Local Officials Revisit School Safety Discussion
In the wake of a deadly shooting at a Santa Fe, Texas High School, once again gun violence and school safety are top of mind for local authorities.
Montgomery County Sheriff Derrick Cunningham and Autauga County Schools Superintendent Spence Agee are two officials revisiting ways to secure local schools.
From arming teachers to banning the sale of assault-style rifles, Alabama lawmakers introduced several gun-safety bills after the Parkland, Florida school massacre. Efforts that, Cunningham says aren’t exactly promising “well we’ve proposed a lot of legislation but we got nothing passed , so I can’t say I’m satisfied about nothing” he explained.
Agee on the other hand said “I think it was a very good first step, I think it’s going to grow and develop into more options in the future”.
One proposal that they both agree on, is adding more school resource officers (SRO). Agee is hoping more resource officers could be a reality as early as this fall, “We’re getting close to getting SRO’s hopefully in for next school year in the city schools and we’re still in negotiation and discussion for the county schools”
More than 200 camera’s were recently added to ‘dead zone’ areas in Autauga Co. schools and more direct communication with police using radios. Agee says they will continue to improve school security measures over the summer, but when asked about the possibility of metal detectors at the entrance of schools there was some hesitation. “For example at Prattville High School…you have so many points of entry… he explained i mean the children enter the building though so many different doors so I don’t know how that would be effective”.
the superintendent said that he and Prattville mayor, Bill Gillespie have been working closely together on the proposal to add 4 school resource officers to Prattville Schools, and could go up for vote by the city council as early as next month.
