Dear editor,
A few weeks ago a student posted a threat on social media to harm students in one of our county high schools. Within 90 minutes, law enforcement was taking that student into custody. This quick response was made possible by a strong partnership that now exists between local law enforcement and our school district.
In April 2014 when I was elected to the school board, I learned that our school district was out of compliance on a law that required a district of our size to have an alternative school. Each year the district, under direction of the school board, had been requesting a waiver on this law. Our school district had been out of compliance with this law since it elected to close the Simpson Alternative school a few years earlier in a cost-cutting measure. In lieu of funding an alternative school, our board had voted to mainstream the most dangerous students in our school system into a program at our Career and Technology Center. This new program did not focus on behavior modification, instead it’s focus was on academics. The closure of the Simpson Center and the implementation of this program was an epic failure and it lacked leadership on the part of our school board, as it put the safety of our students at the career and technology center at risk.
In November of 2016 board elections allowed the priorities of our school board to shift and focus more on educational and safety issues. At that time, the board began implementing measures to not only bring our school system into compliance on the alternative school law, but also ensured that the safety of our students was made a priority.
Since November of 2016, the School District of Pickens County has implemented many safety measures that have made our schools some of the safest in our state. While I cannot speak to all of those measures as it may compromise safety, I will outline a few:
- Almost 2,000 safety cameras were added and updated in every school throughout the district
- Added new positions to monitor cameras throughout the district
- Expanded use of behavioral interventionists
- Increased funding and expanded partnership with Pickens County Behavioral Health services
- Implemented the use of private security monitoring throughout the district
- Provided additional professional development for teachers to be trained on how to deal with behavioral and mental health issues
- Implemented a safety task force of district administrators (a representative of this group meets monthly with our police chiefs and sheriff)
- Implemented an online safety program, securely, that allows parents to monitor their children’s social media accounts to identify possible safety issues
- Streamlined the reporting processes between school officials and law enforcement
- School safety issues were added as a standing topic to our monthly school board agenda
Our school district also implemented a new alternative school (Project GO at the AR Lewis Opportunity School). The focus of Project Go is a restorative justice concept that allows our worst offenders to be housed in a separate facility as required by state law. Students that are sent to the AR Lewis Opportunity School are taken out of the mainstream and placed in a separate facility, thus ensuring the safety of all of our students.
In addition to the measures above, this past year our school board took one of the boldest moves of any school district in the state of South Carolina by unanimously requiring that every school in Pickens County must now be staffed with an armed police officer. This became effective at the beginning of this school year. While state law makers are touting school resources officers as a campaign promise, the Pickens County School Board made this a reality in all of our schools.
The safety measures implemented by the school district are just a part of role of protecting our schools. The other safety measures that must be implemented are the responsibility of each of you as citizens and parents. We live in a very dangerous time, and all of us must work together and be constantly vigilant. If we see anything, whether it be on social media or in our everyday activities, that may be threatening to our schools or students, we have a duty to report that to school officials and law enforcement immediately! No student should ever be scared to go to school. Together, we must ensure our schools are safe for students to learn and grow.
Dr. Brian D. Swords
Chairman,
Pickens County School Board
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