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School Safety: A Public Safety Imperative

2008 Jan 29 Posted by Charles

The latest report from the U.S. Department of Justice: Bureau of Justice Statistics highlights that there were 35 school associated violent deaths between July 2005 – June 2006 and that during this same period 78% of schools experienced one or more violent incidents of crime. School safety must be a priority in every school district, for every community and for every law enforcement agency. Pre-event contingency planning, threat analysis and safety planning should continue to be incorporated into the daily operations of our schools – from primary school through our halls of higher education. I applaud those in public safety, parents, community leaders, teachers and school administrators who continue to act as catalysts for positive movement in this area and who push for enhanced awareness and safety interventions. I definitely look forward to reviewing the next DOJ/BJS report and hope that it will show a marked decrease from prior years in school related violence.

Take care,
Charles

January 29, 2008 | Filed under: Capella, Capella University, Law enforcement, Public Safety Signals, Public safety, education, online college, online degrees, online university, police, school safety
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2 Responses to “School Safety: A Public Safety Imperative”

John Means Says:

In 2006 25% of Murder victims were under the age of 22 (school and college age., a total of over 3700. Homicide is at epidemic proportion for people in this age group. The fact that only 35 of these homicides occurred in school is a testiment to the measures in place to protect our shools.

I honestly don’t know why so much print is used on the very rare school shootings, as tragic as they are, when more of our youth are killed on the streets of our cities every weekend, and the national news hardly notices.

February 4th, 2008 at 9:51 am

Charles Says:

John, thanks for your comments. I believe that violence in all of its forms and manifestations and in all of its locales is a public safety imperative. In my view, schools should be our bastions of learning and should be safe zones; children shouldn’t fear, or be exposed to, potential violence as they attend their education. As you said, there already exists undue violence in our communities. I think that it is unfortunate that our society tolerates any degree or incident of violence – irrespective of its location. Research suggests that violence can be a learned behavior.

Today is yet another act of violence with the school shooting at N. Illinois University. Sadly, I fear that we will continue to have plenty of information to print about school violence, domestic violence, gang violence, youth violence, and murders until our country collectively takes a decisive and united stand and says -“ENOUGH”!

My thoughts and prayers go out to the families of those lost and to those injured today in Illinois.
Charles

February 14th, 2008 at 7:41 pm

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