A potential plan for bolstering state support for school safety is taking shape ahead of the next legislative session.
Hellgate Elementary School District superintendent Molly Blakely says her district got a call late one night this spring from a school safety tipline operator.
Blakely says the operator told the district a student who’d just graduated eighth grade was likely in crisis. The district called police who were able to intervene.
“I firmly believe that we saved that child’s life,” Blakely said. “This is exactly why Montana Safe Schools and the Montana Safe Schools tipline are not optional services; they’re essential, and quite frankly should be mandatory.”
Blakely spoke in support of the Montana Safe Schools Center and its tipline to lawmakers this month. The center surveyed districts across the state on their safety practices and found troubling results. Many aren’t following best practices to prevent or respond to safety threats like shooters or fires.
Now, a committee of lawmakers is mulling over a preliminary bill draft that could help change that. It would provide the center with funding to build a robust database of school safety measures. That would increase the center’s bandwidth to work one-on-one with more schools.
Director Nancy Berg says Montana is behind other states in school safety funding.
“Keeping students safe requires more than just responding to a crisis,” Berg said. “It requires creating conditions that prevent crises from occurring in the first place.”
The bill draft is one approach to school safety the Legislature could take when it meets in January, but it’s not clear it will move forward.
