Federal Efforts to Protect Our Schools: 77,400 Voices Heard and Viable Plans Presented to Congress – Now it is Time for Action!
On May 17, 2007, there was a Full Hearing of the Committee on Homeland Security House of Representatives on Protecting Our Schools: Federal Efforts to Strengthen Community Preparedness and Response. The 89-page recording of that hearing and its numerous testimonials can be found in a downloadable PDF version at http://www.crisisprepconsulting.com/Resources___Downloads.php under the LINKS heading. It certainly is an interesting missive as with the verbatim transcriptions of testimonies, it reads more like a story versus a staunch government report.
As illustrated in the graph below (which was taken from page 17 of the hearing report), from 2000 to April 2007, US National Threat Assessment Center (in conjunction with the US Secret Service) has provided briefings and training on the Safe School Initiative (SSI) at 339 different sessions to over 77,400 people. The attendees have included educators, school administrators, school resource officers, other law enforcement, and community representatives. These information-sharing seminars have occurred throughout the United States and internationally was well.
Each time there is a school shooting that results in multiple fatalities, there is a national media frenzy and subsequent push to immediately convene professionals and to try to learn what can be done to lessen the likelihood of a future attack on a school. That’s all well and good, but been there, done that. 77,400 people, many of them being educators, law enforcement and even the nation’s top school security expert, Kenneth Trump, contributed to the aforementioned hearing. Read the 89-page missive of that event and you’ll find a roadmap for strategies to increase school safety. The discussions have been held and now it is time to move from appreciating the problem to government funding to implement the blueprint to increase school safety.
