Election day school security is an issue principals, superintendents, and school board members around the country have grappled with in one form or another for more than a decade. We have seen administrators give more attention to the issue post-Columbine and post-9/11, not specifically because of Columbine and 9/11 threats per se, but as a result […]
Category Archive: Crisis – Emergency Planning for Schools
Bibb County Schools hire police captain fired from last job
The Bibb County school system hired a former small-town police chief who was fired from his last job and has a pending complaint against him with the state agency that oversees police ethics and certification, according to an October 23rd story in The Telegraph newspaper in Macon, Georgia. Ronald Rodgers, the former chief in question, […]
Bibb County Schools: No conflict in hiring consultant as police chief
The Bibb County School District’s leaders see no conflict in rehiring as its police chief the chief financial officer and senior analyst of a school safety consulting firm that just conducted a safety assessment for the district, according to local news outlets. The Georgia school district has been under fire for its handling of discipline and […]
Bibb County school crime, discipline data questioned with multiple safety reports
The Bibb County (GA) school district remains under fire as two versions of a school safety assessment consultant’s report, along with state safety incident data, bring into question the district’s accuracy and consistency in reporting fights and weapons. The Macon Telegraph on Tuesday ran a story entitled, “Bibb school fights, weapons reported tallies differ widely.” The report claims […]
Draft school safety reports jeopardize integrity of security consultants, school boards
School security consultants with strong integrity will lose some jobs here and there. But in the long haul, they will retain their integrity and their credibility, and their school district clients will likely do so as well. “Draft” school safety assessment reports can trigger questions on security consultant, school leader credibility One of my long-standing […]
Should school police have high-powered rifles in schools?
The Plainfield (IL) Police Department’s recent request to allow its School Resource Officers (SROs) to store AR-15 rifles in gun safes at their high school generated quite a buzz. (See the Chicago Tribune story entitled Assault rifles in schools a sign of the times.) But was the request really unreasonable? Actually, the request by the police is not unusual. […]
School bus drivers got security training for Republican convention
Driving a school bus is a tough job on a “normal” school day. Imagine how tough the job was for Hillsborough County Schools’ bus drivers who had to drive in the security footprint for the Republican National Convention last week in Tampa. And oh, by the way, did we mention there was also a hurricane […]