On the campaign trail Saturday, I had the opportunity to visit with my son’s former school bus driver and “catch up” a bit from years gone by. Another friend talked with me about school safety. High profile school shootings, like the one at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, raise all our concerns and can make us nostalgic for a time when we didn’t worry about such things.
The good news is that according to the U.S. Department of Education, the data suggest that school crime rates have dropped nationwide since the early 1990s and student victimization declined by 70% from 1992 to 2013. That’s encouraging to read but as parents, and grandparents, does not alleviate our concerns. We must continue working to understand and prevent these mass shooter events and do so in the most collaborative and cooperative ways possible.
After a series of school shootings in the 1990s all sworn personnel in the Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) began to receive and participate in training exercises to address these events and review after action reports from the jurisdictions where these events happened. As the agent in charge of the GBI’s Training Unit during this period part of my responsibilities were to facilitate and participate in these trainings. I continue to receive updated active shooter training and updates through my professional affiliations with the Peace Officers Association of Georgia and FBI National Academy Associates. The training now includes responses to large businesses and corporate facilities.
We must continue working to understand and prevent these mass shooter events and do so in the most collaborative and cooperative ways possible.
Cooperation is the backbone for any law enforcement response to an active crime. In making our schools safe for our children I can assure our citizens that I will continue to work with our schools and the Bryan County Board of Education towards this end. If an event of this nature were to occur here, or in any other law enforcement jurisdiction, the response would be multi-jurisdictional, as it should be. This necessitates planning and training with all likely responders, i.e. school personnel, all law enforcement and emergency response agencies in Bryan County, and our partners in the Georgia State Patrol, Georgia Bureau of Investigation, Georgia Department of Natural Resources, Department of Corrections personnel, etc. These preparations and training events must become routine; response skills are perishable, personnel changes occur, and best practices continue to evolve.
Safety and security technology is just one tool in a comprehensive approach. These resources, however, can never replace the human element of creating and maintaining safe and healthy learning environments. More than ever it is important that law enforcement and educators become full partners in building these safe and positive learning environments. I will never become complacent because of a national statistic. Our children are our most important resource.
At your service,
Mike Fordham