School Safety Shield: school board

The election can be boiled down to an incident that occurred yesterday.

I took my 13-year old daughter with me to the polls. I figured I would teacher her about the electoral process, something my wife and I have done since she was born.

She watched me check in, showing my ID, and i was given my ballot, and we walked over to a voting booth. There I showed her the ballot, explained straight ticket and split-ticket voting, and gave her my views on how to select candidates. I told her that, even when voting straight ticket, to look at all the candidates to know for whom you are voting. She didn't say anything, and I thought maybe I had lost her, as will happen with teens at times.

She came with me to the voting machine, and she watched me put the ballot in. All of a sudden, my daughter says, "'Murica!"

Startled, I looked at her. She grinned at me and I grinned back, knowing now that she had been listening, and that my lesson had been taken in.

School safety is a lot like voting. The duty to vote is not related to whether your candidate wins or loses. Consent of the governed means that we accept the system, and because we do, we accept the outcomes of the system.

Being a School Safety Officer is not related to whether you agree with what your Superintendent or School Board says. In the Army it was called Saluting Time. You have input up to a point, and then it's time to salute, and drive on. Our job is to stand on the Wall between chaos and order. When we take a job, we consent to all the vagaries of the job, the good and the bad.

As we left the polling place, I told my daughter to look around. No gunfire, no intimidation, no threats. A peaceful transition of power in the Greatest Nation on Earth. Win or lose for your candidate, this is still 'Murica. Land of the Free, BECAUSE of the Brave.

My daughter got it and, in doing so, she taught her daddy a lesson.

Learn it, live it, and continue to stand on that Wall.

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Tuesday, November 6, 2012

Sikhs Allowed to Carry Daggers at Calif. School

Jurupa Valley, CA
A Southern California school district is allowing some Sikh students to carry an article of their faith—a dagger-like blade called a kirpan.

At least three high school students in the Jurupa Unified School District will be allowed to wear the approximately 2-inch knives at school after their parents agreed to solder them or sew them into the sheaths so they cannot be used as weapons, Superintendent Elliott Duchon said.

The kirpan is one of five sacred articles that baptized Sikhs must wear.

"This is an issue of religious freedom and of faith," said Mary Burns, the district's longest-serving school board member. "Who am I to deny what is an article of faith of a 600-year-old religion?"
However, board member Brian Schafer argued that edged kirpans should be banned and only kirpan-shaped pendants should be permitted in school. Schafer said he planned to ask for a public school board vote on the issue.

"If I were a parent and I knew someone was wearing one of these daggers, I would worry about my child's safety and the Sikh students' safety," Schafer said.

Safe Havens, International

Friday, November 2, 2012

Williamson Schools Fight Student Violence Aimed at Teachers

Nashville, TN
With violent student episodes aimed at teachers on the rise in Williamson County, the school board is asking for hundreds of thousand of dollars to be used for immediate help.

School spokesperson Carol Birdsong told Nashville's News 2 that so far this year, "around 50 worker compensation claims have been filed" in Williamson County due to violent behavior against teachers by students.

During a recent school board meeting, two recent cases were cited when requesting the additional funding.

The first incident occurred just last week in an elementary school where a teacher went to the hospital after being struck by a radio thrown by a student.

The second cited incident occurred earlier this month when a student shattered a school window with a chair.

At the urging of schools director Mike Looney, the school board requested the $348,000 immediately from county commissioners for two new separate classrooms staffed with teachers to help special education students with behavioral issues.

The report to the school board indicates most of the incidents are at the elementary school level.

Safe Havens, International

Monday, September 3, 2012

Student Violence Against Teachers Spikes In North Carolina

Wadesboro, NC
There's a rise in the number of teachers attacked at schools in North Carolina.
Right now, a local teacher is suspended without pay after slapping a student who she says attacked her.

"I got in front of him and said you need to pull your pants up. So he pushed me and said get the ‘F’ out of my face," said Pat Frost, Anson County High School teacher.

Frost says an 18 year-old student attacked her in the hallway during summer school.

When she followed him to the parking lot to ask his name, she says he lunged at her so she smacked him. Frost says he then punched her.

The school board has suspended her without pay.

"Tell me. If it were your daughter who was pushed and cursed at in this manner... would it be ok for me to walk away because that's what the school system is saying... I should have just walked away," said Frost.

Frost’s attorney says what happened between Frost and the student at Anson High School raises bigger concerns about a growing issue - violence against teachers.

There were more than 1, 156 assaults on school personnel in North Carolina last year.
That's up almost 200 from the previous school year and almost 300 from 889 cases in 2006.

Tuesday, August 7, 2012

Warrick School Officials Promise Heightened Security after Threat of Shooting at Castle High

Boonville, IN
Warrick County School Corp. officials say there will be increased security, such as locking all outside doors except for the front entrance, in response to a threat a Castle High School student made on Facebook about bringing a weapon to school.

Monday's Warrick County School Board meeting was standing-room-only as more than 60 concerned parents and students turned out to discuss the incident.

The threat on the Castle High School student's Facebook page stated: "First day of school going to be great guys! Most of you will see me raise the weapon, but let's see how many of you can out run the bullet. Castle high here I come." The student then commented on this post, saying "The funny part is most of you take this as a joke."

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