State won’t identify school districts without safety plans

Ohio law requires all schools to submit emergency safety plans, but a recent change in that law leaves parents and others unable to confirm whether schools are following the law.

The Ohio Department of Education collects the emergency management plans that schools are required to submit. The details of those plans — including response strategies, floor plans, contact information and more — are protected from public view, for obvious reasons.

But ODE officials said Monday they are no longer allowed to identify schools that are noncompliant with the law. Those could include schools that failed to submit a safety plan, or submitted a plan that did not meet required standards.

That news came to light Monday when this newspaper tried to check whether Madison High School and other local schools were up-to-date on their safety plans after a school shooting that injured four people at the school west of Middletown.

A Madison spokeswoman said the school district has an updated security plan filed with the state.

In 2012, the Ohio Attorney General’s office reviewed all Ohio schools and released a list of 145 that were noncompliant with the safety plan law, leading to a public outcry. Many schools hurriedly filed new plans.

“Attorney General Mike DeWine put together a task force on school safety several years ago and their report recommended that we work with ODE to make the plans more uniform and more easy to submit,” Attorney General spokesman Dan Tierney said. “They’re now submitted through an ODE website portal. To the extent that there is tracking, that would now be handled by ODE.”

ODE spokeswoman Brittany Halpin said that under the revised version of the law that went into effect in January 2015, a list of compliant or noncompliant districts can no longer be released.

Schools respond

Northmont Superintendent Sarah Zatik said as details of the Madison shooting come out, principals in her district will meet to see if any changes need to be made to their procedures.

Safety exercises occur on a “constant” basis in Northmont schools, she said Monday, citing drills on evacuation procedures and building lockdowns. Northmont also has a safety committee that meets monthly, consisting of police and fire officials from Clayton, Union and Englewood as well as Clayton and Clay Twp.

“Our heart goes out to all of the families … and to the district,” Zatik said. “Almost on a weekly basis we’re working to refine those plans and make sure that everybody in the district knows what they need to do and be prepared for such an awful event,” she said.

Huber Heights Superintendent Sue Gunnell said upon hearing of the shootings at Madison she contacted all of the district’s building administrators to make them aware. District safety procedures will be closely adhered to, she said.

“We certainly encourage anybody — whether it’s students or parents — if they have any concern to always make sure that they contact the school,” Gunnell said. “For students, if they have concerns, make sure they tell an adult. Just some of those things that on an everyday basis we try to remind our students and families.”

Huber Heights schools’ website says the administration is authorized to use stationary or mobile metal detectors if they see a pattern of weapons found at school, or when violence involving weapons has occurred at in the district.

Troy schools Superintendent Eric Herman said he couldn’t yet say whether the district would address the Madison shooting with parents and students, but added that Troy’s plan will be reviewed.

“We review our safety plan all the time. We are constantly updating it,” Herman said.

School officers

The school resource officer at Madison Local Schools reportedly had a significant role in the school’s response to Monday’s shooting. But many school districts Madison’s size don’t have SROs, who usually are full-time police officers specially assigned to work in schools.

A November review of Dayton-area districts by the Dayton Daily News showed that the 11 largest public school districts had school resource officer programs. Springboro, Miamisburg and Xenia school officials all said they have a single school resource officer for the entire district, while Troy and Centerville each have three, augmented in Centerville’s case by four security guards at the high school.

But many schools closer to Madison’s size — such as Tipp City, Valley View, Northridge and Brookville — reported that they don’t have formal school resource officers. In many cases, those districts cited an “open-door policy” with their community’s law enforcement, so officers could visit the school regularly.

The issue often is a financial one. Valley View Superintendent Rick Earley said last fall that the district eliminated the contract for a dedicated school resource officer a few years ago due to financial issues. Trotwood-Madison had done the same, but reinstated the program this fall.

Even if schools do have armed resource officers available, that’s no guarantee of safety. Kettering’s Fairmont High School has a school resource officer plus two security guards. But those three people are covering a school of 2,300 students that reaches nearly a quarter-mile from southern tip to northern tip.

Michael Clark and Nancy Bowman added to this report.

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