Transcript of current issues in school safety from David B. Mitchell, J.D.,

Well with regard to the issue of school safety, clearly we in the public safety community have a seat at the table, we are a stakeholder. As well as the administrators, as well as county, state, and local governments are, certainly students, parents, we have a huge stake in school safety. Part of it is environmental design, how the schools are layed out, part of it is the how we pick up on signals that there are problems in school, so we can avert a disaster, hopefully before one occurs. And I think part of it is how we manage fear in and of itself. How can we in the public safety community come together with other stakeholders to create the safest environment possible in our schools, our K through 12 and throughout our campuses and our universities? That is a huge challenge. As time goes on, we realize it does not take but several incidents to spark fear throughout our entire system and throughout our entire country. What is it that occurred? What can we learn from it? How can ensure that those mistakes, if there were any, aren't repeated? How can we focus on that positive outcome? What we in the public safety community bring to table, and what we offer, is a handshake and a partnership toward making that reality.