By Annelise Hanshaw
But statewide safety improvements for schools didn’t garner much traction during the legislative session that ended in May, with most proposals dying without ever making it to the full House or Senate for debate.
(Photo- Rows of flowers and candles in front of Central Visual and Performing Arts High School in St. Louis, following the shooting on Oct. 24, 2022 that left two dead and several others wounded- Rebecca Rivas/Missouri Independent).
Action has largely come through the budget, with lawmakers approving recommendations from the governor’s office giving school districts access to grant money for physical security upgrades and emergency supplies. The state funded a new app for school lockdowns for all districts to access.
The result is a few changes for the 2023-2024 school year, likely at levels unnoticeable to students.
In May, Gov. Mike Parson announced that funding was available for school districts to sign up for a mobile application to assist in emergencies. The app, Raptor Alert, will allow school staff to silently trigger alarms and communicate with emergency responders.
Missouri school districts are being trained on the software, and those who signed up prior to the end of June should have the technology ready before the school year begins.
“We want all students across Missouri to have the opportunity to learn in safe and secure schools,” Parson said at the time. “That’s why our administration included funding for this school safety app.”
Parson set aside $20 million in school safety grants in his 2023 early supplemental budget request, which legislators approved. Almost 170 districts claimed a portion of the funds, with grants ranging from $7,100 to $450,000.
Northwest R-1 School District in Jefferson County, the recipient of the $450,000 grant, is using the money to install a surveillance system throughout its elementary schools, Mark Janiesch, the district’s chief operating officer, told The Independent.
Janiesch said DESE decided the amount of the award to the district through a questionnaire that assessed buildings’ age and current surveillance coverage.
“This grant is going to greatly help make our schools safer and more secure,” he said. “If the state could offer grants similar to this one within future budgets, they could help ensure that more schools across the state have an opportunity to incorporate ongoing and up-to-date safety measures over the years.”
Parson plans to increase the grant fund to $50 million next year, if approved by lawmakers.
In April, a research firm hired by the state school board asked stakeholders about their priorities for the department. “Ensuring schools and classrooms remain the safest places for students and teachers” resonated most with survey participants, which included school staff and parents. Those surveyed listed funding as the top barrier to success.
Carol Hallquist, the board’s vice president, presented the data at the meeting, saying she asked the researchers to look at groups other than parents and educators that took the survey, like community leaders and staff from the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.
“No matter how they cut the data, pretty much these were the priorities for the other groups as well,” she said during the board’s June meeting.
The data will inform the board’s recommendations to lawmakers for 2024’s legislative session.
During this year’s session, lawmakers from both sides of the aisle filed 18 bills related to school safety. Some focused on school resource officers, others on mental health.
Although the topic is bipartisan, the parties took different approaches to the legislation, with Democrats filing bills to reduce children’s access to guns and Republicans looking to allow more school personnel to qualify to carry a weapon on campus as a school resource officer.
In late February, students from Central Visual and Performing Arts High School in St. Louis, who lost a classmate and a teacher in a school shooting in October, visited the State Capitol.
They held a rally, where they showed art they created to express their grief, and spoke to lawmakers.
“We, all of us, deserve more than empty promises,” then-high-school senior Bryanna Love said during the rally, as broadcast by KSDK-TV.
Just one was signed into law, a bill by Scott City Republican Sen. Holly Thompson Rehder that expands background checks to include adults taking classes in facilities with K-12 students on site. The law exempts adults that are part of a school’s average daily attendance, like high school seniors who are 18.
Action has largely come through the budget, with lawmakers approving recommendations from the governor’s office giving school districts access to grant money for physical security upgrades and emergency supplies. The state funded a new app for school lockdowns for all districts to access.
The result is a few changes for the 2023-2024 school year, likely at levels unnoticeable to students.
In May, Gov. Mike Parson announced that funding was available for school districts to sign up for a mobile application to assist in emergencies. The app, Raptor Alert, will allow school staff to silently trigger alarms and communicate with emergency responders.
Missouri school districts are being trained on the software, and those who signed up prior to the end of June should have the technology ready before the school year begins.
“We want all students across Missouri to have the opportunity to learn in safe and secure schools,” Parson said at the time. “That’s why our administration included funding for this school safety app.”
Parson set aside $20 million in school safety grants in his 2023 early supplemental budget request, which legislators approved. Almost 170 districts claimed a portion of the funds, with grants ranging from $7,100 to $450,000.
Northwest R-1 School District in Jefferson County, the recipient of the $450,000 grant, is using the money to install a surveillance system throughout its elementary schools, Mark Janiesch, the district’s chief operating officer, told The Independent.
Janiesch said DESE decided the amount of the award to the district through a questionnaire that assessed buildings’ age and current surveillance coverage.
“This grant is going to greatly help make our schools safer and more secure,” he said. “If the state could offer grants similar to this one within future budgets, they could help ensure that more schools across the state have an opportunity to incorporate ongoing and up-to-date safety measures over the years.”
Parson plans to increase the grant fund to $50 million next year, if approved by lawmakers.
In April, a research firm hired by the state school board asked stakeholders about their priorities for the department. “Ensuring schools and classrooms remain the safest places for students and teachers” resonated most with survey participants, which included school staff and parents. Those surveyed listed funding as the top barrier to success.
Carol Hallquist, the board’s vice president, presented the data at the meeting, saying she asked the researchers to look at groups other than parents and educators that took the survey, like community leaders and staff from the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.
“No matter how they cut the data, pretty much these were the priorities for the other groups as well,” she said during the board’s June meeting.
The data will inform the board’s recommendations to lawmakers for 2024’s legislative session.
During this year’s session, lawmakers from both sides of the aisle filed 18 bills related to school safety. Some focused on school resource officers, others on mental health.
Although the topic is bipartisan, the parties took different approaches to the legislation, with Democrats filing bills to reduce children’s access to guns and Republicans looking to allow more school personnel to qualify to carry a weapon on campus as a school resource officer.
In late February, students from Central Visual and Performing Arts High School in St. Louis, who lost a classmate and a teacher in a school shooting in October, visited the State Capitol.
They held a rally, where they showed art they created to express their grief, and spoke to lawmakers.
“We, all of us, deserve more than empty promises,” then-high-school senior Bryanna Love said during the rally, as broadcast by KSDK-TV.
Just one was signed into law, a bill by Scott City Republican Sen. Holly Thompson Rehder that expands background checks to include adults taking classes in facilities with K-12 students on site. The law exempts adults that are part of a school’s average daily attendance, like high school seniors who are 18.
6 comments:
What a joke. Parsons and the rest of his repulsive republican cult members should take the tour of Parkland High school, as other politicians have, to see the unaltered blood soaked hallways and classrooms caused by easy access to high caliber militarized weapons. A mass killing is statistically coming to school near you and all the pubs can come up with is more guns and arming teachers....pathetic.
Republican mindset has created the gun proliferation issues and easy access to weaponry. If only they would care as much for our kids and families as they do to their damn guns and ridiculous misapplication to the 2nd amendment, we might all feel more willing to "Love our neighbor as ourselves". It might be too late.
Here We Go Again - - The Only Solution these two previous commentors have is to Bash Republicans - Not all the Problems in the United States or Missouri is the Republicans - Nor is it the Democrats or Independents - These are Society's Issues.
I do believe that our Children Should Feel Safe and Protected at School and as Parents - We need to be Part of the Solutions - To make sure this Happens - - We need to see that our Schools are Protected and Secure - - Why not use our Tax Dollars to Support these Safety Issues - Why not Raise the Cigarette Taxes - Which Missouri's is the Lowest in the Country at $0.17 for a Carton of Cigarettes - to what some States Charge - $4.50 - Kansas Charges - $1.29 - This would give Missouri a Windfall of Tax Dollars to Pay for Security Features in our Schools - You would think this would be an Easy Solution -
The 2nd Amendment - Was the Concept of the Founding Fathers - Who felt that citizens should be able to protect themselves against the government and any other threat to their wellbeing or personal freedom. The Second Amendment granted citizens that right — giving them the ability to defend themselves and their property. So do we want to Blame the Founding Fathers - for the 2nd Amendment - Of Course Not that would be STUPID...
Maybe we should look at issues closer to Home - or should I say in the Home - - How are Parents Raising their Children - About 30 percent of America's families with children under 18 years old, amounting to 10 million households, are single-parent families. The share of American families with children living with a single parent has tripled since 1965.
Read that again - 30% of America's Children are being Raised by Single Parents - - Who Probably are Spending the Majority of their Time Working and Not Raising their Kids and are Letting - Other's Raise their Kids...
We are even so Proud of that Fact of Single Parents Raising or Trying to Raise their Kids that the US even Celebrates National Single Parent Day: March 21, 2023 - "Who thought that Mess Up".
Today's Kids are being Raised by Third Parties - Babysitters / Television / Video Games / Internet - Not by Involved Parents - And of Course a lot of Parents are wanting the Schools to Raise their Children - Again - Raising Children are the Responsibility of the Parents - Not Someone Else, Not the Government, and Not the Schools. If you are a Parent You Need to Step and Up and Start Investing Time and Effort into Raising Your Children.
Today's Children have NO Foundation or True Belief Structure - because they are Not getting that Foundation or Belief Structure from their Parents - -
And Which Party - Took Religious Beliefs - Out of the Schools - Members of the Democratic Party have been far less inclined to support school prayer than their Republican brethren, with the majority of the party strongly aligned against it - and their Buddies of the ACLU - because it might offend some parents.
Many will Scoff at having a Religious or Belief System in the Home - - but they Say - "If You Don't Believe in Something - You Will Fall for Anything", and Many of our Children's Beliefs - are Based on Other's Beliefs / Television / Video Games / Internet - Whatever is the Latest TikTok or YouTube Fad -
We need to Stop putting our Heads in the Sand - and Realize the 2nd Amendment is not going to be Removed - it has been in existence for over 230 Years.
There are People in our Society - that will always seek to Harm, Maim, or Disrupt - We must Protect Ourselves Our Families, and the Rest of Society - so I would ask all of You - If you were Confronted by Someone Threatening to Harm You or Your Children or Your Family - - Would you if given the Opportunity - Neutralize that Situation if you had a Gun - or Wait for the Police to Arrive - (Which Could take on the National Average - 10-15 Minutes inside a Town even Longer Outside or Rural Areas). I know what I would do - I would Protect my Loved Ones.
Do you get paid by the word?
It's like a bad case of recurrent explosive verbal diarrhea!
Thanks 843 for not threatening us with capital letters. I still couldn't read all of your entry, fell asleep at 3rd paragraph as I conjured up memories of my high school history teacher going full Ben Stein.......flat, mundane, and completely sleep worthy of slobber flowing out my unconscious wide open mouth as my head lay prostrate on my desk. Your entry 843, is an epic dud and symbolically is like drinking the bottom swill of a community water fountain.....now we're all sick. If I want a diagnosis, I go to a doctor, We don't need yours. Thank you and good day.
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