Officials discuss safety measures in light of school shootings
Published Wednesday, February 20, 2008
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Stumble It!In April 2006, six North Pole Middle School students were arrested on suspicion of a plot to kill classmates and teachers.
Police were able to foil the plot after a parent was tipped off, but the fact that such a plan came within days of occurring put borough officials, school administrators and local law enforcement on alert that such an attack could occur even here in Alaska.
At Tuesday’s monthly meeting, Fairbank’s advisory Public Safety Commission addressed the issue of school violence and what can be done to prevent it in the North Star Borough School District.
Former District Attorney Harry Davis said that it was more a matter of when, not if, a borough school “massacre” similar to last week’s shooting at Northern Illinois University would happen.
“Until we address this issue, it’s going to happen one day,” he said. “We’ve seen it happen around the country.”
District officials said they have plans in place if a shooter were to enter a school, such as going into lockdown mode and radioing for help.
Davis, however, questioned if that was enough, and suggested metal detectors and a guard at major entryways to dissuade a potential shooter.
“Physical security is one method and can have some impact, but it’s not the major technique to employ,” said Fairbanks Deputy Police Chief Brad Johnson, who pointed out that the North Pole plot was broken up when more people became aware of it, and not by force.
Assistant Superintendent Wayne Gerke said the district learned a lot from that incident, and has sought to improve communication with students since then.
In addition, they are more willing to contact law enforcement even for rumors of violence, and have done more to help at risk kids who might be more prone to violence.
The district also will host an “active shooter exercise” in July to see how staff, students and police would react in the event of a real life shooting at one of the schools.
One option to improve security would be to assign police officers to Fairbanks area schools. Anchorage Chief of Police Robert Heun and Carol Comeau, superintendent of Anchorage schools, were on hand at the meeting to detail how the School Resource Officer Program has made Anchorage classrooms safer.
The 16 officers are police department employees, but have offices on campus and spend at least three-quarters of their time on school grounds.
Comeau said students and staff were at first skeptical of the officers when the program started in 2003, but have grown to embrace them. The officers have made strides in breaking through the “code of silence” among students to find out about incidents that might have otherwise gone unreported.
“You couldn’t get them out of there now,” she said. “People really see them as part of the school staff in a positive way.”
The Public Safety Commission’s next meeting is scheduled for March 11.
Community Discussion
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In Alaska, every adult is allowed to carry concealed. The students should have to wonder if force would be met quickly with force. Too many of them believe they can get away with crazy things like that. So I suggest a very public firearms instruction program for teachers and administrators. Most won't have guns, but the students will always have to factor that into their thinking if they want to hurt others. The program should be administered by the police as part of a Citizens On Patrol training program.
Comeau has been a disaster for the Anchorage School District. She spends money like a drunken sailor, (more than $10,000/student-year) and spends too much of the students' time teaching them the finer points of Wicca and how to put condoms on fruits and vegetables. Anything but the 3 Rs. Homeschoolers get much higher scored, on about $3500/student-year. So far, the school district has resisted the idea of sending study materials home so the parents can help teach their own kids. It is time for a major change, beginning with her.
I'm not sure about the situation in Anchorage but I do know that the idea of sending my child into the midst of all that is frankly scary. I'm the parent of a 5yr old who will be starting school for the first time this year. I have major reservations about our public schools because of this. I don't blame the teachers, to be honest it's such a complicated issue you can't really blame anyone. I just know that as a parent I, not anyone else, I am fully responsible for what my child does. I mean, children literally don't know anything until an adult teaches them. The question then becomes, where did they learn their behaviour and how can we as a society fix it so that they KNOW right from wrong? But I know that begs the question, who's version of right and wrong....
There is a serious need for change in the way discipline is handled in our schools. Its no wonder these shootings are happening. There is no one set of rules that the school follows and I know this because my daughter was told by another student that she deserved to die because she knew him. The school did nothing. Yet they give my son a one class suspension for unplugging a computer. There is something wrong and it is going to happen here sooner or later because the schools don't do anything to protect our kids. I am not finished with my complaint and I strongly encourage every parent to report and demand results when it comes to the safety of what we hold most precious. If the schools won't protect our kids then we need to do some major house cleaning. I think a few letters to our Governor may just do the trick. She has been doing one hell of a job weeding out those who are no longer productive.
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