Shootings alter focus as students return to school

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“Noon Edition” premiered on WFIU in September 1998 with a show heralding the beginning of the school year. The guests were the superintendents from the Monroe County Community School Corp. and the Richland-Bean Blossom School Corp., John Coomer and Steven Kain at the time.

The topics of that show centered on the ABCs of running a school corporation, from academics to athletics to transportation to food service.

School safety and security wasn’t a big topic on the show. It wasn’t known then that before the 1998-99 school year would end, 15 people would die in a mass shooting at Columbine High School in Colorado.

Twenty years later, the opening of a new school year was again the topic of “Noon Edition.” But last Friday, the entire hour was devoted to the issue of keeping students, teachers, administrators and staff members safe from violence.

The Columbine massacre elevated school shootings into the public eye. Other high-profile tragedies have followed, among them a 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut that resulted in 27 deaths; the shooting last February at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida in which 17 people were killed; and one last May that killed 10 people at a high school in Santa Fe, Texas.

Representatives from the Indiana Department of Education, the Indiana State Teachers Association and the Indiana School Boards Association stressed in the Friday interview program the need to be proactive in helping students with mental health and emotional issues before they cross the line and become violent.

Each of the three, in their own way, said while it’s important to make schools safer, it’s at least equally important to offer mental health and behavioral support to students who may feel disaffected or bullied.

“Let’s look at what do we do at the beginning,” said Julie Slavens, staff attorney for the school boards association. “Making the school building safe is needed. … How do we work on counseling, mental health and emotional issues?”

Adam Baker, press secretary at the Indiana Department of Health, said “the conversation always turns to how do we react better.” More funding and programs for mental health and behavioral support are essential.

It almost seemed as if Gov. Eric Holcomb was listening. Just as the show ended Friday afternoon, Holcomb’s office released recommendations from a school safety report. The recommendations were in three groups, starting with “enhanced mental health services.”

The narrative in the report noted: “To remain a national leader in school safety, Indiana must address gaps in areas that go beyond hardening our buildings and training to respond to incidents,” including providing more access to mental health services and better information sharing.

One of the program guests, Keith Gambill, vice president of the Indiana State Teachers Association, also staunchly advocated working to connect with students who might be headed for trouble. He also led all three guests in their opposition to arming teachers.

Gambill said “law enforcement has been pretty clear” that having more guns in the schools would make the buildings less safe. He noted that those responding to an active shooter scenario wouldn’t be able to tell the proverbial “good guy with a gun” from the “bad guy with a gun” and lead to more carnage.

The group also was in consensus that the state can provide tools to local school districts, but each district should decide how to use those tools. One example is hand-held metal detectors many schools have received and that the Monroe County Community School Corp. is still considering.

Districts are widely varied. “What’s going to work in an IPS school isn’t going to necessarily work in Salem, for instance,” Slavens said, referring to Indianapolis Public Schools.

Schools can’t become so fortified they that students don’t feel comfortable, however. And new schools built with the latest in safety equipment carry their own unintended consequence.

Students don’t want their schools identified as having all the latest safety features, Gambill said, because they feel that sets them up as a challenge for someone who might do harm.

The three were asked: Are schools prepared in terms of safety as the school year begins?

“More aware,” was Gambill’s answer. He said he hoped that students are surrounded by an atmosphere at home of “you have to tell” if students seems to a threat to themselves or others.

But, Slavens said, “There is no 100 percent guarantee.”

That’s clearly more top of mind in 2018 than it was 20 years ago.

Bob Zaltsberg is the editor of the Herald-Times in Bloomington, and is host of “Noon Edition” on WFIU. Send comments to [email protected].