AMERICA’S SAFE AND SECURE SCHOOLS WEEK
The Kansas State Department of Education, along with the Kansas Highway Patrol, Kansas Department of Health and Environment, Kansas Department of Wildlife, Parks and Tourism and the Kansas State Fire Marshal’s Office, joined Gov. Jeff Colyer on Monday, Oct. 22, in signing a proclamation designating Oct. 21-27, 2018, as America’s Safe Schools Week in Kansas.
America’s Safe Schools Week was originally established by the National School Safety Center in 1984. It is an opportunity to advocate for school safety, which includes keeping schools free of crime, violence, weapons and drugs; improving discipline; and increasing student attendance.
The Kansas Legislature in 2018 appropriated funds for two new KSDE positions dedicated to school safety. Susan McMahan and John Calvert recently joined KSDE to form the Safe and Secure Schools Unit. The goal of the unit is to encourage and support school districts to build a solid foundation of readiness, security and resiliency to withstand all hazards. The Unit also will help safeguard schools by making sure Kansas schools have the right knowledge, tactics, partnerships and whole-community approach in place to ensure safety and security. The unit also will help create safe and secure school standards. Once these standards are adopted by the Kansas State Board of Education, McMahan and Calvert will have regional workshops to assist schools in creating crisis plans, and building relationships with local law enforcement, emergency management, other first responding agencies and the general public.
The Safe and Secure Schools Unit looks forward to working with local agencies and organizations from across the state to do whatever is necessary to keep Kansas’ students and school staff members safe.
Please feel free to contact us at any time:
Susan McMahan: smcmahan@ksde.org (785) 296-4946
John Calvert: jcalvert@ksde.org (785) 296-7056