What steps can we take to improve school safety?

A man called the radio show today to say that design issues are compromising front door safety at East Vally High School near Moxee.

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Looking For Basic School Safety Measures

The facility was recently remodeled and expanded and it looks great...BUT...according to the caller, who says he has family members at the school, the building's design has created an air pressure problem that doesn't allow the front desk person to lock the main doors to the school.

He says he has spoken to the school resource officer and he plans to bring the matter to the school board meeting on June 13th.

System Reviews Make Good Sense

Making sure the doors lock as intended is a reasonable expectation for a safe school.  Every school everywhere should take steps to insure all their security systems work as designed and all staff members are up to speed on the safety protocols.

A Safety Review is simply common sense at work but common sense isn't all that common or working in some states...like California.  Since Washington is becoming California North in terms of liberal-progressive policies, we need to make sure we don't follow their lead on school safety.

Where did Common Sense Go In California?

State Senators in California have taken a step that common sense says will make schools LESS SAFE.

Two days after the murderous attack on an Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas that killed two teachers and 19 students, California’s State Senate voted to end a requirement that schools report students who commit or threaten violence in schools.

As Mark Alexander writes in the Patriot Post:

The existing law prior to the change stipulated: “Whenever any employee of a school district or county superintendent of schools is attacked, assaulted, or physically threatened by any pupil, the employee and any person under whose direction or supervision the employee is employed who has knowledge of the incident are required to promptly report the incident to specified law enforcement authorities.”  The Senate has officially repealed this requirement.

 

California Liberal Confuses Social Justice And Safety

The sponsor of the Bill is Steven Bradford of Los Angeles who says reporting such violence harms the student:

Our existing system has led to alarming disparities in the type of students who are most likely to suffer these harms. Black students, Latinx students, students of color, and students with disabilities are disproportionately referred to law enforcement, cited, and arrested.

 

Bradford's political bio shows that "in 2013, Assembly Speaker John Perez named Bradford Chair of the Assembly Select Committee on the Status of Boys and Men of Color. Under his leadership, the committee examined many institutional injustices that plague young Black, Latino, and Asian/Pacific Islander males in California, which he continues to work on in the Senate"  

So that's where this all comes from.

School To Prison Pipeline?

The idea is to shield and protect the student from the consequences of their actions because - Racism.  The threats, assaults and police contacts don't go on the student's record.  So later, when the student goes to purchase a legal firearm, there is no record of the violence or potential violence, no accurate picture of the risk that the student actually poses to the community.  Chalk it up to the good intentions but unvetted unintended consequences of the Barack Obama hope and change “PROMISE program.”

So who deserves protection?  The student assailants or the school community?

Common sense says the greater good is served by warning society and the innocent school community, at least you wouldn't think so, but then you aren't the ACLU... which says:

Once students make contact with law enforcement, they are less likely to graduate high school and more likely to wind up in jail or prison. These harms fall disproportionately on students from marginalized groups: Black, Indigenous, and Latinx students, as well as students with disabilities, are disproportionately referred to law enforcement, cited, and arrested.

 

No Settled Social Science

Here's the question my common sense (and I'll bet yours as well)  directs me to ask -- Is it possible that the student's own behavior, their environment, upbringing, personality/morals/values are what leads the student down the path ending in jail or prison and not that first intervention with law enforcement?

Bradford’s bill now comes for a vote in the State Assembly, and if it passes there, will be sent to Gov. Gavin Newsom.

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