School Security Leadership: Does Your Superintendent and School Board Really Know What’s Happening in Their District?
Omaha’s electric shock glove controversy exposes a bigger school safety leadership problem. Here’s a question every superintendent and school board member should be asking: Do you really know what’s happening in your schools when it comes to safety, security, policing, and emergency preparedness? Not every operational detail. But enough to provide meaningful leadership, oversight, and […]
Electric Shock Gloves for School Resource Officers? Why Schools Should Think Twice
School resource officers in Omaha, Nebraska, are carrying a new use-of-force tool: gloves that deliver an electrical stimulus through direct skin contact to produce pain compliance or interfere with coordinated movement. (Omaha Police Department Use-of-Force Policy) School safety researcher David Riedman highlighted the Omaha school deployment in his Riedman Report, drawing attention to the fact […]
Should School Resource Officers (SROs) store high-powered weapons in schools?
Given today’s active shooters may very well come heavily armed, and perhaps better equipped, than the typical school-based police officer who may encounter them in a school hallway, some local law enforcement agencies are looking at leveling the playing field. Aim for transparency When police departments propose storing in schools some higher-powered weapons than the […]
Simultaneous active shooter drills test school, police preparedness
Many school crisis plans are on paper and sitting on shelves. Some schools and police conduct tabletop exercises to take plans closer to reality. Last Friday, schools and police in the Greater Cleveland area put their plans to the full blown test in simultaneous active shooter drills in multiple suburban communities. The Brecksville-Broadview Heights School District, Brecksville and […]
Fear mongering article? America’s real school-safety problem
Good theory, perhaps, but clueless in understanding School Resource Officers (SROs), school security, and so-called “zero tolerance.” This is my take on America’s real school-safety problem, an article posted Sunday on salon.com. The article is mostly a Q&A with Aaron Kupchick, author of “Homeroom Security: School Discipline in an Age of Fear.” He spent two years researching “zero […]
Law Enforcement and Educators Partner to Sustain S.C. School Safety
Yesterday I shared how the South Carolina U.S. Attorney’s Office has taken a leadership role in promoting school safety annually for the past 19 years. Kevin McDonald, the Acting U.S. Attorney and First Assistant U.S. Attorney in that office, shares his perspective on the importance of federal, state, and local partnerships not only in putting together statewide training each […]