CHARLESTON, W.Va. Gov. Jim Justice will soon announce a statewide school safety initiative.
The plan has been under construction for the past four months, according to state Department of Homeland Security Deputy Secretary Rob Cunningham.
Cunningham told the state Board of Education last week that on May 26, two days after the mass shooting in Uvalde, Texas, that claimed the lives of 19 fourth graders and 2 teachers, the governor’s office called state Homeland Security Secretary Jim Sandy asking if there was a statewide plan in place to prevent similar shootings here. Cunningham said what they learned is there are crisis response plans in each county school system but no statewide plan. He’s been working to change that.
“The plan addresses what to do before there’s a school crisis, what to do during a school crisis and what to do after the school crisis,” Cunningham said.
Cunningham told the state BOE that everyone has the same goal–to keep schools safe–but “we don’t have all of our tools in the same bucket.”
Learning from Uvalde
The governor’s plan addresses all of the issues that have have come out of the Uvalde tragedy, Cunningham said.
“We have talked to each entity and getting buy-in and we’re going to address these failures,” he said.
Cunningham said the broad purpose of the model plan is provide guidance so that school personnel, students, parents, community members have the knowledge needed to recognize threatening behavior and report the behavior to the appropriate entity.
The plan will include 8 steps promoted by U.S. Secret Service training including:
–forming a multi-disciplinary threat assessment team
–define prohibitive and concern behaviors
–encourage the creation of a central reporting mechanism
–determine the threshold behavior for law enforcement intervention
–establish assessment processes
–develop risk management options
–create and promote a safe school culture
–conduct training with all stakeholders
Mass shooting training
Cunningham said he’s learned there’s a lot of discussion in school systems about possible mass shootings but not much training. He said that will change.
“We don’t train and drill about what to do if there’s an event, if there’s an armed event in the school. We’re going to start practicing,” Cunningham said.
The response needs to be the same in all county school systems, he said.
“The most effective way to prevent a crisis situation is to develop and adopt policies, procedures and guidelines that make the response to school shootings uniform across the state,” Cunningham said.
Currently some counties have different plans for different schools.
“That’s a nightmare for a first responder, a recipe for disaster,” Cunningham said. “We need to have all the tools in one bucket and work toward the same goal.”
Cunningham said there will also be special staffing.
“We’re going to have people, going to get people that their job is school safety. We are going to make sure that it’s a priority,” Cunningham said. “Detection and intervention can lead to prevention.”
Continuing the dialogue
State BOE President Paul Hardesty said the school board is going to take the issue seriously and continue the dialogue.
“This is not going to be a one-stop shop on this issue, check the box and go on the back burner. We are going to protect our children,” Hardesty said.
BOE member Debra Sullivan also urged Cunningham to include in the plan consideration of pressures that teachers and school staff face every day with school safety.
“I’d like to think that as we move ahead we look at the kind of pressures that principals and school staff feel every single day as they work with children,” Sullivan said.
Cunningham didn’t say when the governor would be making the school safety announcement.