MERRILLVILLE | More than 10 years after Columbine, safety experts continue to talk about the importance of securing school buildings.
National safety and security expert Ken Trump said incidents have occurred across the country.
Trump pointed to an August incident in San Mateo, Calif., where a teen armed with a sword, a chainsaw and eight pipe bombs strapped to his body walked into a high school, forcing the evacuation of more than 1,200 students and teachers. No one was injured.
In November, a former student Pine Plain, N.Y., held a teacher hostage for two hours before taken into custody. No one was injured.
In late 2004, a 15-year-old boy slashed five classmates and injured two others with a machete and a tree saw in his freshman Spanish class at Valparaiso High School. Trump said he served as a consultant in that case.
Trump, who spoke this week at the Northwest Indiana Public School Study Council's Security/Safety Conference at the Chateau in Merrillville, said leadership's role in school security is key.
"Many of the things that you need to do, take more time than money," Trump said. "Are you doing in practice what you say you're doing in policy? I know of two districts who are just now developing safety teams."
Trump said there have been superintendents who have signed off on policies that need to be updated, meanwhile, no security policy is in place.
"Some superintendents are very proud of the 300-page plan they have but don't really know what it says. Nor do they know if the content is appropriate. If a district has an issue that occurs, it will not matter how good the plan was or your history of academic excellence. All of that becomes irrelevant," Trump said.
Gary Green, director of the Office of Student Services at the Department of Education, and David Woodward, program coordinator of the Indiana School Safety Specialist Academy, said Indiana requires that all schools have a school plan and designate a school safety specialist.
Green said they began the process last year of going around the state and reviewing those plans. He said they won't get to every plan each year. In Lake and Porter counties, they have visited Crown Point.
Lake County Prosecutor Bernard Carter, who said he has offered himself and his 61 deputy prosecutors to visit classrooms to talk to students, said he understands the problems schools face with disruptive children and neglectful parents.
"When I've gone into the schools and talked to teachers, I understand why some of them say they're ready to retire," he said. "You can understand why some kids have problems when you meet the parents."
Deputy Prosecutor Peter Villarreal said that when children reach 18, they are sent to adult court, and that they will face jail time for some of the infractions they commit.
Lake County Juvenile Court Judge Mary Beth Bonaventura said juvenile problems are a societal issue.
In 2009, she said there were 3,723 charges against juveniles in Lake County. She said the average age in both Lake and Porter counties of juveniles who were involved in the legal system was 17.
She said the bulk of referrals came from Hammond in 2008 and 2009.
In 2009, both counties had significant cases of juveniles who were involved in drugs- and alcohol-related cases.
Bonaventura also told educators the court system has the power to mandate that parents attend counseling or other programs if their children are involved in the system.
State Rep. Linda Lawson and House Bill 1193
State Rep. Linda Lawson has proposed a bill that would create a system of accountability to keep Indiana students safer.
House Bill 1193 addresses the roles of school resource officers, educators, mental health professionals, social workers and others who regularly interact with students from kindergarten through high school.
The bill would create a group that would be staffed and administered by Indiana's Criminal Justice Institute. The group would be required to make recommendations concerning school safety.
"Today's kids' experiences at school are far different from those of their parents," Lawson said in a news release. "I wanted to address that times are changing, and our kids are being exposed to things that we hadn’t anticipated."
In addition to the creation of the group, HB 1193 also would give Indiana's school corporations, law enforcement training boards and the Department of Education more responsibility in the training and regulation of school resource officers as well as detailed record-keeping on school security matters.
