How Safe Are Our Kids at School?

Friday's lockdown at Bloomingdale High School only added fuel to the blazing questions surrounding the safety of students at school.

On the morning of Dec. 14, Bloomingdale High was placed on lockdown after a parent reported seeing a student carrying a gun.

"It turned out the student was part of an ROTC exercise, and the gun wasn't real," said School District of Hillsborough County spokeswoman Linda Cobbe.

However, the parent's caution was understandable in light of the shooting at Sandy Hooks Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., earlier that morning. According to our sister news site, the gunman used a high-powered rifle to shoot 28 people including 20 children.

While Hillsborough County has avoided the horror of a school shooting, school safety, nevertheless, has been a major focus of the Hillsborough County School District over the last several months following the drowning death of Rodgers Middle School student Jennifer Caballero Oct. 22.

While being supervised with 20 other children by a teacher and five aides, the 11-year-old girl with Down syndrome somehow managed to leave the school gymnasium, climb a fence and fall into a nearby pond where her body was found hours later.

Shortly after the drowning, an attorney for the parents of 7-year-old Sessums Elementary School student Bella Herrera announced that they were suing the Hillsborough County School District for failure to prevent her death.

Bella Herrera, who had muscular dystrophy, died in January after she was found choking while riding on a Hillsborough County school bus.

The two deaths prompted the Hillsborough County School Board to form a task force to look into concerns regarding the care of special-needs students.

At the regularly scheduled board meeting Dec. 11, the school board agreed to hold a three-hour workshop on the special needs program in January.

A work group commissioned by Superintendent MaryEllen Elia, issued an 88 page report this week recommending changes in training, staffing and communication.

Elia said, in the wake of Bella Herrera's death, bus drivers already are getting extra training.

Now today's shooting has parents wondering about the security of the schools their children attend as well.

In a 2010 school survey on Crime, Violence, Discipline and
Safety in U.S. Public Schools, the Institution of Education Science reported the following findings:

• During the 2009–10 school year, the rate of violent incidents per 1,000 students was higher in middle schools (40 incidents) than in primary schools or high schools (21 incidents each).

• Some 46 percent of schools reported at least one student threat of physical attack without a weapon while 8 percent of schools reported a threat with a weapon.

• Some 25 percent of schools reported at least one incident of the distribution, possession or use of illegal drugs, a higher percentage than that of the distribution, possession or use of alcohol (14 percent of schools) or prescription drugs (12 percent of schools).

• Some 10 percent of city schools reported at least one gang-related crime, a higher percentage than that reported by suburban (5 percent), town (4 percent) or rural schools (2 percent).

• A higher percentage of middle schools reported that student bullying occurred at school daily or at least once a week (39 percent) than did high schools or primary schools (20 percent each).

• A lower percentage of schools with 50 percent or less white student enrollment reported that cyberbullying among students occurred daily or at least once a week (5 percent) than did schools with higher percentages of white student enrollment (7 to 13 percent).

• For students involved in the use or possession of a weapon other than a firearm or explosive device at school, 40 percent of students received out-of-school suspensions lasting five or more days, 36 percent of students received other disciplinary actions (e.g., suspensions for less than five days, detention, etc.), 19 percent of students received transfers to specialized schools and 6 percent of students received removals with no continuing services for at least the remainder of the school year.

• A higher percentage of schools with 1,000 or more students involved students in resolving student conduct problems as a component of violence prevention programs (60 percent) than did schools with lower enrollments (39 to 49 percent).

• Some 41 percent of schools reported having a written plan for the U.S. national threat level being changed to red (severe risk of terrorist attack) by the Department of Homeland Security, compared to 95 percent of schools that reported having a written plan for natural disasters and 94 percent of schools that reported having a written plan for bomb threats or incidents.

• A higher percentage of suburban schools drilled students on a written plan describing procedures to be performed during a shooting (58 percent) than did city schools or rural schools (49 and 48 percent, respectively). The percentage of town schools (53 percent) that drilled students on this type of plan was not measurably different from the percentage of suburban schools.

• Among the factors that were reported to limit schools’ efforts to reduce or prevent crime “in a major way,” three were more likely to be reported than others: inadequate funds (25 percent); a lack of or inadequate alternative placements or programs for disruptive students (21 percent); and federal, state or district policies on disciplining special education students (16 percent).

What are your thoughts? Are we doing enough to protect our kids at school?  Let us know your opinion in the "Comments" section.