The Arkansas School Safety Commission, established earlier this year to develop recommendations for improving school safety and security, will listen to ideas from the general public beginning at 9 a.m. May 30 at the University of Arkansas System's Criminal Justice Institute, 26 Corporate Hill Drive, Little Rock.
The deadline, however, for members of the public to register to address the commission of educators, law enforcement professionals and mental health providers is at 4:30 p.m. today. That registration can be done through the School Safety Commission link on the Arkansas Department of Education's website: www.arkansased.gov.
Although the commission has visited school campuses and has heard presentations by organizations and invited speakers in recent weeks, the May 30 event is the first and probably only opportunity for the general public to address the commission before the commission must submit its preliminary recommendations to the governor by July 1.
The 18-member commission was appointed by Gov. Asa Hutchinson on March 1 in the aftermath of the Feb. 14 shooting deaths of 17 students and staff by an armed intruder at a Parkland, Fla., high school.
On Monday, Michele Linch, executive director of the Arkansas State Teachers Association and one of the latest of the invited presenters, told the commission that, more than concerns about guns, teachers are concerned about acquiring adequate mental health services for their students.
"Some of my most capable leaders are struggling," she said about school and district leaders and their responses to teachers who seek help with student misbehavior.
Teachers are sometimes told to show greater care for a troubled child or "to love on them more," Linch said.
"But some children need professional intervention," she said, and added that the situation becomes even graver when a disruptive student or one who hurts others is receiving special education services. Federal law places restrictions on removing those students from their educational programs.
As a result, Linch said, there are cases where teachers who have asked for help end up defending themselves against the students. Then those teachers are reported to the state for violating professional ethics, putting their state licenses and their jobs in jeopardy.
The mental health and prevention programs subcommittee is one of the commission's six subcommittees gathering information on topics such as state law, communication systems, school safety audits, and physical security.
Lori Poston, a licensed social worker in Jonesboro and chairman of the mental health subcommittee, reported that her group has identified threat assessment systems that are used in states such as Virginia and Ohio to identify students who need special intervention services. Similarly, the committee is looking at school climate surveys that can be used to pinpoint brewing problems among students and staff. Arkansas can draw from the surveys and threat assessments to craft its own systems, she said.
The subcommittee will continue to seek ways to provide mental health services to all who need them, Poston told the other commission members.
"You all are charged with the aftereffects -- what happens after," she said about campus violence. "We just don't want anything to happen. We want to prevent situations in our schools."
Others invited to present Monday were Phil Blaylock, a member of the Morrilton Police Department who has won a national award for his work as an 11-year school resource officer in the Morrilton School District, and Danyell Cummings, director of testing and evaluation for the Little Rock School District. Cummings described how the Little Rock district annually surveys its parents, students and teachers about their views on school and district operations, including safety.
Metro on 05/15/2018