior,” Akers said. “We don’t need to stop these funds from coming in, we need to keep these funds flowing into the schools so we can protect our kids.”

While it is difficult to prove prevention and how many incidents may have been thwarted by these funds, Akers and others say it’s not worth the risk.

This is a very thought-provoking article, isn’t it?  Ask yourself, how much are you willing to spend on the safety of your child?  If the government is cutting funding, are you willing to shell out a little extra for your school district’s funds?  I think I would.

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One Response to “How Much Is School Safety Worth To You?”

  1. Deborah,
    Please look at the information on preventing school violence, bullying, and other problems by using our web and text based anonymous reporting system.
    We are seeing amazing results.