Jim Cummings
While the “Three R’s” of education are still the most important things taught in school, the sometimes violent nature of today’s society has expanded that list to include rescue, resuscitation and rewinding a surveillance video.
While nobody likes to look at schools as a potential target for those wishing to do harm, the reality is; you can never be too safe.
“What we are doing is unique to Indiana,” said Lt. Bruce Copple of the semi-annual meeting held by the Safety Response Committee of Greensburg Community Schools. “We’ve been contacted by the Department of Education and asked to do a presentation on how we put together this group.”
That committee met this week and included 25 community members from clergy and elected officials to media and first responders. Parent representatives also joined in with school staff and administrators. The topics included bullying, video cameras, drugs and alcohol, disaster and lock down drills, infectious diseases, CPR and overall school safety.
The group learned there are 11 defibrillators in the school buildings and CPR training is more than suggested.
“We are the only corporation in Indiana that requires all staff to be certified in CPR and the use of portable defibrillators. This includes teachers, custodial staff, cafeteria workers and aids,” Copple, who is also the School Resource Officer, said. “This was an initiative that started at the top and was bought into all the way down the line from the teachers association to the staff.”
This training came in very handy and potentially saved a life recently.
“Friday, we had a student who was choking,” said superintendent Tom Hunter. “Because of this training, and the quick reaction of a teacher’s assistant, things didn’t turn tragic.”
The child was cared for and looked over by the nurse after the airway was cleared.
Vice principal of Greensburg Elementary Ed Daihl and teacher Katie Davis talked about Indiana Codes relating to bullying and what the schools are doing to put a stop to it. They explained how anti-bullying education begins in the lower grades and continues through high school. Hunter felt this was the reason the school does not see as many problems as other institutions.
“A decade ago, the problem was identified and a lot of time and effort was put into alleviating the concerns of students and parents,” he said. “We all started working together and it is amazing to see how far we’ve come. We’ve worked with the police, elected officials and everyone we could. While that’s made a huge difference, a lot of the burden still falls on parents to make the biggest difference.”
Copple said bullying reaches far beyond school.
“This isn’t just a school problem, it’s a communitywide issue. As law enforcement we see it as the crime of battery,” Copple said. “We also see online bullying and we are addressing that.”
Police say Internet bullying was worse in previous years but technological advancements on their part have curbed the trend.
“We were hammered by this last year,” Copple said. “Now, I have an information technology component I can use to research this. Now, when I see a problem, I can knock on a student’s door at home and ask their parents, ’Did you know what your son or daughter was doing?’ Because of that, we’ve only had one case this year.”
In addition to preventing in-school issues, Greensburg Fire Chief Scott Chasteen gave an update on a recent drill done by first responders practicing evacuating and triaging an overturned bus. He said last month’s drill went very well but pointed out a few flaws in the system.
“We learned a lot, especially the need to be able to better identify students and get their contact information,” Chasteen said. “This was another opportunity for emergency services to work with the schools. We already help conduct fire, tornado and lock down drills but every chance we get to help is beneficial. We want to help guide kids in a positive direction when it comes to staying safe.”
In order to help identify students, first responders are equipping a laptop, provided by the Emergency Management Agency and the Dept. of Homeland Security, so they can pull live student information that is updated daily.
“Of the 28 students involved in the mock crash, we only had complete information on 17,” Copple said. “With this new equipment, I’ll have immediate access to all data right from my car. I can e-mail contact information to the police department and circulate a picture of a student if I had to.”
It is this cooperation, and preventative planning, Hunter appreciates. He believes the relationship Greensburg Schools has with area first responders is one of its greatest assets.
“It is because of these tools, and our relationship with the police and fire departments, Greensburg Schools has a fraction of the problems other corporations do,” He said. “I don’t know of another corporation that has this set up. Often, they have adversarial relationships with local police departments. Our goal, is to stop kids from making bad mistakes and keeping them from being arrested and ending up in court.”
