Mike Ewton: Enhancing school safety in the New Year

Published 6:30 am Wednesday, January 8, 2025

It should be no secret to anyone that school safety is paramount to us as public school leaders. Our primary mission is student growth and achievement for each individual learner. To foster and maintain safe and supportive learning environments, we must simultaneously focus on preventing, preparing for, responding to, and effectively recovering from all potentially hazardous situations. We also know that no single tool, system, or procedure can guarantee total safety in any school. Safe learning environments require continuous vigilance, planning, training, drilling, evaluation, engineering, and enhancements to the physical environment. School safety and security work is never complete. The key is dedicating finite resources to the highest-leverage items or processes likely to make the most difference.

Whitfield County Schools is embarking on an enhancement aimed at helping us better identify and manage threats to the school environment. Shortly before the holiday break, multi-disciplinary teams of administrators, counselors, School Resource Officers (SROs), teachers, and other professionals from every school underwent Comprehensive School Threat Assessment Guidelines (CSTAG) training. CSTAG guides school-based threat assessment teams in determining the difference between making a threat and posing an actual threat. Additionally, CSTAG focuses on managing threat situations beyond the offender’s initial school discipline or judicial system encounter. Case studies have shown the importance of having plans for reintegrating, monitoring, and supporting those students who return to school after facing the consequences of having made a threat. In the new year, our school threat assessment teams will build on their newly acquired training to develop solid threat assessment and management processes in all schools throughout the district.

At the state level, the Georgia General Assembly will begin its 2025 legislative session later this month. School funding issues are always a topic of lively discussion under the Gold Dome. Educational organizations, state officials, and lawmakers are already beginning to discuss several school safety-related requests. Georgia State School Superintendent Richard Woods has announced his intention to ask lawmakers to consider funding a School Resource Officer in every public school in the state. As an integral part of the school community, SROs are specially trained peace officers whose primary mission is to help make schools safer. When considering the emergency management cycle, SROs play a valuable role in prevention, preparedness, and response. Mr. Woods is also asking for crisis alert systems to be paid for by the state and installed in all Georgia schools. Crisis alert systems are a valuable tool in emergency response as they can speed up initial communication in many emergencies.

One prevention element whose importance has become more evident in recent years is the mental health services of our students. According to Voices for Georgia’s Children, one in four of Georgia’s children between the ages of three and seventeen have been diagnosed with a mental health, developmental, emotional, or behavioral challenge. School counselors, psychologists, and social workers are often the first line of interaction for students with mental health concerns. Unfortunately, their day-to-day duties are much broader than providing continuous individualized mental health services. Current state funding provides one school counselor for every 450 students. Currently, the state provides funding for school psychologists and social workers at a ratio of one for every 2,475 students. Georgia educational advocacy organizations are asking legislators to reduce those proportions so these professionals can be more impactful for our students. Identifying mental health issues and getting help earlier can make a world of difference for affected students and has the potential to play an even more significant role in crisis prevention.

As we welcome the new year with excitement and anticipation, we must keep our eye on continuously improving. For students to continue to grow and succeed in the classroom, the learning environment must be safe, secure, and supportive. It is our responsibility to never lose sight of this mission. Happy New Year!

Mike Ewton is superintendent of Whitfield County Schools.