SAFE & SECURE SCHOOLS

A pink visitor's pass is required for all visitors to Scott City schools.

Just two months ago, eight students were shot, three fatally, as they left their prayer circle after 14-year-old Michael Carneal allegedly opened fire at Heath High School in West Paducah, Ky.

A month later, Mitchell Johnson, 13, and Andrew Golden, 11, are accused of pulling a fire alarm and then ambushing students as they left Westside Middle School in Jonesboro, Ark. Sixteen people were shot; four girls and a teacher were killed.

These school shootings have some students, parents and teachers wondering whether their school will be the next crime scene. School administrators are responding by going to work to beef up security in their buildings.

"You cannot guarantee anything regardless of what you do, and that's unfortunate," said Scott City School Superintendent Roger Tatum. "You hate to make schools seem like prisons, but our first priority has to be to protect the students."

Tatum said he wrote a letter to Scott City police after the Heath shooting requesting more after-school patrols near the school buildings. By being more visible, the police provide employees and students a sense of security and might deter crime of all kinds, he said.

Students and visitors also have limited access to the school. Only the main entrances to the building are unlocked during the school day, and all guests are required to sign in at the office and to put on a bright pink visitor's pass before they can proceed into the building.

"There has always been good teacher observation before school, at noon and after school, but now we are doing other things so students can have a sense of security," Tatum said. "We're fortunate in that we don't have as many exits as some, so it's not as big a problem."

Principal Randie Fidler of Cape Girardeau Central High School said administrators and teachers have strengthened emergency preparedness strategies since the Heath and Jonesboro shootings. However, security improvements are implemented slowly to lessen impact on students.

"Students were really tense after both those incidents and we don't want to make students nervous," said Fidler. "Any changes we are implementing are being done quietly and slowly without a lot of fanfare."

Cape Girardeau Police Cpl. Barry Hovis is a new addition to the school district's security force. Hovis was hired in August to serve as a school resource officer at Central junior and senior high schools. He is present mainly to curb violent or dangerous activities, but Hovis said he also provides classroom presentations and offers advice or information about criminal procedures to students when necessary.

The school district's upper level campuses are wide and have numerous entrances, but security has been improving steadily, said Hovis. He is one of six people responsible for carrying walkie-talkies to monitor activity during the school day in various places in the buildings. In addition, Hovis makes himself available to students before and after school for "visibility," and students know they can always approach him or any adult if they have a problem or want to provide information about a crime.

Hovis said the majority of his contact in the schools has been positive, although he has made several drug-related arrests and broken up at least one fight. Most of his arrests were made after receiving tips from students.

"The population of the school is going to reflect the general population," he said. "If there are drug violations in the adult population, you're going to have some in your school population. That's just the way it is, but I really think in our school 99 percent of the kids are good."

Hovis said the best way to prevent tragedies in the school is to keep good communication lines open between adults and students. It's important to study verbal and nonverbal communication so that teachers and others can be alert for signs that a student needs help.

"We try to maintain good communication with the students and get to know them so we can find the ones that need help or have problems," he said. "Especially with teens, we need to watch for things like suicide, because if they're thinking about killing themselves, you've got to believe that they've also thought about killing someone else."

Dr. Rex Miller, superintendent of Perryville schools, said communicating with students is also important in his district. As in the Scott City and Cape Girardeau school districts, visitors are required to sign in when they visit, and administrators are working on improving security in all buildings.

"We don't anticipate anything here, but our principals are going to look at the kids who seem to have problems and get them the help they need," he said.