New public school safety proposals recommended

LITTLE ROCK — The Arkansas School Safety Commission presented its initial list of recommendations to the governor.

The first recommendation in the executive summary is that “No campus should ever be without armed presence when staff and children are present.”

How best to provide an armed presence should be a local decision by school boards, administrators, par- ents and teachers.

The commission outlined several options. One is to follow the example of the Clarksville School District, which has Commission School Security Officers (CSSOs), who are staff with access to firearms in case of emergency.

The School Safety Commission singled out the Emergency Response Team of Clarksville schools as the best practice use of CSSOs, and recommended that other school districts that use CSSOs should adopt policies similar to those adopted by Clarksville. They include psychological exams of armed staff, random drug screening and training with local law enforcement.

The commission recommended, and the governor specifically endorsed, the improvement of mental health counseling for students.

The commission and the governor pointed out that school counselors should become more available for actual counseling, which means that they must decrease the time they spend on administrative duties such as giving tests and paperwork.

Freeing up school counselors will mean changes in state law. The governor directed the state Education Commissioner to review the status of the Public School Student Services Act, which passed in 1991.