The U.S. Department of Education, academic experts and school safety professionals spent over a decade preaching that the best chance of effectively addressing school safety is to have policy and programs comprehensive and balanced in their approach.  This means prevention-only or enforcement-only approaches are destined to fail.  Prevention, intervention, mental health, security, school-based policing, emergency preparedness, school climate, school discipline and other strategies collectively reflect such balance and comprehensiveness.

Although the “comprehensive and balanced” philosophy continues to be generally accepted in professional school safety circles, it did not stop the Obama Administration, Congress, special interest groups, state governments and others from destroying anything resembling  comprehensive and balanced school safety public policy and funding in 2011.

Some factors contributing to a “perfect storm”  climate that a number of school safety professionals believe has set back over a decade of progress made in professional school safety policy and funding include: 

• Obama Administration destroys the federal Office of Safe and Drug Free Schools:  Kevin Jennings, Obama’s Assistant Deputy Secretary for Safe and Drug Free Schools, finished off his two-year stint in the U.S. Department of Education by almost single-handedly destroying anything resembling a comprehensive and balanced approach the federal school safety public policy and funding.  Jennings, an Obama campaign-bundler and founder of the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN), publicly advocated almost exclusively for “anti-bullying” policy and funding.  School emergency planning, school security, school-based policing, drug prevention and other violence prevention efforts were either eliminated or marginalized to the point of total ineffectiveness with Jennings at the helm.  Jennings resigned mid-year and moved seamlessly into a CEO job at a national non-profit organization having political origins.  Bill Modzeleski, the long-time number two guy in the Office of Safe and Drug Free Schools, retired from federal service after a decade in that office as what some privately described as the consummate bureaucratic “survivor” who followed the political winds of the day.  The Office of Safe and Drug Free Schools was eliminated weeks after Jennings left with the remaining programs tucked away under the Department’s Office of Elementary and Secondary Education where they continued the last few months of the year by putting out lame newsletters referencing other federal studies and programs, research reports, non-profit organization links and a periodic  reference to federal school nutrition and health programs. The Education Department attempted to spin the demise of this office by blaming Congress for cutting safe schools funds.
• Special interest groups intensified the politicizing of school safety by labeling gay rights special interest goals of creating federal and state laws enumerating the phrases “sexual orientation” and “gender identity” into a new protected civil rights class under the guise of “bullying.”  Simultaneous lobbying for federal “anti-bullying” laws and state-level laws have similar themes of protected class language, although federal efforts appear stalled due to the balance of power in Congress while state-level efforts have had mixed results. This “anti-bullying movement” or “safe schools movement” continues as we head into 2012.  Look for federal efforts to focus on slipping in language in the federal Elementary and Secondary Education (ESEA) Act reauthorization pending in Congress since the actual “anti-bullying” bills before Congress will likely go nowhere with the current Republican House majority.
• Civil rights special interest groups continued their assault against school-based police, school security and school discipline (suspensions and expulsions) by issuing multiple “studies” and “reports” from civil rights and liberal activist organizations.  Efforts continue behind-the-scenes to use these “studies” and “reports” to influence language in the federal ESEA Act mentioned earlier. 
• State education departments eliminated or dramatically downsized state-level school safety programs and funding.  The South Carolina Department of Education eliminated its state school safety office. Other state school safety centers or offices downsized their staff, programs, funding and/or influence.  A few state programs continue to surviveand thrive, such as the Indiana School Safety Specialist Academy in the Indiana Department of Education, but they are the exception and not the rule.
• School safety and prevention were first on the chopping block in local school district budget cuts.  2011 saw continued and intensified cuts of drug and violence prevention programs, mental health services, counselors, school security staff, school resource officer (SRO) programs, professional development training and similar school safety programs in local school districts.  Very early signs of the adverse impact of these cuts have already popped up in scattered areas.

Penny-wise but pound-foolish school safety budget cuts will likely continue into 2012 barring a major national catastrophic school safety incident with shortwaves reaching into local schools nationwide.  The politicizing of school safety will unquestionably continue, especially given the Obama Administration’s political courting of civil rights, gay rights and related special interest groups. 

Veteran school safety professional agree that it will take a long-time to undo the damages done to school safety public policy and funding leading up to and through 2011. 

Fortunately, at ground level we still have many school safety professionals advocating for truly balanced, comprehensive and professional school safety programs and strategies. Unfortunately, their backs are against the wall and they are fighting an uphill battle. They need our support, even if it is just moral support, now more than ever.

Ken Trump

Visit School Security Blog at: www.schoolsecurityblog.com

Follow Ken on Twitter @safeschools

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Yet security staffing continues to be dramatically cut by school officials. In a January story by WBTV, the district’s superintendent recommended cutting nearly $1 million from the district’s school law enforcement division, cutting about 32 campus security officers.

Last year the district cut about 60 campus security officers, according to the report.

Could these occurrences be related?

This school security “expert” has an analysis of the dramatic crime rise based upon my 25+ years of knowledge and experience: When you dramatically cut security staff, it is not unforeseeable that you can logically expect dramatic rises in criminal and violent incidents in schools.

Of course, a first grader could probably come up with the same analysis. 

Perhaps more school administrators and boards need to run their intended school safety cuts past their first graders before acting.  After all, many of these school “leaders” do not seem to be consulting with, and/or listening to, any school safety experts.

Ken Trump

Visit School Security Blog at:  http://www.schoolsecurityblog.com

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The White House Conference on Bullying Prevention on the surface may seem to have been about putting a straight-forward spotlight on bullying. But behind-the-scenes is an increasingly clear gay rights and civil rights political agenda being masked under the guise of bullying and school safety.

The real story goes much deeper than the scripted event with a stage full of academicians who could not stop saying ”school climate” or with President Obama turning a widely repeated soundbite about being bullied due to his big ears and different name.

GAY RIGHTS ACTIVISTS FILL WHITE HOUSE BULLYING CONFERENCE

The invitee list at the White House Conference on Bullying Prevention is one of the most telltale signs of how Obama, Education Secretary Arne Duncan, Assistant Deputy Secretary of Education Kevin Jennings, and a slew of gay rights activists are advancing gay rights and civil rights social and political agendas under the guise of “bullying” and “school safety” — and of course, “incivility” and “school climate.”

While I await a response to my third request in three days to the White House Media Office for the official invitee list with names and organizational affiliations, I have started compiling my own.

In my March 2nd article on White House Bullying Conference: School Safety or Gay Agenda?, I highlighted a number of conference invitees cited in various online gay media outlets.  The Washington Blade identified the Gay, Lesbian, & Straight Education Network (GLSEN), The Trevor Project, and the Human Rights Campaign — all gay rights special interest groups — as invited attendees.  The Keen News Service  identified the National Center for Transgender Equality as an attendee. Dan Savage of It Gets Better Project was also in attendance.

GLSEN reported taking a five person “delegation” to the White House with an intended goal clear in their headline, “GLSEN Representatives to Press for Federal Leadership, LGBT-Inclusive Efforts at White House Conference on Bullying.” 

Eliza Byard, GLSEN’s Executive Director, sent a message on her White House trip indicating:

“Today we will see representatives of all of our most important organizational allies at the White House – the unions, the professional associations, organizations advocating for all of the communities so deeply affected by bullying.  We have all been summoned to discuss how best to respond to the public health crisis of bullying. GLSEN’s job, and that of our allies and friends, is to ensure that the coordinated response that emerges truly helps all those who suffer because of anti-LGBT bias and behavior in our schools. We want to be sure that the anti-bullying “moment” of the past nine months results in action that benefits all students, regardless of sexual orientation and gender identity or gender expression.”

GLSEN’s Northern Virginia associate also was in attendance according to GLSEN Delegation’s blog reflecting their day at the White House.

Joel Burns, an openly gay Fort Worth city councilman, was in attendance and posted a Facebook photo of gay rights activists at the White House Bullying Conference including Burns, Dan Savage (It Gets Better Project), Brian Bond (White House liaison to the gay community), GLSEN’s Eliza Byard, and Kevin Jennings, Obama’s Assistant Deputy Secretary for safe schools and founder of GLSEN:

Administration officials also included Russlyn Ali, head of the Education Department’s Office of Civil Rights, and Tom Perez, the Justice Department’s assistant attorney general.  Both have actively pursued federal civil rights investigations against local schools for their handling bullying incidents.

It is not surprising, given the packed house of invited gay rights and civil rights activists, that Kevin Jennings noted in his weekly e-newsletter that space was limited at the White House Conference on Bullying.

OBAMA, CONGRESS, AND ACTIVISTS PURSUE GAY AND CIVIL RIGHTS “BULLYING” LEGISLATION AND, SKEWED FEDERAL SCHOOL SAFETY POLICY AND FUNDING

Gay and civil rights advocates within and outside of the Obama Administration have been moving like a runaway train in the past two years to advance their social and political agendas under the guise of “bullying” and “school safety.” 

While unsuccessful in getting legislation passed by Congress, they have radically shifted federal school safety policy and funding administratively and in funding.  Some examples include:

1. Lobbying to pass the Safe Schools Improvement Act (SSIA)  and the Student Non-Discrimination Act, two bills repeatedly introduced (and repeatedly unsuccessful in enactment) in Congress.   Senators Bob Casey(D-PA), Al Franken (D-MN), Kristen Gillibrand (D-NY), Mark Kirk (R-IL), and Representatives Linda Sanchez (D-CA), Jared Polis (D-CO), and numerous others have pushed for the SSIA.  Senator Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) and Representative Rush Holt (D-NJ) also introduced the Tyler Clementi Higher Education Anti-Harassment Act.  The social and political goal of gay rights activists is to have the phrases “sexual orientation” and “gender identification” enumerated into federal law, in essence creating a back-door civil rights law and legally creating a new protected class via federal law — all under the guise of “bullying” and “school safety.”
2. Yet another federal web site StopBullyingNow.gov, which includes a dedicated front-page link to LGBT bullying pages.  
3. Skewed Federal Funding:  An initial $38 million in grants to states from the Department of Education (Kevin Jennings’ Safe and Supportive Schools Program) for the purpose of creating “school climate surveys” for bullying and giving school safety scores to schools based on the results of these surveys.  It is still unclear exactly what the required survey questions and focus will be, but some school safety specialists are sure this includes an effort to create the first major LGBT data sources in the federal government.  Jennings, Duncan, and Obama have asked for another $365 million for this program in FY2012, after cutting $295 million in Safe and Drug Free Schools state program grant funds to local schools last year and eliminating $30 million for the only dedicated federal school emergency planning grant program this year. 
4. A new National Action Alliance on Suicide Prevention created by Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius under the direction of openly gay HHS administor Pamela Hyde with a focus on LGBT youths.  The Alliance formed a task force to reduce suicide among LGBT youth which is co-chaired by Kevin Jennings and Charles Robbins, Executive Director of The Trevor Project.  In December, the SAMHSA announced availability of $5.5 million for campus suicide prevention programs that meet the needs of at-risk you including LGBT youth.   One report indicates HHS awarded $13.3 million for a five-year grant to create a “model program that will provide life-saving support” for LGBTQ youth in the foster care system. 
5. A jetsettingspeaking tour of over 35 speeches around the country at taxpayer expense by Kevin Jennings at private for-profit, non-profit, and other conferences on bullying, LGBT, diversity, civil rights, and related topics.
6. An overreaching radical shift in federal school safety policy by the Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights which issued a 10-page “Dear Colleagues Letter” (DCL) to the nation’s schools redefining bullying as a federal potential civil rights harassment violation, including for sexual orientation and gender identification (even though this is not written into the law).  This was challenged by the National School Boards Association, which argues it is an overly expansive interpretation of federal law that will increase frivolous lawsuits against schools, in a December 7, 2010, letter to Charlie Rose, General Counsel for the U.S. Department of Education.

“Bullying” and “school safety” have been redefined by Kevin Jennings and the Obama Administration.  Instead of having a balanced and comprehensive approach to school safety, Jennings and the Obama Administration have removed almost any discussions on violence, school security, school emergency preparedness, school-based policing, and other elements of what should be a comprehensive federal policy and funding approach to school safety.

Should bullying, school climate, and other issues be included in a comprehensive approach to school safety? Absolutely.  But this Administration has one narrowly skewed policy and funding approach to school safety primarily driven by gay rights and civil rights agendas.

No, my position is not homophobic.  It is politi-phobic.  I have a phobia of individuals who distort, skew, and politicize federal public school safety policy and public funding to advance special interest social and political agendas. 

Unfortunately, those individuals and organizations are currently making President Obama and his Administration the most political in history on school safety issues.

Ken Trump

Visit School Security Blog at:  http://www.schoolsecurityblog.com

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1. White House Bullying Conference: School Safety or Gay Agenda? The White House Conference on Bullying Prevention will take place...
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Jennings has keynoted and presented at least 13 conferences in the past two months and at least 21 conferences since the start of this school year last August.  A preliminary investigation finds Jennings has been out of his office to provide at least more than 30 high-profile presentations in the past year. 

Are taxpayers picking up expensive travel costs (airlines, hotels, ground travel, etc), in addition to Jennings’ salary (listed as over $153,000 a year in 2009), at a time when Jennings, Education Secretary Duncan, and President Obama have cut millions of dollars from local school districts for school emergency planning, security, and prevention programs?

Jet-Setting Trips Include Crisscross National Travel to Upper-End Hotels

Jennings’ jet-setting trips in less than a year have crisscrossed the nation from the DC region to San Francisco (CA), Orlando (FL), San Diego (CA), Kansas City (MO),  Raleigh (NC), Ames (IA),  Roanoke Valley (NC), Hartford (CT), Commerce City (CO), Portland (OR), Cambridge (MA), Shawnee (KS), Minneapolis (MN), Chicago (IL), St. Louis (MO), Cleveland/Parma (OH), Pine Mountain (GA), Austin (TX), and numerous other locations.  

Jennings has spoken at programs at upper-end resorts and hotels including the Doubletree Resort SeaWorld (Orlando, FL), Renaissance Baltimore Harborplace Hotel (Baltimore, MD), Doubletree Hotel (Austin, TX), Sheraton Bloomington Hotel (Minneapolis, MN), and Doubletree Hotel in Mission Valley (San Diego, CA), to name a few.

Speeches Include at Private For-Profit Companies and for Wall Street Banks, and with a Skewed Focus on Bullying, Diversity, and LGBT Gay Special Interest Agendas

Jennings travel includes speaking at conferences run by for-profit private conference, publishing, and consulting companies, including at events with a questionable nexus to federal school safety, security, emergency planning, and related local school district school safety goals.  

The content of Jennings’ presentations appears to be consistently skewed to LGBT gay special interests, diversity, bullying, and civil rights issues.

A few presentations of particular interest include: 

• Six Wall Street Firms Plan LGBT Summit, “Out on the Street,”on March 30, 2011, at Deutsche Bank on Wall Street. Described as, “…the first-ever LGBT leadership summit sponsored by Manhattan financial firms,” presenters include Kevin Jennings, an assistant secretary of education in the Obama administration, according to a story in Gay City News.
• Overcoming Unearned Privilege: Leadership, Diversity and Our Nation’s Future  for DiversityInc. where Jennings, “…told his family’s story to DiversityInc’s audience of chief diversity officers and executives at our two-day diversity event in Washington, D.C., where he talked about how ingrained sense of privilege and attitudes about what is “normal” can impede further movement.”
• Jennings Encourages Activism in D.C. Remarks to Close-Up program students, talking about activism and civil rights.
• Keynoting a San Diego Doubletree Hotel (Mission Valley) conference entitled Supporting Students ~ Saving Lives: Empowering School Counselors and all Educators to Support our Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer/Questioning, Intersex & Ally (LGBTQIA) Youth coordinated by what appears to be a non-profit group The Center for Excellence in School Counseling and Leadership (CESCal).
• Alliance for Justice annual summer lunch for Washington DC summer interns at the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) where in August of 2010 Jennings reportedly, “…encouraged emerging leaders to make grassroots change in their communities, because local and state change will lead to an overwhelming tide that will move our country towards change on the federal level,” according to the story by one attendee. 

The report said, “Jennings gave a deeply nuanced analysis of history and time as only a history teacher could.  He mentioned how when he was growing up, the idea of a homosexual senior presidential appointee, a Hispanic Supreme Court Justice, and an African American President would have been ludicrous…he argued that it was individual people who realized that it was their moral obligation to do something about the fundamental wrongs they saw in the world, that were able to make so much progress in recent decades…Secretary Jennings reminded us, we as young leaders need to believe not that time will bring change but that we will bring change.”

School Safety Agenda or Political and Social Agenda?

I struggle to see the connection between the role of the Assistant Deputy Secretary for Safe and Drug Free Schools, i.e., to administer federal policy and funding for a comprehensive approach to drug and violence free schools, and Jennings speaking about “coming out on Wall Street.”  Jennings has publicly identified his domestic partner as a banking and financial investment firm employee and at least one online bio on Jennings reports the same. But aside from that connection to Wall Street, I am missing the connection of our tax dollars paying an assistant secretary for education for safe schools to be on this program agenda.

Jennings’ presentations in his capacity as Obama’s Assistant Deputy Secretary for Safe and Drug Free Schools also have common themes and/or contexts of LGBT gay special interest issues, civil rights, diversity, and “bullying.”  Bullying increasingly appears to be a code word in the Obama Administration for advancing gay rights social and political special interests.

Jennings’ national speaking tour themes, his poor decisions to eliminate $32 million in school emergency planning grants and $295 million in Safe and Drug Free Schools Grant Program grants for school security and prevention programs, and his skewed policy and funding focus on “bullying” and “school climate surveys” have radically deteriorated federal safe schools policy and funding.  Jennings’ speeches and funding priorities intentionally ignore a comprehensive approach to school safety and, in particular, inclusion of efforts and presentations which include violence, drug prevention, school security, school-based policing, and school emergency preparedness.

The impact of Jennings’ actions and agenda will be felt hard as high-profile violent incidents continue to occur in schools and, unfortunately, when the next major school violence tragedy (or tragedies) strike ill-prepared and poorly protected American schools.

See below for a detailed list with links to more than 30 Jennings’ presentations I have tracked so far.

Ken Trump

Visit School Security Blog at:  http://www.schoolsecurityblog.com

——————————————————————

Synopsis and links to Jennings presentations in the past year:

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1. White House Bullying Conference: School Safety or Gay Agenda? The White House Conference on Bullying Prevention will take place...
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The Readiness and Emergency Management for Schools (REMS) grant program was housed under the line item entitled, “Safe Schools and Citizenship Education” under the Labor, HHS, and Education section and reflected $32 million in cuts under the CR.

The Rationale for the Cuts: Pure Politics

President Obama, Education Secretary Duncan, and Kevin Jennings (Assistant Deputy Secretary for Safe and Drug Free Schools) originally proposed eliminating the school emergency planning grant program from FY2012 budget when Obama released his budget a week ago.  

Kevin Jennings gave no rationale for the cut when I asked him why the Department was eliminating the program, which was one of the few successful school safety programs run over the years by the Department of Education. My take is that Jennings has a tunnel-vision, one-track focus on bullying, LGBT, and political agenda issues, and no real interest or commitment to the security and emergency preparedness components of a comprehensive approach to school safety.  If it is not bullying or LGBT related, it’s not on his radar screen.

House Republicans, in order to get a two-week Continuing Resolution (CR) for the current FY 2011 budget year, pulled programs Obama proposed cutting from his FY2012 program,  and put those to serve as the $4 billion in cuts from the current CR bill. This maneuver forced the Democrats to approved the CR since they could not go against eliminating in FY2011 what Obama had proposed eliminating in FY2012.  It also allowed the Republicans to save face in their campaign for massive cuts to federal spending. 

Who Cares About School Emergency Preparedness?  Answer: Not President Obama, Secretary Duncan, Kevin Jennings, or Congress

The top problem with the elimination of this school emergency planning grant is that it wipes out the only dedicated federal fund for K-12 emergency preparedness.  REMS was successful, of interest and need to districts as evident by the number of applications each year, and had no prior claims of ineffectiveness. (Perhaps this is why Jennings took a pass instead of providing a rationale for the cut?)

Another pathetic reality is that this was a politically expedient solution for both parties to get through a two week Continuing Resolution (CR) while they fight the broader budget battle.  It really had nothing to do with school emergency planning in the eyes of Congress. Just politics. 

Finally, there does not appear to have been any committee hearings held to discuss or debate in detail this specific program or others which ended up being cut.  It served a broader political need and they all went along with it.  My bet is that most of those elected officials in the House and Senate have no clue that they even eliminated the only dedicated K-12 school emergency planning program.

Welcome to our federal political and legislative process. If you are a parent or educator, this should really give you a lot of confidence in our federal “leaders’ as to how much they care about school emergency preparedness (NOT!).

Cut wasteful federal spending?  Absolutely.  But cut the right programs.  And the only dedicated K-12 school emergency planning program in the federal budget is NOT the right program to cut.

Once again, politics trumps school safety.

Ken Trump

Visit School Security Blog at:  http://www.schoolsecurityblog.com

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2. Obama Eliminates Emergency Planning Grants for Local Schools Federal funding for local school emergency planning grants has been...
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The official statement says, “Participants will have the opportunity to talk with the President and representatives from the highest level of his Administration about how all communities can work together to prevent bullying.”

School Safety Agenda or LGBT Gay Rights Political Agenda?

Sounds good.  But while this is the formal agenda, is it the real agenda? 

Or is it just one more step toward the Obama Administration’s coming out with its real political agenda which has been largely masked the past two years under the guise of ”bullying” and “school safety” ?

It is increasingly evident that “bullying,” while one of many legitimate school safety issues, is also a political code word for advancing the political agenda of gay rights special interests from the LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bi-Sexual, and Transgender) community — a major voting block of interest to the Obama Administration.

LGBT online media sites were buzzing Tuesday with news of the White House Conference on Bullying as soon as, if not before, the official release on the White House web site.  Multiple gay news sites said the conference was announced in a conference call with reporters from the LGBT community held by Melody Barnes, White House domestic policy adviser. 

The Washington Blade story led with, “The White House is set to hold a conference next week in which President Obama will hear concerns about anti-LGBT bullying.”  Note that it is not just bullying.  It is “anti-LGBT bullying.”

The article quotes Barnes as noting that, “Obama appeared in the fall for a video for the ‘It Gets Better’ campaign to speak out against anti-gay bullying.  Barnes called the issue, ‘very, very near to the president and the first lady’s heart’.'”

LGBT Gay Rights Special Interest Groups on Invitee List

The article goes on to state that, “Sources have told the Washington Blade that representatives from LGBT advocacy groups would be among the participants in the conference.”  It reports the Gay, Lesbian, & Straight Education Network (GLSEN), The Trevor Project, and the Human Rights Campaign — all gay rights special interest groups — confirmed with the Blade their planned attendance at the conference.

The gay rights special interests continue their political push for Congress to pass The Student Non-Discrimination Act (SNDA) and Safe Schools Improvement Act (SSIA) which has not yet been publicly supported by the White House.  However, a MetroWeekly article indicates that, “White House and Education Department officials repeatedly expressed support for the aims of the bills.”

Similar reports were posted in the MetroWeekly’s “poliglot, a queer spin on politics” article on the bullying conference.

Are Kevin Jennings’ Critics’ Claims Coming Out To Be True?

Critics of Kevin Jennings, Obama’s Assistant Deputy Secretary for Safe and Drug Free Schools, were instantly outraged at the time of his appointment. The critics expressed intense concerns that Jennings would use his office to advance gay rights political agendas.

Jennings is founder and original executive director of the Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network (GLSEN), and has publicly bragged of being a political fundraiser and host of Obama at his home during the Presidential campaign.  Jennings’ replacement at GLSEN, Dr. Eliza Byard, was one of the parties quoted in the Washington Blade article as an invited attendee at the upcoming White House bullying conference.  Byard has also been at the head of lobbying efforts for the two previously referenced bills before Congress.

I vowed to keep an open mind at the time of Jennings’ appointment in spite of the critics’ initial skepticism of Jennings.  I hoped that he would be an advocate for a comprehensive approach to school safety.  While I am glad I kept an open mind, it is increasingly clear that the critics may very well have been right on target.

And unfortunately for the education and the school safety professions, federal school safety policy and funding is being disproportionately skewed toward one issue — and one big political agenda.

What say you?

Ken Trump

Visit School Security Blog at:  http://www.schoolsecurityblog.com

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In a Friday press release on $4 billion in spending cuts as a part of a proposed short term government funding Continuing Resolution (CR), the House Appropriations Committee proposed eliminating $32 million for Safe Schools and Citizenship Education.  While I am working on confirming the programs under this category, it appears this may include the Readiness and Emergency Management for Schools (REMS) school emergency planning grants for the current 2011 budget year.

The fact remains the Department of Education has not issued a call for proposals for the REMS program as of this writing.  Normally these grants are announced in January or February.  Buzz in the school safety community is that the REMS grant program will be eliminated this year, which seems to coincide with the House Appropriations Committee recommended cut.

It appears the Republican majority is offering up this cut and others for programs the Obama Administration has already proposed cutting in 2012, all in order to get a compromise Continuing Resolution while Congress debates bigger FY2011 budget cuts. 

Although many people (myself included) agree there is massive waste in federal spending, the REMS program is one of only a handful of success stories from the Department of Education’s historically lame management of federal school safety policy and funding.  The program, which started in 2003, continues to see hundreds and hundreds more applicants than the Department funds each year, suggesting a significant need exists for expansion, not elimination, of this program.  REMS is already under-funded at around $30 million a year (awards to about 100 school districts nationwide).

A 2007 investigation by the federal General Accounting Office found schools woefully prepared for school emergency planning.  Testimony at a 2007 House Homeland Security Committee Hearing reinforced the need for more resources and strengthening of school emergency preparedness efforts. 

Given REMS is the only dedicated federal funded grant program exclusively for K-12 school emergency planning in the Department of Education, or for that matter the federal government as a whole, its elimination by both the Obama Administration and the House Appropriations Committee is nothing short of inexcusable and negligent.

Cut federal spending?  Absolutely.  But cut the right things.  And eliminating K-12 school emergency planning is not one of the right things!

Ken Trump

Visit School Security Blog at:  http://www.schoolsecurityblog.com

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Kevin Jennings, Obama’s Assistant Deputy Secretary for Safe and Drug Free Schools, confirmed the elimination of the Readiness and Emergency Management for Schools (REMS) grant program via email on Thursday.  Jennings has yet to respond to my follow-up email asking for the rationale for the cut.

Local School Emergency Planning Grants Eliminated Following Safe and Drug Free Schools State Grants Elimination

The Administration eliminated an already under-funded $30 million Readiness and Emergency Management for Schools (REMS) grant program. A 2007 investigation by the federal General Accounting Office found schools woefully prepared for school emergency planning.  Testimony at a 2007 House Homeland Security Committee Hearing reinforced the need for more resources and strengthening of school emergency preparedness efforts.

The REMS grants, normally with calls for proposals posted in January or February, have not been made available so far in 2011.  It is unclear whether the Education Department’s failure to announce this year’s REMS grants is due to the continuing budget resolution delays by Congress or if the Department is intentionally withholding the current year’s REMS funding to avoid offering the competition this year.

A token $8.3 million is proposed in the FY2012 budget to provide state education agencies  (SEAs) approximately 12 grants at $500,000 to assist local schools with emergency planning.  This plays out to about $6 million in actual dollars going to SEAs while the rest goes to peer review and “other school safety initiatives,” meaning the near-nothing full $8.3 million will not even make it to help local schools.

This program elimination and the Department of Education’s full proposed budget for the Office of Safe and Drug Free Schools is online at “Supporting Student Success Fiscal Year 2012 Budget Request.”

Obama, Secretary Duncan, and Kevin Jennings already eliminated the state grant component of the Safe and Drug Free Schools Program, with the approval of Congress, in one of their initial budget proposals for the Department.  This move eliminated formula grants to local school districts which could be used to meet locally identified school safety, security, prevention, and preparedness needs.

Funding Bolstered for Politically-Driven Bullying and LGBT Agenda; Feds Recklessly Neglect School Security and Emergency Planning

The proposed FY2012 budget calls for fully funding Kevin Jennings’ pet project, the Successful, Safe, and Healthy Students (SSHS) program at a proposed budget of slightly less than $365 million.   The focus of this program is skewed heavily toward bullying, harassment, and ”school climate surveys.”

Jennings has been on a nationwide speaking tour where his presentations are almost exclusively focused on bullying, harassment, and Lesbian-Gay-Bi-Sexual and Transgender themes.  The Department promotes the presentations as highlighting, “…the Department’s efforts over the past year to prevent bullying and create safe learning environments through its Safe and Supportive School grants program.”

The Safe and Supportive School grants program, funded in a pilot program in Fiscal Year 2010 at $38.8 million for 11 states, is focused on creating “school climate surveys” and ”grading” schools on school safety.

Jennings has publicly stated that school safety has for too long been defined based on “violence” and, in turn, has redefined federal school safety policy and funding to define school safety based on “climate” and bullying, harassment, and related themes.

Sorely missing from Jennings’ speeches, and increasingly from Department funding, is anything related to school security, school policing, and now school emergency planning.

Federal Cuts Set the Stage for a Pre-Columbine Mentality and Higher-Risk School Safety Climate

The proposed move by Jennings, Duncan, and Obama to eliminate the already embarrassingly pithy amount of $30 million in Readiness and Emergency Management for Schools (REMS) grant awards to local school district is reckless, negligent, and inexcusable.  

A number of school safety specialists believe it is just a matter of time before the next Columbine — or worse.  We already have a pre-Columbine mentality in the education community in general, in federal school safety policy and funding specifically, and in the blind eyes of those in Congress who as a whole have shown no interest or attention to the Department of Education’s skewed school safety policy and funding proposals.

The past few months have brought a number of high-profile school shootings around the nation.  An assistant principal killed and principal shot in Omaha; school shooting incidents in Los Angeles; a shooting at a Florida school board meeting; and more.  

When the bullets start flying, these and other schools are not looking for a school climate survey.  They are looking for security and emergency preparedness measures.  They sure won’t find any support in these areas from Jennings, Duncan, the Obama Administration, or Congress.

But when the next high-profile incident occurs, the politicians, educators, and others will once again scratch their heads and ask, “How did this happen?”   I will be standing by with mirrors to hand to them so they can look in the mirror to quickly find the answer to their question.

Meanwhile, educators, safety officials, and parents who, like me, are appalled by the elimination of federal school emergency planning funding should be on the phones calling their Congressman and Senators at their Washington offices now.  The education associations should also wake up their lobbyists and have them focus (for a change) on school safety, and not just “education reform” and academic funding interests in Congress.

Ken Trump

Visit School Security Blog at:  http://www.schoolsecurityblog.com

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School Administrators and Boards Playing School Safety “On-the-Cheap”

Hiding behind challenging fiscal times, some school “leaders” are playing school safety “on the cheap” in spite of high-profile incidents occurring in their schools.  Not only are districts cutting violence prevention and security programs, some are dodging taking appropriate action even after a crisis or threatening situation.

Following a murder of one school administrator and the shooting of another administrator, a school superintendent responded to my suggestion that he hold a community meeting on school safety by saying, “That could get out of control.”

Another district called for a proposal for a security consultation after two separate shooting incidents in two years, including one where homemade explosives were found at a student suspect’s home. The top administration never responded back once they got the proposal and a mid-level administrator implied they needed the services, but the district was facing budget cuts.

Yet another school district that had a student with a hit list and explosives found on a police search of his home first asked for a proposal for comprehensive services, then asked for a second proposal reduced by 50% after they got the first proposal and cost.  A week later, the urgency for services disappeared quickly as the administration responded that they decided to hold out in hopes of getting a grant for what they acknowledged was sorely needed school safety support.

And one school board member from a suburban school district, when introduced to me at a meeting, offered these as the first words out of his mouth:  “We don’t have a violence problem.  We have a budget problem.”

School Officials Hide Behind Tightening Budgets, Do Little on School Safety

It has been documented that too many penny-wise and pound-foolish school boards and administrators have put violence prevention and school security programs first on the chopping block as education budgets tighten.  Now there is increasing evidence that others, even after high-profile incidents where they know they should be taking action, are hiding behind tightening budgets as an excuse to not act.

Combine these shortsighted decisions with a lame federal school safety policy and funding skewed away from violence and toward “bullying” and “climate” — and of course, “civility” — and what do we have?  A pre-Columbine mindset.

There is plenty of things school safety consultants can and are doing.  A close look will tell you most of us are not starving.  In fact, most of us are not as frustrated by the business end of the inaction by school “leaders” on proposals as we are by an education community which is increasingly falling back into a pre-Columbine ”head in the sand” mentality toward school safety.

Chat with an experienced school safety expert and they will tell you that we are in a climate in the education community today which is blinded by tunnel-vision focuses on two issues:  Budgets and improving test scores. 

Pre-Columbine Mentality Returns to Education Community

They will also tell you that while they do not wish to see anyone harmed in a school, the climate is particularly ripe for the next Columbine-like incident (or one even worse) to occur any day now.  The handwriting is truly on the wall.

It is likely that when the next major school violence incident occurs, legislators, educators, and others will once again start the head-scratching and questions of, “How did this happen? What could we have done to prevent it?”

When that occurs, I’ll be standing nearby with some mirrors.  All that many education “leaders” will need to do is look in the mirror for the answer.

Are your school board members and administrators in a pre-Columbine mindset regarding school safety?

Ken Trump

Visit School Security Blog at:  http://www.schoolsecurityblog.com

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Budget Cuts Make Schools More Reactive on Safety

Charlotte-Mecklenberg’s school district superintendent is recommending $1 million in cuts to the district’s law enforcement division, according to a local news report.  About 32 campus security associates will be laid off, along with the rapid response team that searches for weapons and conducts school safety audits.

These cuts are on top of cuts made last year resulting in the elimination of about 60 campus security staff.

School police chief Bud Cesena is quoted as saying, “The adults on campus have to take a more active role…in the things that the security associates did on a daily basis.”

While the chief understandably has to try to put a good face on an ugly situation, anyone with any school security experience — and for that matter, anyone who is awake and breathing — knows that the level of school safety will decline, not stay the same.  Already overloaded principals and teachers under pressure to improve test scores are not going to be out proactively patrolling the restrooms during class time, doing safety audits, or scanning kids for weapons.

Budget Crisis or Leadership Crisis on School Safety?

A school board member from a Midwest district told me a couple of weeks ago, “We do not have a violence problem.  We have a budget problem.”  My first advice to him was to quickly knock on wood.  My advice for his school-community is to tell their school board, or at least this member, to wake up and try to see the forest along with the trees.

No school district has a blank check for security or any other support service.  The education community is under an unprecedented financial crunch and will likely remain there for many years.  One report suggested it may be 10 years before education budgets bounce back just to their levels of several years ago.

But school board members and superintendents cannot fake and spin their way out of dealing with school security issues by hiding behind their paper-thin shield of “fiscal crisis.”  In fact, it is during a time when society is under intense economic pressure that violence and related security risks will likely increase.  We need only to look at the rash of shootings of law enforcement officers, the Tucson Congressional event attack, and multiple high-profile school attacks all in the last month alone.  

Reversing Declining Enrollment and Credibility Starts with Safety

Public school systems are facing not only a fiscal crisis, but also a public credibility crisis.  Underachieving schools, public scrutiny of education fiscal management, and political demands for education “reform” have left parents skeptical of leaders of even the best managed school districts.

Superintendents and board members who want to head off further declining enrollment, slow the pace of mounting support for charter and parental choice options, and reverse growing challenges to their credibility had best make school safety their first focus.  And if school safety really is their priority, it will be reflected in their budgets, not just in their rhetoric.

Ken Trump

Visit School Security Blog at:  http://www.schoolsecurityblog.com

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