Nearly five years after the shootings at Colorado’s Columbine High School, many schools that crafted crisis-response plans have set them aside to gather dust. The Rocky Mountain News said Don Quick, chief deputy attorney general, made the assessment in testimony yesterday on legislation aimed at informing parents of school programs to protect students.
A 2002 state law requires all schools to have safe-school plans. Quick and Del Elliott of the University of Colorado’s Center for the Study and Prevention of Violence testified on behalf of a bill by Sen. Sue Windels that would beef up the safety-reporting section of school report cards that go to parents.
Quick and Elliott said that when they ask teachers, administrators, or others if they are aware of their school plans and what they require, only a small percentage raise their hands. “The problem is, teachers and others required to implement that plan don’t know what it says,” Elliott said. “It’s sitting someplace in a principal’s or school district’s office.”
Link: http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/legislature/article/0,1299,DRMN_37_2773900,00.html