The Oneida Daily Dispatch (Oneida, NY)
ENSURING SAFETY
Oneida County Sheriff’s Office brings school shooting safety training Whitesboro High School
WHITESBORO, N.Y. » To help ensure the safety of students, faculty, staff, law enforcement, and others, a safety training presentation on Thursday, was offered at the Whitesboro High School auditorium to improve preparedness and awareness in the act of a school shooting.
In the wake of school shooting tragedies throughout the nation, such as the one that claimed 17 lives at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida in 2018, the Whitesboro Central School District (WCSD) stated in a press release that itself along with other schools and appropriate personnel in the region could take advantage of the in-depth, four-hour safety training presentation from the Marjory Stoneman Douglas Public Safety Commission (MSDPSC).
Brought to the area by the Oneida County Sheriff’s Office, the presentation was geared toward law enforcement personnel, school resource officers (SRO), special patrol officers (SPO), 911 dispatchers, fire and EMS personnel, school superintendents, principals, teachers, and other school staff, and was not open to the public, according to the press release.
The Marjory Stoneman Douglas Public Safety Commission was formed following the school shooting in Parkland, Florida on
“Giving this presentation throughout the country, this isn’t specific to Florida... really anywhere that I go, they say the same thing, ‘We don’t have enough cops and we’re not able to hire them fast enough to be able to put one on every campus.’” — Sergeant John Suess of the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office in Florida
Feb. 14, 2018, to analyze the shooting as well as other mass-casualty incidents, and to recommend improvements in law enforcement, mental health, and school safety, according to the WCSD press release.
The MSDPSC discussed their investigative findings as well as their recommendations and system improvements.
The training presentation was conducted by Sergeant John Suess of the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office in Florida, and covered topics such as: the background of K-12 active-assailant incidents; an overview
of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooter and the shooting itself; 911 and radio communications; law enforcement and emergency medical response to the shooting; and school safety issues.
Suess focused on important systems and individual failures in shooting incidents and shared possible means of improvement. Successes were also highlighted for all to learn from.
The presentation referenced specific examples, visuals, statistics, and evidence to provide the audience with an extensive, informed understanding of the topic at hand.
The idea of employing school resource officers across schools was discussed, with Suess believing
in the success of this tactic in an ideal world. However, the logistics of it, Suess said, make achieving that feat difficult. For one, it’d be a costly endeavor, with Suess citing between $350-400 million to put just one SRO on every campus across Florida, which doesn’t account for campuses that would benefit from more than one.
And then, Suess continued, even if the legislature came up with that money, “We don’t have enough law enforcement officers.”
“Giving this presentation throughout the country, this isn’t specific to Florida... really anywhere that I go, they say the same thing, ‘We don’t have enough cops and we’re not able to hire them fast enough to be able
to put one on every campus.’”
Suess further noted that the recruitment, screening, and training required to become a member of law enforcement is a “lengthy and tedious process,” impeding the ability to obtain more new officers quickly.
In New York, special patrol officers (SPO) can be utilized in some schools instead of SROS and may be a more cost-efficient means of security.
Locally, part-time SPOS have already been employed in Utica City School District, Whitesboro Central School District, Camden Central School District, Westmoreland Central School District, Clinton Central School District, New York Mills Union Free
School District, Waterville Central School District, and Sauquoit Valley, according to the Oneida County website. An SPO must be a retired police officer or peace officer and possess a valid NYS Pistol Permit, according to the Oneida County Sheriff’s Facebook page.
The presentation further emphasized preventative measures with a focus on getting people to report suspicious behavior and ensuring that that report gets properly handled by authorities.
Suess revealed, “What we know in the overwhelming majority of these [school shootings] is that people around the shooter knew that it was coming.”
“The key... is ‘see something, say something,’” he stated.
In addition, Suess explored the unintended consequences of seemingly harmless measures, such as a school locking some bathrooms to prevent students from vaping.
At Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, this prevented some students from exiting the open hallway during the shooting. He encouraged rule-makers to fully investigate the potential consequences of their actions, even if immediate harm is not foreseen; being critical could save lives, he said.
To learn more about the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Commission, visit https://www.fdle.state. fl.us/msdhs/home.aspx