Blog Archives

Federal Commission on School Safety report rehashes decades-old best practices, adds a few political twists

Posted by on December 19, 2018

Statement by school security expert Kenneth S. Trump, President of National School Safety and Security Services, on the Federal Commission on School Safety’s final report: The Federal Commission on School Safety’s final report largely rehashes school safety, security, and emergency preparedness best practices that have been recognized since the Columbine era nearly 20 years ago. […]

Bibb County Schools hire police captain fired from last job

Posted by on November 1, 2012

The Bibb County school system hired a former small-town police chief who was fired from his last job and has a pending complaint against him with the state agency that oversees police ethics and certification, according to an October 23rd story in The Telegraph newspaper in Macon, Georgia. Ronald Rodgers, the former chief in question, […]

Bibb County Schools: No conflict in hiring consultant as police chief

Posted by on September 25, 2012

The Bibb County School District’s leaders see no conflict in rehiring as its police chief the chief financial officer and senior analyst of a school safety consulting firm that just conducted a safety assessment for the district, according to local news outlets. The Georgia school district has been under fire for its handling of discipline and […]

Bibb County school crime, discipline data questioned with multiple safety reports

Posted by on September 19, 2012

The Bibb County (GA) school district remains under fire as two versions of a school safety assessment consultant’s report, along with state safety incident data, bring into question the district’s accuracy and consistency in reporting fights and weapons. The Macon Telegraph on Tuesday ran a story entitled, “Bibb school fights, weapons reported tallies differ widely.” The report claims […]

Draft school safety reports jeopardize integrity of security consultants, school boards

Posted by on September 16, 2012

School security consultants with strong integrity will lose some jobs here and there. But in the long haul, they will retain their integrity and their credibility, and their school district clients will likely do so as well. “Draft” school safety assessment reports can trigger questions on security consultant, school leader credibility One of my long-standing […]

Safety report blasts Bibb County school discipline; Judge blasts security consultant

Posted by on September 12, 2012

The heat has been turned up in southern Georgia, and it has nothing to do with the weather. A firestorm is brewing following a Macon Telegraph newspaper story on a school safety assessment consulting report for Bibb County Schools which “…included a scathing assessment of the way the school system handles and tracks student discipline.” The […]

When Did Common Sense End in School Discipline and Safety?

Posted by on March 23, 2011

Training students not to open exterior school doors to let someone inside is a best practice. Suspending a student who violated the rule to help a woman with her hands full is not a best practice. A Southampton County, Virginia, middle school student was suspended from school after opening a door for a woman with […]

Tying Educators’ Hands In School Safety Efforts

Posted by on April 6, 2010

Chuck Hibbert is a national school safety consultant (including for my company) and 21-year-veteran school district administrator over school security and school police services for a 15,000 student district in Indiana.  Chuck takes issue with ““Taking Safety Too Far: The Ill-Defined Role Police Play in Schools,” February 24th commentary article in Education Week by authors and civil rights advocates Johanna Wald […]

Anti-School Police Commentary Paints False School Safety Picture

Posted by on March 30, 2010

In ““Taking Safety Too Far: The Ill-Defined Role Police Play in Schools,” a February 24th commentary article in Education Week, authors and civil rights advocates Johanna Wald and Lisa Thurau presented what I believe to be a very skewed misrepresentation of school resource officers (SROs), school police, and administrators.  I responded with a letter to the editor […]