Blunt’s Homeland Security
Advisory Council Catalyst for School Safety
JEFFERSON CITY, September 28, 2006-Gov. Matt Bunt’s
Homeland Security Advisory Council is placing great emphasis on ensuring
Missouri has a seamless, consistent approach to school safety by establishing
a formal working group to address the issue in Missouri.
“State government has an obligation to ensure
that we have the best plans available for our schools, especially
if ever faced with a situation like the incident in Colorado yesterday
where a gunman took six hostages at a high school,” said Mark
James, Director of Missouri Department of Public Safety. “We
need to ensure that schools are engaged with public safety officials
in every community, and that everyone in the school system is on board
with preparedness plans.”
The Missouri Homeland Security Safe Schools Working
Group is organized and already working on such issues as evaluating
an all-hazards planning tool that can be used by all schools in Missouri,
including public, private, and parochial schools. This tool is already
available to all schools in Missouri to address school health safety
issues, through a Missouri Department of
Health and Senior Services (DHSS)/Missouri School Board Association
(MSBA)
initiative, and the working group is examining the possibility of
using Homeland Security grant money to expand the use of this tool
to include preparation for a terrorist attack or a hostage taking
situation.
James stressed that these plans need to be updated regularly,
and everyone from teachers to first responders need to periodically
review theses plans to ensure Missouri has the safest schools possible.
The Working Group, which is co-chaired by Missouri’s
Homeland Security Coordinator Paul Fennewald and the Department of
Elementary and Secondary Education’s Director of School Governance
Tom Quinn, is working closely with DHSS, MSBA, the Missouri Center
for Safe Schools, and numerous other state and education related professional
organizations to address other school safety issues, including pandemic
influenza planning.
In addition to Missouri’s Office of Homeland Security
and the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE), other
agencies invited to participate in the Safe Schools Working Group
include the Missouri School Board Association, Missouri Center for
Safe Schools, DHSS, State Emergency Management Agency, Missouri Resource
Officers Association,
Association for Education of Young Children in Missouri, Missouri
Federation of Teachers and School Related Personnel, Center for Innovations
in Education, Missouri National Education Association, Missouri Association
of Elementary School Principals, Missouri Association of Rural Education,
Missouri School Counselor Association, Missouri Association of School
Administrators, Missouri State Teachers Association, Missouri Association
of School Nurses, Missouri Council of Administrators of Special Education,
Missouri Association of Secondary School Principals, Missouri Department
of Mental Health, Missouri Fire Marshals Office, and the Cole County
Sheriff’s Office.