School leaders gather to discuss better school safety practices
Finding a way to make schools safer is an issue teachers and principals have been battling everywhere since the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary.
Friday three hundred people from Michiana gathered to hear from a group of experts about how to make schools safer in the area.
One speaker, Ken Trump, has been evaluating school safety plans for more than twenty years. He says schools with unsafe practices can be corrected with time instead of money.
He encouraged the crowd to consider a few things like testing emergency exits, teaching kids how to greet strangers, and practicing unannounced lockdowns.
“We need to be focusing on the fundamentals,” says Trump. “We can't be talking about arming teachers, bullet proof back packs, and teaching kids to throw things at people that aren't intruders when we have doors that are open, crisis plans that haven’t' been drilled and schools that aren't working with their first responders.”
Interestingly Trump says the biggest problem schools have with security threats is when students let strangers into the building.
He also says it's important to educate children about guns. Studies show kids are the number one way to find out if a weapon is in the school.
Gray Television, Inc. - Copyright © 2002-2013
Designed by Gray Digital Media