School safety, security, and violence prevention resource

Summer vacation is almost at an end and though our students may still be in vacation mode and not even thinking of going back to school, administrators and other school staff are gearing up for the upcoming academic year. As usual, one of the foremost subjects in their minds is school safety. Yet there seems to be not so good news in this department. Apparently, federal budgeting has target schools as one of the areas wherein cutbacks are going to be applied.

What does this mean in practical terms? It is really very simple – schools will not have as much money as they did before. This is, in turn, translated into sacrificing some things. One of the main areas that will be affected is school security. That is not to say that there will be absolutely no attention on school security but there will definitely be changes – and I am afraid, they are not for the better.

Take the example of the Arizona Department of Education. Based on a report by KSWT:

The back-to-school rush has officially begun, but school resource officers may not be back for good. Campus officers are paid through a grant by the Arizona Department of Education, but this summer, the agency adopted a new funding formula that could leave some schools unprotected.

Hundreds of students, zero security guards, and one police officer: it doesn’t take a lot of number crunching to understand our schools are on the brink of a security crisis.
Crane Schools was one of many districts in jeopardy of losing campus cops. That is until Monday afternoon when officials learned officer Ienn and others were here to stay.

“As people drive by, they see the officer’s vehicle here and it tells them there’s an officer on campus, that’s a good thing. From our perspective, that vehicle also slows traffic down in a school zone,” says Crane spokesman, Chris Weigel.

School districts around the state are still waiting on the final word. The Yuma Union High School District says they lost the grant money that paid for one of their officers. The district is now paying that officer’s salary while the Yuma Police Department continues to pay the salaries of other school officers.

Arizona is probably not the only area where cutbacks are going to be enforced. This is sad news indeed. Are we in that much debt that we are willing to sacrifice the safety of our students? Aren’t there any other areas which can take the cutbacks instead of our schools?

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Posted on August 6th, 2008 by Deborah J Thomas
Filed under: Administrators, College, High School, K-6, News, People Involved, School Grade Level, School Safety Issues, Security