The Arkansas School Safety Commission moved a step closer today toward submitting an interim report to Governor Hutchinson and mentioned a range of ideas from improving access to student behavioral data to addressing an outdated state law on school doors.
Cheryl May, commission chairwoman, reminded the panel that its interim report is due Aug. 1.
May suggested the report should include new recommendations and look back at the 30 recommendations the panel made in 2018 and determine which ones have not been achieved.
“Interestingly enough, it’s very little that hasn’t” been achieved, “which is really awesome,” said May, director of the Criminal Justice Institute of the University of Arkansas System.
The panel plans to do another statewide school security assessment and is considering questions to include in that survey.
Another commission member noted the need to address Arkansas AR Code § 12-13-109 of 2017, which requires teachers of public and private schools and all educational institutions to “keep all doors and exits unlocked during school hours.”
That goes against “everything we’re trying to do here,” the commissioner said.
Commission member Lori Poston, vice president of clinical services for the Northeast Region of Arisa Health, said a statewide mechanism to allow anonymous reporting of school threats would be especially beneficial — an idea that has gained traction in recent meetings.
May and commission member A.J. Gary, director of the Arkansas Division of Emergency Management, seemed particularly impressed with security audits performed monthly at the Bentonville School District and thought that effort might be a model for other districts.
The director of security there has “created a culture of security,” Gary said. School employees there are always on guard because they’re always expecting an audit, Gary said.
During the almost two-hour meeting, commission members not surprisingly avoided mention of a deadly mass shooting in Illinois on Monday that left seven people dead and many other people, including a high school marching band, in danger.
The committee seems to have an aversion to addressing the problem of guns, the one common factor in every single mass shooting.
Surely the Arkansas School Safety Commission could learn something from the facts of the July 4 shooting in the upscale Chicago suburb of Highland Park? Or is Arkansas going to mandate that Arkansas students never march in a parade, never score a touchdown, never swing on a playground, never leave school buildings theoretically protected by locks, cameras, bullet-resistant windows and armed officers?
Here are a few facts that the commission could have pondered but didn’t:
*The suspect in the Highland Park shooting bought his gun legally. Arkansas’s legislators love to regulate things like recreational marijuana and even the bodies of pregnant children, but not guns, never guns.
*It was an AR-15 that the Illinois suspect used to fire more than 70 rounds. That’s not the kind of gun you need to hunt deer or ducks. It is a killing machine that’s a perfect fit for a mass murderer whether he’s at a school, a church or a grocery.
*In 2013, Highland Park approved a ban on assault weapons and ammunition magazines of more than 10 rounds. But one sensible Illinois city cannot outlaw weapons of mass destruction across the state, much less across state lines. That’s up to Congress.
*It was just last month that state Sen. Joyce Elliott (D-Little Rock) reminded fellow legislators that school safety is inextricably aligned with our communities because that’s where guns and shooters come from, not Mars. Elliott’s expertise? She’s a retired teacher.
The commission did hear presentations today about available data from two men with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. The panel also heard from Hope Worsham, director of the American Rescue Plan’s Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief program in Arkansas.
Worsham said the program has already provided training to 110 leaders representing 93 buildings and 53 school districts and plans to reach out to others starting this fall. Among the program’s offerings, which seek to help with students’ behavioral and mental health, are SmartData dashboards that bring data on all students to one place, making it easier for school employees to see if a student might be starting to exhibit a pattern of behavioral problems — or even to see if a teacher is perhaps disciplining Black students more than white students.
Worsham said 70-80% of the state’s school districts have been trained to use the program. Some but not all of those use it and “have found it valuable” in identifying students with early warning signs of behavioral problems, she said. The program, which is free to districts for up to three years, includes a “risk index” that puts students’ risk levels from one to six.
The commission wants to keep adding to the duties of school superintendents, teachers, principals and counselors. But forget the pay increases that should accompany the extra work. After all, we’re just a poor state with a $1.6 billion surplus for the year. So, why help the underpaid and overworked?
