Sunday, Jan. 13, 2019 | 2 a.m.
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Much of the conversation about school safety has focused on arming teachers, beefing up security staffing and making schools harder targets through the addition of metal detectors and similar equipment.
But creating a safe environment for our kids while they’re at school goes way beyond that. It’s about providing them with adequate counseling and mental health services, helping students whose basic needs are not being met, reducing bullying and taking other steps that will make students less likely to act out.
Fortunately for Nevada, students’ emotional well-being is part of the discussion about school safety.
Last week, the nonprofit organization Communities in Schools Nevada had a summit in Las Vegas to discuss school security from a standpoint of student needs. Clark County School District Superintendent Jesus Jara was among the participants, as were state Sen. Mo Denis, D-Las Vegas, and former Nevada state education superintendent Dale Erquiaga, who now serves as national president and CEO of Communities in Schools.
The summit was a welcome addition to similar discussions that took place in recent months by a task force assembled by former Gov. Brian Sandoval.
During an interview with the Sun before the event, Erquiaga said that when decision-makers began discussing school security in the aftermath of the Parkland, Fla., shooting, they initially concentrated on how to harden schools to prevent mass shootings. But as those conversations evolved, Erquiaga said, there was increasing recognition that the root causes of school violence had to be explored.
“It was about students who come to school under conditions of trauma, or who have behavioral issues that tend to escalate in some instances,” he said. “School safety isn’t just the mass shooting incident that we think about after Parkland. There are school safety issues every single day surrounding bullying or anxiety or other student behaviors.”
That being the case, putting up more metal detectors or hiring more security officers isn’t going to solve the problem. It’s critical for school leaders and policymakers to address the social and economic factors behind school violence as well.
Part of the solution involves providing schools with enough counselors and mental health services, which is where state elected leaders come in. During the upcoming legislative session, it will be critical for lawmakers to include funding for those needs as part of any action on school safety.
Another necessity is to replace Nevada’s woefully outdated school funding formula, which has been in place since the late 1960s. The state needs a weighted formula that would provide a proportionally higher amount of state funding to schools serving students with special needs — English language learners and those with disabilities, for instance.
Meanwhile, the state should encourage organizations like Communities in Schools to stay involved.
Communities in Schools’ mission is to provide students with whatever they need to stay in school and graduate, from basics like clothing and transportation to more specialized goods and services like alarm clocks and eyeglasses. With an estimated 8,700 CCSD students being homeless, and thousands more coming from households struggling with poverty, the role of Communities in Schools and similar organizations is essential.
The sad reality of today’s schools is that many students don’t feel safe there — Jara said at the summit that 20 percent of CCSD students reported in a recent survey that they were fearful.
That being the case, it’s critical for school officials and lawmakers to realize that mass shootings aren’t the only source of those students’ anxieties. They need help that metal detectors, security guards and armed teachers simply can’t provide.
