Wyoming School Safety Issues: Part 4 – Response, Planning and Training

by Tom Rose

The final subcommittee for the Wyoming School Safety and Security Task force is the Response, Planning and Training Subcommittee. An overview of the findings of this task force can be found in the first blog of this series and we've respectively covered the first subcommittee on School Resource Officers (SROs) and the second on Facilities Analysis. The full task force report can be found online through the Wyoming Department of Homeland Security at: http://wyohomelandsecurity.state.wy.us/documents/schoolsafetyandtaskforcereport.pdf

The brief of this subcommittee was to "…develop a comprehensive crisis management training program for district staff".

It should be noted that while all three subcommittees were chaired by law enforcement representatives, the recommendations of this task force subcommittee in particular appear to recommend solely programs that are under the command and control of law enforcement agencies and personnel.

The recommendations focus on "crisis management" training and Introduction to Incident Command Systems (ICS) for all schools. These courses would be taught through law enforcement academies and would be mandated for school staff. The specific course recommendations include: "Screening of Persons by Observational Techniques & Behavioral Indicators of Aggressive Behavior in K-12 Ages, and a 32-hour course in Mental Health First Aid." Chilling for readers concerned with juvenile rights is the profound absence of any advocate for the juveniles, the lack of child psychologists or even behavioral scientists on these "train the trainer" teams.

This subcommittee made a statutory recommendation to: "Expand W.S. 35-9-505 – which pertains to school fire drills – to incorporate provisions for lockout drills, lockdown drills, weather-related drills, and one offsite evacuation drill per year in each district." If this phrasing isn't enough to give you pause, recognize that these "drills" are being conducted all over the country in high schools, middle schools and elementary schools under the general term "antiterrorism drills".

For more on these antiterrorism drills see the following links:

http://mrconservative.com/2013/05/15332-hs-drill-parent-gun-owners-terrorists/

http://www.policestateusa.com/2013/swat-team-performs-realistic-hijacking-drill-on-school-bus-filled-with-children/

http://www.examiner.com/article/monthly-terror-drills-now-required-by-law-for-kindergarteners-1st-graders

http://www.infowars.com/kids-all-over-america-are-being-put-on-buses-and-sent-to-alternate-locations-during-school-terror-drills/

There are many stories of "school shooter" drills and their negative impact on children and their families. A quick search on "school active shooter drill" will reveal many different videos including interviews with students and families and a profound lack of apology from the police conducting these drills. This video is far less inflammatory than many: 

By the way, an "offsite evacuation drill" means that your child will be loaded onto a bus and relocated to a designated "safe" facility in the midst of an active shooter or hostage drill entirely without parental consent or oversight by any mental health professional to ensure that these children are not traumatized by these "necessary" drills.

Let's close with a quote from the Wyoming School Safety and Security Task Force report: "The most important steps a school can take in preventing school violence involves promoting a positive school climate and culture, teaching and modeling pro-social behaviors and providing effective intervention when anti-social behaviors occur or when individual students demonstrate a propensity for violence"

If you have read this series of blogs considering the overall recommendations of the task force, the findings of the SRO subcommittee, the Facilities Analysis Subcommittee and this blog on the Response, Planning and Training Subcommittee you should be well informed. By reviewing the whole report you can check for yourself. Nowhere in this report are there any measures whatsoever that would promote a positive school climate and culture, teach and model pro-social behaviors or provide effective intervention for anti-social behaviors.

Let's be honest. What following the recommendations of this report will bring Wyoming is an increased criminalization of our children, a promotion of lock-and-bar facilities that are supposed to be educational and an active promotion of "antiterrorism" drills that claim to be designed to "prevent" school shooter incidents and other tragedies with no thought to the potential damage that the drills themselves may cause for participating children or anxious parents. Without asking the permission of the parents affected, Wyoming is proposing to actively expose Wyoming children to violence and these recommendations are being shoved into place under the guise of creating "safer schools" for our vulnerable youth.