New members join school safety group

The Indiana Department of Education appointed 13 new members on Aug. 4 to the Indiana School Safety Advisory Group, established by the General Assembly, to make safety recommendations that could be used to train school safety specialists at the Indiana School Safety Specialist Academy.

Indiana Superintendent of Public Instruction, Dr. Tony Bennett, appointed the members to the Advisory Group to meet twice a year and recommend standards and curriculums on school safety.

Suggestions are reported to the Indiana General Assembly who then pass the safety recommendations from the committee to the Indiana School Safety Specialist Academy, said Stephanie Sample, press secretary for the Indiana Department of Education.

“They would submit recommendations to the Indiana Department of Education who then reports to the Academy who would then develop a curriculum that the school safety specialists would learn in training,” Sample said.

Every school corporation is required to designate an individual as the school safety specialist, according to Indiana Code 5-2-10.1-9.

These individuals are required to complete basic training at the Indiana School Safety Specialist Academy before they can be a certified school safety specialist. Basic training includes three days of onsite training and two days completing an online course, according to a memorandum sent out by Program Coordinator David Woodward.

Also during training, academy members will bring in specialists to deal with both natural and man-made disasters, said Director of Student Services Gary Green.

During an Advisory Group meeting last spring, representatives from Columbus, Ind. did a seminar on what to do during a major flooding situation, said Dr. Kathy Steele, Superintendent of Crawfordsville Community School Corporation.

“There were situations where their gym had three feet of water and fish in it,” Steele said. “So how do you handle a situation like that? A knowledgeable man from Columbus talked about what they did in this exact situation.”

Basic training also involves lectures from keynote speakers discussing various situations a safety specialist may encounter.

“In the academy we bring in experts in the field for how to handle specific situations concerning safety,” Green said. “We have the author of the book ‘Columbine’ coming in and doing a debrief on his research and what the development of that book has shown.”

The Advisory Group must include various experts on safety from throughout the state of Indiana including members from Indiana Family & Social Services Administration, the Department of Health, Fire Chiefs Association and a representative from the U.S. Attorney’s Office Law Enforcement Coordinator, according to the policy on the Indiana School Safety Specialist Advisory Group.

Having representatives from counties throughout Indiana helps the group come up with development ideas that other members may not have considered, Steele said.
“We have representatives from places throughout the state because there are different issues throughout the state,” Steele said. “They bring up concerns we wouldn’t have thought of.”

Because of the H1N1 epidemic, commonly known as “swine flu,” the new members of the Advisory Group plan on doing a session on how to distribute medicine if the illness becomes an issue in Indiana.

“If you’re distributing medicine, you better have someone around who knows things,” Steele said.

Steele’s hope is that the different ideas from the various group members will prove useful to future safety specialists.

“It’s an interesting committee,” Steele said. “We sit and discuss what our needs are and what kind of training we need to provide.”