Page 2
April 05, 2023
Considering Technology Over Trainings
States aim to
boost school
safety
AP - In the wake of an elementary
school shooting in Tennessee earlier last
week that left three 9-year-olds and three
adults dead, state legislatures across the
country are moving forward with bills
aiming to improve school safety.
The bills have been introduced in blue
and red states alike and would require
schools to install technology ranging
from panic buttons, video surveillance
and emergency communications sys-
tems. Most have bipartisan support, with
lawmakers seeing them as a way to boost
school security while avoiding political
gridlock on the hot-button issue of gun
control. But some experts say teacher
safety training is more effective and less
expensive than the new technologies,
which also can require upgrades or ongo-
ing maintenance that may not be funded.
That hasn’t stopped states from Oregon
to Missouri to Tennessee from pursuing
the systems.
“I was asked by a colleague if our
schools will have to become fortress-
es to keep our kids safe. And I told
A smartphone is held during a demonstration of the Rave Panic Button application
at the Arkansas state Capitol in Little Rock, Ark., Aug. 11, 2015. The system is
designed to enable authorities to respond to crises faster across more than 1,000
public schools in Arkansas. In the wake of a deadly elementary school shooting
in Tennessee earlier this week, state lawmakers across the country are moving
forward with school safety measures. (AP Photo/Danny Johnston, File)
them yes, if that’s what it takes. I don’t
care if we have to park a tank outside a
school,” Tennessee’s Republican House
Majority Leader William Lamberth said.
While Democratic state lawmakers have
called for tighter gun laws as a way to
stem school shootings, many are now
also supporting the school emergency
measures that have largely been touted
by Republicans. In Oregon, where Dem-
ocrats control the Legislature, a bill that
would require schools to send electronic
notifications to parents as soon as pos-
sible after a safety threat occurs passed
the state House unanimously this week.
Two Democratic lawmakers are the chief
sponsors of another bill that would re-
quire all public school classrooms to
have panic alert devices that would con-
tact law enforcement or emergency ser-
vices when activated.
If passed, the panic alert bill would
make Oregon the fourth state.“If there’s
anything we know, it’s that during an
emergency, time equals life,” said one of
the Oregon bill’s chief sponsors, Demo-
cratic state Rep. Emerson Levy.
Some school districts aren’t waiting
for legislation to implement new securi-
ty measures such as panic devices. Las
Vegas’s Clark County School District,
among the 10 largest districts nation-
wide, is now using a system involving
badges called CrisisAlert. The badges
can be worn around the neck and pressed
to call for help or trigger a schoolwide
lockdown. While one-time grants can
allow schools to purchase new technol-
ogy, they don’t always fund upkeep over
longer periods of time. Ken Trump, pres-
ident of National School Safety and Se-
curity Services, a consulting firm based
in Cleveland, Ohio, said he’s found items
like security cameras gathering dust in
boxes in some of the schools that he’s
worked with.
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