After the release of 11 recommendations from a Blue Ribbon Panel that looked into safety and security in Loudoun County Public Schools, several groups in the county are calling on school leaders to reject the panel’s findings and reconvene a new review group with more diverse community voices.
The panel, convened by Superintendent Aaron Spence in December, consisted of local law enforcement officers, including the Sheriff’s Office, Leesburg Police and Purcellville Police; representative from the Town of Leesburg and Loudoun County governments, The Williams Center for Wellness and Recovery, the Department of Justice and Homeland Security, Loudoun County Fire and Rescue, and cybersecurity firms.
The panel was charged with assessing safety processes and protocols in schools and came up with 11 recommendations to enhance security.
“Parents have questioned the process under which these panel members were chosen and also the basis of the recommendations made by the panel. This information has not been provided with the report, and cannot be found on the LCPS website,” a letter response to the panel stated.
The organizations signing onto the letter are the Loudoun Democratic Committee, Loudoun4All, the New Virginia Majority, Rise for Youth, Justice Forward Virginia, the Hamkae Center, and the Arab American Anti-Discrimination Committee-Loudoun Chapter.
The statement pointed to a heavy law enforcement presence on the panel and said none of the parent and community groups like the Equity Committee, Minority Student Achievement Advisory Committee, Special Education Advisory Committee or representatives from communities that could be disproportionately affected by the recommendations were part of the discussion.
“We call on the Superintendent and the School Board to reject these recommendations and reconvene a panel that includes a diverse set of voices in order to ensure that our children’s rights, including privacy and fair treatment, are protected, and no measures would enable any group potential for abuse of power when it comes to our children,” the letter stated.
Some of the recommendations include adding school resource officers or school security officers or division patrols to the 62 elementary schools. SROs are armed law enforcement officers, while SSOs are unarmed and non-law enforcement staff. The panel also recommended increasing security personnel for after school events; making sure SRO’s and Unified Mental Health Team representatives are involved in every threat assessment training; ensuring there is wifi coverage throughout school buildings, creating of a formal alternative education site for at-risk students; have the school board label the Divisions of Safety and Security as a Law Enforcement Unit; and working with public safety officials to assess public safety radio converge within schools.
The groups represented in the letter objected to placing SROs at elementary schools, the requirement of SROs to be involved in every threat assessment made by the school and to designate the division’s Safety and Security department as a law enforcement unit, according to the letter.
The groups argued an increase in law enforcement presence at school did not increase student safety, citing a Texas University and FBI examination of 160 incidents, including 25 school shootings that found none of the shootings were stopped by armed officers returning fire.
The groups also said according to the Center for Public Integrity, Black and disabled students are “disproportionately referred to police, especially in younger grades” and that Virginia has the highest rate of Black student and disabled student referrals to law enforcement in the country.
The groups’ biggest issue, according to the letter, was with the designation of the division’s Safety and Security department as a law enforcement unit, saying it could allow law enforcement to bypass the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act.
The School Board is scheduled to get an update on the panel’s recommendations during its May 14 meeting. Spence plans to review the recommendations and community feedback to create an action plan he will present to the board in June.
(17) comments
As our right-leaning friends have displayed time and time again, if you don't like the way elections or reports or, well, most anything, just deny the outcome and say it's tainted and go for a do-over that will get to a result you like. Time was those same people thought personal responsibility and play by the rules were important virtues.
Like when chair 47% has repeatedly attempted to insert a law enforcement organization that nobody wants that would report to her? You know... to undercut the will of the voters who directly chose their chief LEO for the county...
Nice try!
The true colors of the lawless Democratic Committee is displayed. Don’t prevent crime - and don’t punish the offender. That is their goal.
Reposting since my first comment was removed...the authors of this letter should apologize to the community for insinuating that minorities will be disproportionately affected. That's as ignorant as saying minorities don't know the word "computer"
If you put a bunch of hammers in a room every problem looks like nail.
I'm not surprised that a bunch of cops want to put cops in every kindergarten.
Is the goal "law enforcement" of "criminality avoidance"? As a former school board member I don't want to hear or see focus on catching the kidnapper as much as preventing the kidnapping in the first place. RESPONSE TIMES for emergency notifications from any panic button which is currently operable in EVERY school needs to be formally committed to!!!!!!!!!!! EVERY CAMERA in every school needs to be actively seen and not just a tool to punish after an event! These are basic common sense points which get lost in the diversity nonsense. EVERY school should have some of the hundreds of sworn deputies WE PAY FOR near schools prior to their start and after they finish to protect agains abuses linked with children commuting to and from school. In my experience very few officers are outside the schools at these challenging times especially for walkers. Doesn't the sheriff have enough staff and budget to MAKE A COMMITMENT for EACH SCHOOL? I would hope the BOS can prioritize real children over old statues or names on school buildings.
Despicable that these activist groups are against school safety measures.
Would we see this level of resistance if Loudoun's law enforcement was under the control of chair 47%?
Let's face it: There's always room for improvement when it comes to law enforcement's relationship with the community. So if these groups want enhanced civilian oversight of law enforcement -- Kudos to them! I back them wholeheartedly!
Having these groups provide oversight and guidance to law enforcement is like having a pastry chef tell a neurosurgeon how to operate on a brain. Perhaps these groups should use some of the money they take from the taxpayers and hire professional law enforcement retirees to provide some insight into the entire operation. Again, these groups have zero law enforcement experience so their knowledge of terrorism and threats against schools is probably limited at best.
So these folks don't want to afford an extra measure of protection for children while they're being entrusted to the public schools.
Same people who want to limit or take away your right to protect yourself.
And also the same people who want to reduce punishments for criminals.
Bottom Line: Less safety for society, more operating freedom for criminals.
There are the same groups that will complain if they don't beef up security and something happens. Left leaning hyocrites.
Look at these groups - Loudoun Democratic Committee, Loudoun4All, the New Virginia Majority, Rise for Youth, Justice Forward Virginia, the Hamkae Center, the Arab American Anti-Discrimination Committee-Loudoun Chapter, the Equity Committee, Minority Student Achievement Advisory Committee, and Special Education Advisory Committee.
I don't see one law enforcement professional in the bunch. All I see are groups who are trying to take other people's money by whining and complaining. This is a safety and security effort; it has nothing to do with what rights minors think they have. As the comedian in Australia said about all of this nonsense, these folks need to "wake up, grow up, and shut up."
The law enforcement professionals are not telling you how to do your social experimenting nonsense; they are telling you about safety and security.
All the usual leftist groups, who hate law enforcement and are perfectly fine with leaving our youngest undefended and exposed.
No reasonable parent should be opposed to LE standing post at their kids school. Our children's safety comes first, over these extremists' feelings.
We need to greatly expand Charter Schools so that there will be greater diversity in the types of schools that exist. Then, parents can select the school that better aligns with their values and what is important to them. The monolithic school district is a relic of the 20th century. It is past time to move on.
We need school vouchers as well. Our taxes in Loudoun county are very high. Many people cant afford to pay high property taxes and then Charter school costs.
As long as we are paying the administrator more than any Cabinet Secretary and he has 1/1,000,000,000,000 of the responsibility, it'll never happen. His job is to figure out how to spend your money.
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