Page 14 - Florida Sentinel 2-23-18

Local
Students Give Ideas On Keeping Schools Safe
(Special to the Florida Sentinel-Bulletin by Fred Hearns)
On Monday, February 19th a group of students in eastern Hillsborough County talked about how schools can be kept safe at a time when gun vio- lence is a constant threat.
The students’ recommen- dations came following the tragic February 14th shooting death of 17 people – 14 stu- dents and 3 staff members — at the Marjory Stoneham Douglas High School in Park- land, Florida.
Local law enforcement of- ficers told the students, “if you see something – say some- thing.”
Forty-five Giunta Middle
School students in Riverview and twelve deputies from the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s
Office spent Monday attend- ing the Community & Law En-
Services (CLEWS) Program. The workshop was the third of a series of seven youth workshops sponsored in 2018 by the Hillsborough County Board of County Commission- ers (BOCC), Sheriff Chad Chronister and the Hillsbor- ough County Sheriff’s Office, Superintendent Jeff Eakins and the School Board of Hillsborough County Public Schools, CEO Suzanne Mc- Cormick, of the United Way Suncoast and CEO Ernest Coney, Jr., of the CDC of
Tampa, Inc.
The students made 20
commendations that they be- lieve can prevent another shooting incident in schools:
1. Schools should have video screens in the office that can the entire campus; 2 . Schools should install high fences and gates around the campus;
3. No one under the age of 21 should be able to purchase a weapon – especially one with rapid-fire capability;
4. The more fire power a weapon has the older a gun purchaser should be;
5. Authorities should put more focus on individual peo- ple by providing domestic therapy when it is needed;
6. School personnel should crack down on bullying by making the consequences more severe for students who violate the rules;
7. People should be kinder to each other – this will help cut down on school violence;
8. Student safety begins with parents – they must spend more time talking to their children;
9. Parents should often check what’s in their chil- dren’s rooms and check their social media (Instagram) ac- counts;
10. Parents should make sure they secure their weapons at home;
11. Parents should “be there” for their children as
often as possible;
12. Schools should con-
duct random pat-downs of students on campus;
13. Schools should en- courage students to talk about what is going on in their lives;
14. Guidance counselors should spend more time get- ting to know their students and earning their trust, mak- ing students feel comfortable talking to them;
15. The school psycholo- gist should get to know the students at their schools;
16. Schools should focus on teaching students the pro- cedure in the event of gun vi- olence breaking out, and not just spend time on fire drills;
17. Authorities should re- quire some kind of psycholog- ical test done before one can purchase a firearm;
18. Schools should have qualified psychologists on stand-by to respond to schools as needed;
19. Authorities should as- sist parents by monitoring students’ social media for po- tential bullying incidents;
20. Students should dis- courage fights between their classmates that begin with something “stupid,” but can escalate into something seri- ous.
All recommendations on school safety and other stu- dent and law enforcement concerns will be published in an annual CLEWS Report to the People later in 2018.
Fred Hearns is CLEWS Program Manager and Viola Luke is assistant program manager; Darrell Daniels, of Derrick Brooks Charities is the Trainer; retired law en- forcement members, Tina Wright and Clarence Fort are facilitators; and Deputy John Footman is the Sher- iff’s Office representative.
The next scheduled CLEWS Workshop will be held March 19, 2018 at Pierce Middle School.
Guinta Middle School students with representatives of CLEWS.
forcement
Workshops
and
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