School safety law too high of a price for most of the local schools

Friday, July 12, 2013

Four days before the Sandy Hook Elementary School shootings, which killed 20 children and six adults, Sen. Pete Miller (R-Avon) spoke to the attorney general about a school safety bill for the 2013 legislature.

The now-enacted bill states that the department of homeland security would match a grant up to $50,000 if schools opted for safety equipment and technology to conduct a threat assessment or to employ a school resource officer.

Little did he know, his bill would be Senate Bill 1, which made that bill a higher priority to pass within legislature.

"It was a proactive attempt to keep both kids and teachers safe," Miller said. "It gained the importance and attention because of (Sandy Hook)."

The essence of the bill was to create a link between local law enforcement and local schools, he said.

"God forbid an incident would occur, you're not calling 911, and the superintendents have to introduce themselves," he said. "You would already have that connection."

While all four local school corporation superintendents appreciate the idea of the bill, as of right now, the majority has said they do not plan to add resource officers to their schools.

South Putnam Community Schools Superintendent Bruce Bernhardt said right now, they are weighing all their options.

Finance is one of the bigger issues, he said.

"You have to have enough money to afford that," he said. "We are a particularly small school ... we're very tight on money and when it gets to a situation of hiring a resource officer, are we willing to lay one of our teachers off to have one?"

Bernhardt said as of today, they do not plan on hiring a resource officer.

After all the school shootings last year, South Putnam Community Schools "tweaked" to make its school security better and tighter, he said.

South Putnam already has a safety officer in place. But the safety officer does not carry a gun and is not a police officer. A resource officer has to complete the training requirements for law enforcement officers and receive 40 hours of resource officer training.

Bernhardt said they may look into applying for the grant for equipment.

"We take safety really seriously," he said.

North Putnam Community School Corporation Superintendent Daniel Noel said they will not seek the grant.

"One of the things that is misunderstood a lot of the time, a lot of people think schools have money," he said. "But we don't. Somehow we make it work every year."

So far North Putnam has had the active shooter training in late June, meetings with law enforcement from Bainbridge and Roachdale as well as the Putnam Sheriff's Department, Noel said, and they are also looking into buying additional cameras.

"Once that grant runs out, you'll have to fully fund it," he said. "I wish we had the money; I wish it was fully funded."

Cloverdale Community School Corporation Superintendent Carrie Milner also said they will not be able to afford the grant, especially once the two years are up.

"It's tough to say yes -- it's a great idea," Milner said. "But what happens after the two years? Most of us can't take ... a lot of strings that we are not sure we can hold onto."

For Greencastle Community School Corporation, they are playing the waiting game to see the requirements of the grant, Superintendent Dawn Puckett said.

"If it's feasible, we want to take advantage of it, but we're waiting to know what the perimeter is," she said. "We're anxious to hear them."

If the security measures they already budgeted and are doing now count toward the grant, then "it would be easier" for them to feel comfortable to apply for the grant.

"If our current (safety) expenditures count, it would be a huge boon for us," she said. "We could possibly use the grant money for a resource officer, but it would depend if we had to spend anything extra."

But for now, they will wait before deciding anything.

Senator Miller said he understands the school corporations concerns about finance, and he can't predict what future legislature may do with the grants after a few years.

"The money doesn't have to come from school corporations -- it can also come from the county or city," he said.

He said it's an ongoing trial to gain information of what works and what doesn't. If the resource officers prove to be useful -- then it's a gain.

Miller said the grant application will not begin for a few months, and the enacted bill probably won't be in effect until early next year.

Respond to this story

Posting a comment requires free registration: