In Wisconsin, the Madison School Board passed a contract to keep police officers in the district’s four main high schools. Local community activists want all officers removed from the schools. But the school board believes that it would be irresponsible to completely eliminate the school resource officer program.
In Kentucky, the School Safety and Resiliency Act, known as Senate Bill 1 during the past legislative session, will require every school to have intercoms, cameras and automatic locking doors at their main entrances, and locks on all their classroom doors by July 2022.
In California, a Marin County Civil Grand Jury report released late last month found that having just one school resource officer for the county is insufficient. The Report calls for the sheriff’s office to assign two more full-time school resource officers. The Report concludes that “School resource officers promote strong collaborative relationships between schools and law enforcement that … yields substantial benefits to students, schools, and their communities.”
In Iowa, the Iowa City School Safety Advisory Committee is recommending the creation of threat-assessment teams at secondary campuses. Each team, made up of school-employed mental health professionals, school administrators, and law enforcement, would meet regularly to address issues like school shootings, self-harm and suicide by students, threats of violence, and professional development training for school officials.