Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/107698
"There are no training requirements by the state of Arizona for school security personnel. It's up to school districts by way of their governing board and the policies and procedures they make that set the requirements to work security on a campus." the entrances so that people know there's a guard there and there's something that's going to block me from entering this campus. Second would be knowing your environment and having a good rapport with students and staff to receive information and making safety a team effort. The third is to be firm, fair, and consistent in dealing with all phases of the job to promote the sense of professionalism and competence. What do you think of the bills proposed nationally and here in Arizona to arm teachers in our schools? I mean no disrespect to any teachers or any staff, but let's face it. Time and time again the state has put out mandates to teachers for further study, going in for prolonged education, teaching to the test and making sure all these kids pass AIMS, and making them do even more study prior to even going into the classroom to deal with these students. Now, do we really want to put on their backs the requirement of receiving firearms training, going and finding an area that's safe in their classroom and locking up their firearm, and then – at a moment's notice, while teaching and dealing with students or activities that are going on – we want them to determine whether or not there's a threat, what level that threat is, go to the locked area to retrieve their firearm, and then be able to use it properly within a set amount of time? It's impossible. It will not happen. It cannot happen. Police officers and security guards are armed and whether it is at our nation's Capitol or in our schools, when something happens, it happens in seconds, and you have to use that training, and you won't have time to think. I would hate to put firearms in the hands of people who are not trained and I mean thoroughly trained. You can't give someone an eight-hour class and expect them to come in and know how Spring.13advo.indd 15 to be a police officer; it doesn't work that way. That being said, here we are not armed, but we do disarm students. We take weapons from students, break up fights, confiscate drugs, and have physical confrontations. We use verbal judo to talk students down from a situation. We're trained in handcuffing procedures, take down procedures, and therapeutic holds so that we don't hurt anyone while we continue to talk through an incident. What school safety measures would you like to see proposed? There are no training requirements by the state of Arizona for school security personnel. It's up to school districts by way of their governing board and the policies and procedures they make that set the requirements to work security on a campus. Now that may be anywhere from saying "Here's a set of keys and a radio" to having a set standard of training. Some school districts have a set standard, but that is not set by the state. I've been a big proponent of state standards, and I've been working very hard on that. I've talked with three different legislators who all feel that money needs to be poured into the SRO program. I think SROs are great and they provide schools with an armed officer on campus, but one person can't be throughout your campus at one time. I propose we use the funding to mandate training just as other states like California, Texas, and New York have a set standard of training prior to you even being able to apply to work security in a school district. Then everyone is on the same page, everyone's trained the same regardless of what school you go to; you still fall within the parameters of safeguarding the kids, faculty, and staff. Instead of supplementing security staff with surplus people and wiping our hands and saying, "OK, we did it, we put Continued on page 34 AEA Advocate x Spring 2013 15 1/29/13 10:53 AM