Tuesday, February 5, 2013
SERIES ON SCHOOL SAFETY ISSUES: A police-led committee of the area's long-standing Safe Schools Partnership will offer training to area school teams, including Rockwood School District.
On the heels of more shooting tragedies across the United States are conversations about how to better prepare school staffs and teachers for active shooter situations and intruders, in general. Perhaps not all school teams are ready to arm their staffs with weapons for protection on school premises, however a St. Louis metropolitan group of police are getting requests for other types of training. Fenton Police Precinct Commander Capt. Jeff Bader co-chairs a training committee of the Safe Schools Partnership of St. Louis County, which is a group launched during the 1998-1999 school year to facilitate collaboration between the county police department, area police departments, school districts, and other concerned agencies, with the sole …
Friday, February 1, 2013
Law enforcement and school district officials shared area crises plans at a Safe Schools Partnership meeting Thursday. Police-led training could be provided to teachers and administrators.
St. Louis area police and school administrators are taking security measures in schools to the next level, even to the point of perhaps conducting training for teachers about how to disarm intruders and negotiate with shooters who invade schools. St. Louis County Police Department officers and members of the Safe Schools Partnership met Thursday morning at the Rockwood School District Administrative Annex in Eureka to continue discussions about how to bolster future safety in schools. St. Louis County Police Chief Tim Fitch said police teams are offering to survey the crises and emergency plans for the corresponding schools they service, especially to ensure everyone involved is operating from the same premises. "This meeting was about …
While the Cooperating School Districts leader says school security plans are not a "one size fits all" proposition, he is advocating for some baseline changes. But those do not include arming educators with weapons.
One of the very engaged attendees at Thursday's Safe Schools Partnership meeting hosted by Rockwood School District in Eureka was Don Senti, executive director of the Cooperating School Districts (CSD). He said superintendents who are CSD members are opposed to arming school staffers to provide security for school children. But could bond issues or new taxes designated to take care of new safety measures be in the future? "Providing security for our most precious resource should be in the capable hands of those professionals who are trained in the use of fire arms, and more importantly, who know when to use them," Senti said. "Therefore, we feel that neither volunteers or armed educators are an appropriate solution to this national problem…
Thursday, December 20, 2012
In the aftermath of Friday's shooting massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, CT, Rockwood School District officials are rethinking current safety plans at the district's school buildings. But guns in the hands of teachers is not one so far.
Rockwood School District's assistant superintendent for administrative services, Dennis Griffith, said Rockwood was not one of the stated school districts interested in arming school personnel with guns during Thursday's meeting of St. Louis County Police and Safe Schools Partners. Based on 22,568 students enrolled, Rockwood ranks as Missouri's third largest school district, according to the latest Department of Elementary and Secondary Education data available. St. Louis County Police Department Chief Tim Fitch attracted national headlines earlier this week when he put forward the idea of arming school officials as a way of deterring future mass shootings. "There are other remedies we might discuss before that would become a serious topic…
However, law enforcement and school district officials said a meeting of the Safe Schools Partnership Program Thursday morning produced meaningful discussions on other ways to prevent a repeat of the tragic school shooting in Connecticut last week.
Law enforcement and school district officials said a meeting of the Safe Schools Partnership program Thursday morning produced meaningful discussions about ways the two groups can work together to improve safety at St. Louis-area schools in the wake of last week’s tragic shooting in Newtown, Connecticut. “It was a very frank and open conversation between law enforcement and school officials about what can we do, what else can we do,” St. Louis County Police Department Chief Tim Fitch said in an interview with Patch after the meeting, which involved police departments and school districts from across the St. Louis area. Fitch made national headlines earlier this week when he put forward the idea of arming school officials as a way of …
Monday, December 17, 2012
Area firearms instructor says it's time to allow any qualified concealed carry weapon licensee who works at schools to have guns available, because the government's decision for schools to be gun-free zones advertises their vulnerability.
Friday's mass shooting in a Newtown, CT, elementary school prompted many discussions this weekend regarding whether school staffs now should be allowed to carry a concealed weapon (CCW). Greg and Loni Pugh teach firearms handling and safety every day from their privately owned and operated business called St. Louis CCW. Their facility and shooting range is located near Lonedell, about 39 miles west of Eureka. "I believe we saw the answer on Friday. They give people who are intent to do harm a government guarantee that they will be the only ones with a gun in our schools," said Greg. "Then government officials pretend to be surprised when things like this happen. Government representatives need to stand up and say from this day forward, CCW…
Matt Frey
1:07 pm on Friday, February 1, 2013
Heartland Ninjutsu, located in Immaculate Conception Parish Hall, in Maplewood is still offering a free month of active shooter and disarmament training for teachers and administrators. @Stephanie: We'll extend the offer to you too. We teach very practical self-protection skills, including disarms. My partner and I both work in security and he's also an ex-cop. We've used this stuff. We know what… more ›