School safety, security, and violence prevention resource

Texas has always been one of the states to take school safety issues seriously. It is thus no surprise that Attorney General Greg Abbott has once again turned his attention to school safety. According to the Attorney General:

Well the school safety plan has to encompass all the different ways all children at school could be endangered. Obviously, there are things like fires, tornados, strangers coming onto campus posing a physical harm to the student. And schools need to be prepared for all of these and the different emergencies require different mechanisms.

What I like about this statement is that it is indicative of the perspective that Abbott has. By mentioning the various factors that pose dangers to children in school, he was acknowledging the fact that there is more than one aspect to school safety. From building safety to natural disasters to security issues – these were all contained in the AG’s statement. I hope that this statement does not encompass the whole program for school safety in Texas, though. One thing that I notice that is sorely missing is cyber safety. If you remember, I only recently posted an article on the issue of cyber safety measures being lax in American schools.

So what does the crackdown mean anyway? Are there specific measures that the AG’s office is going to take with regard to this statement? Abbott went as far as to say that any school district that does not adhere to the school safety guidelines by August of this year might face a lawsuit!

I am sure that there might be some who would say that this is too tough but I think that if that is what it takes to get everyone to comply, then it is perfectly fine. I believe that the concept of keeping kids safe in school should be enough reason but if that does not work, then any other measures would be welcome. Your thoughts on this?

Now what about the school officials in Texas? Peter Frankson of the Ector County Independent School District Security office says his team is ready:

We are very well prepared. We constantly train so that every officer is on the same page for any major emergency type situation. We also train with the city police department, the Department of Public Safety and the Sheriff’s Department.

It seems that the state’s focus is on preparedness – which includes prevention, I hope.

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Posted on May 26th, 2008 by Deborah J Thomas
Filed under: Administrators, Building safety, High School, K-6, News, Parents, People Involved, School Grade Level, School Safety Issues, Security, Shootings, Students, Violence