More than $900,000 in grants have been awarded to schools in the Western District of Missouri to bolster school security – including funding to educate and train students and faculty and to support first responders who arrive on the scene of a school shooting or other violent incident.
“Our kids’ schools should be safe environments where they can focus on learning, free from threats of violence,” said U.S. Attorney Tim Garrison. “These STOP School Violence grants help provide the resources our schools need to protect students, including partnering with local law enforcement.”
Six school districts received a total of $912,288 in grants from the Department of Justice, in addition to a $999,372 grant awarded to the Missouri Department of Public Safety.
“These federal resources will help to prevent school violence and give our students the support they need to learn, grow, and thrive,’ said Attorney General William P. Barr. “By training faculty, students and first responders, and by improving school security measures, we can make schools and their communities safer.”
Recipients of grant awards in the Western District of Missouri are:
• Raytown Consolidated School District 2: $250,000 (anonymous reporting technology)
• Warsaw R-IX School District: $142,068 (school violence prevention)
• City of Breckenridge: $120,593 (school violence prevention)
• Stoutland R-II School District: $84,055 (school violence prevention)
• South Pemiscot R-V Schools: $96,663 (school violence prevention)
• Lawson R-XIV School District: $315,572 (school violence prevention)
• Missouri Department of Public Safety: $999,372 (to create or enhance state school safety centers)
Five of the school district grants fall under the COPS’ School Violence Prevention Program. This is the second year the COPS program will provide K-12, primary and secondary schools up to 75 percent funding for the following school safety measures:
• Coordination with law enforcement;
• Training for local law enforcement officers to prevent student violence against others and themselves;
• Metal detectors, locks, lighting, and other deterrent measures;
• Technology for expedited notification of local law enforcement during an emergency;
• Any other measure that the COPS Office determines may provide a significant improvement in security.
The Department of Justice announced today that more than $85.3 million in grants were awarded nationally. The STOP School Violence Act authorizes grants that are designed to improve threat assessments, train students and faculty to provide tips and leads, and prepare law enforcement officers and emergency professionals to respond to school shootings and other violent incidents.
The Bureau of Justice Assistance, within the Department’s Office of Justice Programs, and the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services manage the programs and administer the grants, which include funds to:
• Develop school threat assessment teams and pursue technological solutions to improve reporting of suspicious activity in and around schools;
• Implement or improve school safety measures, including coordination with law enforcement, as well as the use of metal detectors, locks, lighting and other deterrent measures;
• Train law enforcement to help deter student violence against others and themselves;
• Improve notification to first responders through implementation of technology that expedites emergency notifications;
• Develop and operate anonymous reporting systems to encourage safe reporting of potential school threats;
• Train school officials to intervene when mentally ill individuals threaten school safety; and
• Provide training and technical assistance to schools and other awardees in helping implement these programs.
For more details about these individual award programs, as well as listings of individual 2019 awardees, visit https://go.usa.gov/xVJuV
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