During their meeting this week, the Knox Community School Board took time to discuss the Newtown, Conn. elementary school shooting and safety procedures at the corporation.
Superintendent A.J. Gappa explained that the state is highly regarded in it school safety initiatives.
“Indiana is pretty much at the front of school safety,” said Gappa. “They’ve had a school safety director for over ten years now. We have annual conferences. Each of our buildings has a school safety specialist – at least one in each of the buildings. They have to renew their license by going to seminars on a yearly basis.”
Gappa said lockdown drills are performed on a regular basis.
“For the last number of years, school lockdowns have been required,” Gappa said. “I’m not sure everybody’s aware of that. All of our buildings already had a lockdown drill prior to the Friday shooting in Connecticut and things seem to be going well as far as that’s concerned.”
Anything can happen at any time and Gappa reassured the board that the corporation is ready in case an emergency situation arises.
“We try to stay alert to anything that might come up because school safety is the number one priority of everybody involved with the school,” Gappa said.
