FROM THE DIRECTOR . . .

The start of a new school year is rapidly approaching. As you prepare for the school

year, keep in mind that the staff of the Missouri Center for Safe Schools is ready to assist you in preparing for the possible safety challenges that you may encounter.

There are a few issues the Center’s staff has been researching that have implications for schools in regards to school safety. First, as documented in the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, “States must allow students who attend a persistently dangerous school, or who are victims of violent crime at school, to transfer to a safe school. States also must report school safety statistics to the public on a school-by-school basis, and LEAs must use Federal Safe and Drug-Free Schools and Communities funding to implement drug and violence prevention programs of demonstrated effectiveness.” What is a persistently dangerous school? DESE is working to define “persistently dangerous school”.

A second issue is planning for a threat of a bioterrorism attack. On July 23, 2002, the

Center in collaboration with the Missouri Homeland Security Advisor, Col. Tim Daniel, the Department of Health and Senior Services, the Department of Elementary and

Secondary Education, Nuclear Science and Engineering Institute (NSEI) at University of

Missouri-Columbia, local community and school representatives held a bioterrorism

workshop. When asked for their input regarding the role of schools in community bioterrorism preparedness, the participants developed the following list:

a. Establishing links with emergency responders in their communities and

becoming familiar with city and county emergency management plans.

b. Organizational preparedness through emergency management planning

(consistent with city/county plans) and exercising. [Note: The expedient recovery of school operations, part of emergency management planning, is key to community recovery and the return to “normalcy” following a traumatic event. Part of that recovery relies up on the school-based mental health resources, which may be called upon as a community asset.]

c. Educating students and parents about the threat of bioterrorism and the coping skills they will need as part of the emergency response (problem

solving, individual protective measures, etc.).

Serve as a center for community education on bioterrorism and community preparedness.
Possible use of school facilities, as well as nursing and counseling staff, for providing emergency services (inoculation, counseling/debriefing, triage, hospital annex, shelter, information center, collection point, media link, etc.).
Early detection of disease in the school population and alerting of public health authorities.
Help the community address the needs of the special needs population in emergency management planning and response.

A third issue, planning for the anniversary of September 11^th. The question being asked is how do teachers commemerate the day in their classrooms. Here are some suggestions and resources that may be of help to your teachers. The National Council for the Social Studies has recently created a lesson plan titled, “Osama”. Teaching Tolerance, a project of the Southern Poverty Law Center in Montgomery, Ala., offers classroom activities and other resources for educators. The American Forum for Global Education has published “Terrorism: What Every Teacher Should Know”. Also, the National Association of School Psychologists has already posted, “One Year Later: Remembering September 11^th” at www.nasponline.org. Additionally, the NASP reminds teachers and administrators that not all schools were similarly affected by September 11^th and urges educators to carefully plan any memorial service.

Have a safe and successful school year!

Glenn Berry

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FROM RUSTY . . .

Welcome back (if you were “off” for the summer)! As you may know, things at the Department have been affected by budget cuts – just like in school districts.

The Safe Schools Grant Program lost nearly $3 million in funding for FY 2002-03 and the section of Special State Instructional Programs lost the Read to be Ready grant program and 1 FTE: Jessica Ash has transferred to the School Assessment section. We will all certainly miss her! The good news is that Jocelyn Strand, the director of Charter Schools, has been helping me with some of the grant negotiations. Please be patient with Jocelyn and me as we work to complete the negotiations of first-year grants.

Speaking of first-year grants, we were able to fund 41 first-year grants out of the 45 applications requesting over $3.3 million. Negotiations are going slowly…only about half of the grants have been negotiated as of July 26. We hope to get them finished as soon as possible.

For the second year, the Department is working with several pilot districts to define model alternative programs. The current Safe Schools Grant application form indicates many of the components that we see in effective programs.

Finally, I encourage you to attend the September 26^th Safe Schools Symposium sponsored by the Center for Safe Schools. It is your best opportunity to meet your peers and discuss issues of school violence and prevention/intervention strategies. Hope to see you there!

Rusty Rosenkoetter, Director

Special State Instructional Programs

DESE

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S.M.A.R.T.

On March 22, 2000 students at Canton R-V School District lost a classmate and friend—Kristin Hendrickson. Kristin worked at Sam Goody in Quincy. She was on her way home from work that night on the two-lane US Highway 61 when she was struck by a pickup truck trying to pass a semi. Kristin did not do anything wrong, she was buckled up and she had not been drinking, it was just a bad roadway.

Kristin was a very smart young woman. She was planning on going to Truman State University, but she never got to experience college life. She was waiting for her acceptance letter (which did declare her acceptance) the day of her death.

Kristin's senior class did not want to just sit back and do nothing. They decided to take action. They formed the group S.M.A.R.T.(Students of Missouri Assisting Rural and Urban Transportation). Since the seniors knew they were going to be leaving the high school soon, they decided to elect

officers from the lower classman to keep the group going. This is when I joined the group. I was elected President of the S.M.A.R.T. group. Kristin was a good friend of mine and I did not want to see her death forgotten...I wanted to do something to prevent others from losing classmates, family, or friends.

Since the group was formed, S.M.A.R.T. has been to the state capitol several times to meet with local representatives and senators, as well as the Governor of Missouri, Bob Holden. Governor Holden has been a great supporter of S.M.A.R.T.'s efforts to improve roadways across the entire state of Missouri. Governor Holden even introduced the group in his State of the State address. So, it has been a great help for the group to know that we have great support from leaders such as Governor Holden.

S.M.A.R.T. also produced a package, with the financial help from a community supporter, including a video of what the group was about and information on how to form your own S.M.A.R.T. group. We sent this package to every public and private school and college in the state of Missouri, hoping to get other groups started across the state of Missouri to join our effort to improve the roadways across Missouri.

The group was also lucky enough to go to our nation's capitol to speak with the Federal DOT and other Federal government officials that had some input on the road system in Missouri. This trip was also funded by community supporters.

With the help and support of two community sponsors (Patti Meldrum and Jeff McReynolds) we have been able to attend several meetings across the state and make presentations to large groups about S.M.A.R.T.'s purpose.

With the efforts of S.M.A.R.T., we were able to move up improvements on a 14.5 mile section of US Highway 61 between LaGrange and Canton about 20 years. It will become a four-lane highway within 4 years. Now, the only section on US 61 that will not be four-lane is a 10.5 mile stretch between Canton and Wayland. We really feel that this section needs to be finished. It is a more dangerous stretch of highway than the section that Kristin was killed on. In fact, the Canton R-V students lost two more classmates in October of 2001. Darrin Cale and Adam Martin also lost their lives on this stretch of two-lane highway. They too, like Kristin, were not doing anything wrong. So, this is how the S.M.A.R.T. group knows that it is the road conditions that cause most of these fatal accidents on US Highway 61.

This summer S.M.A.R.T. has a lot to do. The House and Senate in Missouri just passed a new total transportation bill that will provide funding to roadways all across Missouri. We are going to have to inform the public about this bill and what it could do for roadways across the state of Missouri.

Matt Parker

President of S.M.A.R.T.

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ADULTS and CHILDREN TOGETHER (ACT) Against Violence

The ACT community training program was developed by the American Psychological Association (APA) and the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC). It is designed to as a research-based violence prevention program. It focuses on the importance of early prevention by offering knowledge and skills to professionals who work with families and children, and to the adults who play important roles in preventing the development of aggressive behaviors in young children.

Aimed toward violence prevention in early childhood (ages 0 to 8), ACT was piloted in Monterey, California and Randolph, New Jersey. The Kauffman Foundation has funded a third pilot in the Kansas City region. No cost or low cost 2-day trainings for community facilitators will begin this fall. For more information, contact Debbie Karlstrand at the Heart of America Family Services, (913) 342-1110 ext. 111, who is the program coordinator.

For more information about ACT Against Violence, go to http://www.ACTagainstviolence.org.

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SAFETY COORDINATOR TRAINING

Don’t forget to get registered for Safety Coordinator Training through the Regional Professional Development Centers. Regional trainings are scheduled as follows:

Kirksville RPDC (660-785-4220) Nov 7

Rolla RPDC (800-667-0665) Nov 12

Southeast RPDC (800-401-6680) Nov 13

Maryville RPDC (800-663-3348) Nov 19

Warrensburg RPDC (800-762-4146) Nov 21

Columbia RPDC (800-214-2753) Dec 4

Kansas City RPDC (800-555-9048) Jan 16

Basic Safety Coordinated Training (3.5 hours) will be presented in the morning. Advance Safety Coordinator Training (3 hours) will be presented in the afternoon. Registration will be through the Regional Professional Development Center.

All District Safety Coordinators are encouraged to complete the 3.5 hour basic course at least one time. The material is updated continuously and it may be beneficial to attend this course every other year. The material presented includes:

Role of the Safety Coordinator
The components of a comprehensive school safety program (Safety Review Checklist)
Missouri Safe Schools Act
Violence prevention and the Missouri Violence Prevention Curriculum Framework

The 3 hour advanced course addresses different topics from year to year. Some of the information addressed in the advanced course will be rolled into the basic course for subsequent years. Safety Coordinators should attend the advanced course each year. During school year 2002-2003 the material presented as part of the advanced course will include:

Physical Education Facility Safety (bleachers, weight rooms, etc.)
Backflow Protection
Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) Training

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QUESTIONING STUDENTS

School districts should have a policy in place that a parent will be contacted if their child is questioned by the police. In addition, students must be informed of their Miranda rights if they are taken into custody. If a law enforcement officer questions a juvenile and does not inform the juvenile of his Miranda rights, the juvenile's attorney will argue that any statement made should be suppressed—not allowed as evidence in court. The police will argue that the juvenile had not been "in custody" during the questioning and, therefore, any statement made should not be suppressed.

A review of the law relating to the interrogation of juveniles is as follows:

The 4^th and 15^th Amendments of the U.S. Constitution and Article 1, Sec. 19 of the Missouri Constitution provide a privilege against self-incrimination. This privilege includes the requirement that the police warn those taken into custody that they have the right to remain silent (the Miranda warning). With regard to juveniles, Sec. 211.059 RSMo requires that when a child is taken into custody by the police or a juvenile officer, with or without a warrant, the child shall be advised:

1. that he has the right to remain silent

2. that any statement made can be used against him

3. that hi has a right to have a parent, guardian or custodian present during questioning

4. that he has the right to consult and attorney and that an attorney will be appointed if he can’t afford one

In State v. Werner, 9 S.W.3d 590, 595 (Mo. En banc 2000), detectives went to Hazelwood Central High School and asked to speak with Werner and his sister. Werner, who was 16 years old, was a special education student who functioned at a 4^th grade level. The police were investigating the murder of Werner’s nephew. The assistant principal brought Werner and his sister to the school office. One of the detectives completed a form stating that hew was taking Werner and his sister into custody and was “accepting full responsibility for the care and custody of the same.” The form specified that a detective would notify both minor’s parents. The detectives asked Werner and his sister to go with them to the police station and they agreed. Werner and his sister were transported in separate police vehicles and interviewed in separate rooms. Werner was questioned about one hour, during which time he was never read his Miranda rights and was not told that he had the right to have a parent present during questioning. His parents were not notified prior to the questioning. During the interview, Werner incriminated himself in the murder of his nephew. Detectives then notified Werner’s mother that hew was being held at the police station and a deputy juvenile officer was located to read Werner his Miranda rights upon the arrival of his mother. Werner argues that the statements made to the police would be suppressed since he was in custody at the time they were made and had not been informed of his Miranda rights. The Missouri Supreme Court held that the statements should be suppressed.

In the State of New Hampshire v. Heirtzler, No. 2000-139 (N.H. 12/24/01) Michael Bennette, a school resource officer, had information indicating a student was possibly in possession of drugs. The information did not warrant further investigation under the constraints on law enforcement officers. Bennette told the assistant principals, who then questioned and searched the student based on the less stringent standards applied to school administrators. They found a piece of paper the student said might contain LSD. The court determined that the school’s assistant principals were acting as agents of the police when they questioned and searched the student based on a prior understanding between the school and the police. As such, they were required to use the same procedural safeguards as the police would use.

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Dr. Russ Thompson, Associate Director of the Missouri Center for Safe Schools, is the newsletter editor. If you would like to submit an article for a future Missouri Safe Schools Newsletter, please send him your submission by e-mail to thompsonrs@umkc.edu or mail it to:

Dr. Russ Thompson, Assoc. Dir.

Missouri Center for Safe Schools

UMKC School of Education, Suite 024

5100 Rockhill Road

Kansas City, MO 64110-2499

Check out the web page for the Missouri Center for Safe Schools at http://www.umkc.edu/safe-school and call us at our offices in the School of Education, University of Missouri-Kansas City, (816) 235-5656.

SAFETY COORDINATOR TRAINING

QUESTIONING STUDENTS

Lenoir Community Center

Columbia, Missouri

Thursday, September 26, 2002 10:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.