Latest news with #schoolSafety
Yahoo
3 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
Former Clark Co. student arrested in Indiana after bomb threat of former school
MARSHALL, Ill. (WCIA) — A former Marshall High School graduate was arrested in Indiana after planning to deploy destructive devices at her former school. In a joint statement from the Marshall Police Department and Marshall Community School District, they announced that on Friday, they were informed of the arrest of a past graduate of Marshall High School in Evansville, Indiana, where the female subject currently lives. Urbana Fire Department responds to house fire The information given to them from the Evansville Police Department is that the former student had in her possession 'incendiary,' or fire starting, devices with a plan to deploy the devices at her former school in Clark County. The subject remains in custody on the charge of possession of a destructive device. Both the Marshall Police Department and school district will remain in communication with the Evansville Police Department for the latest information and updates regarding this situation. They applauded both the St. Vincent Police Department and the investigation conducted by the EPD Bomb Technicians for leading to a safe arrest made during this incident. 'The safety of our community, students and staff is always our top priority and we remain committed to ensure this even when school is not in session,' part of the statement reads. 'We will keep you informed of any further developments as they become available.' Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Fears Grow Over ICE's Reach Into Schools
School (in)Security is our biweekly briefing on the latest school safety news, vetted by Mark Keierleber. Subscribe here. Two developments this week have upped the anxiety over how far President Donald Trump's immigration crackdown will go to ensnare students and young children. In New York City, a Bronx high school student from Venezuela showed up for a routine immigration court date and was promptly arrested afterward by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. Chalkbeat's Michael Elsen-Rooney, who broke the story Monday, reports that the arrest has sent shock waves through the 20-year-old's small, close-knit high school, which caters to older newcomers learning English. Meanwhile, ICE agents have been showing up unannounced at schools, homes and migrant shelters from New York to Hawaii to interview children, some as young as 6, who arrived in the U.S. alone, The New York Times reported yesterday. The Office of Refugee Resettlement, which is responsible for the children's care and has historically been kept separate from immigration activities, is now assisting in them, according to ProPublica. The Trump administration is calling these surprise visits 'welfare checks,' but educators, advocates and others see them as a means of accelerating deportations. Propelling Trump's deportation agenda has been a priority for Florida officials, from Gov. Ron DeSantis all the way down to the St. Petersburg school district police chief. An investigation I published last week revealed that the chief instructed officers to assist in the crackdown. The revelation, included in a batch of public records I obtained from Pinellas County Schools, came after district officials claimed that an application to deputize campus cops with Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrest authority was a mistake. The records show efforts to cooperate with ICE run deeper than school officials have previously acknowledged — and that the district's top leaders were aware of it. Immigrant rights groups and privacy advocates have for years warned that school-based police officers could share information about undocumented students and their families with federal immigration officials, especially as Trump bolsters a program that grants ICE powers to local cops. More than 550 law enforcement agencies nationwide have what are known as 287(g) agreements with ICE, including at least one in every Florida county. Civil rights attorneys say the directives given to Pinellas school police — which include orders to detain and question anyone with federal deportation orders — could violate constitutional protections against unreasonable detention and children's legal right to a free public education regardless of their immigration status. Read my latest investigation here. School cybersecurity experts told me they were surprised by how quickly federal authorities arrested 19-year-old hacker and Massachusetts college student Matthew Lane. Lane pleaded guilty last week to carrying out a massive cyberattack on the deep-pocketed ed tech company PowerSchool, which gave into his ransom demand. They also criticized the company for its slower-than-previously-known response and public notice about the breach, which exposed the sensitive records of millions of students and educators. The Department of Justice alleges Lane and co-conspirators demanded a $2.85 million ransom in Bitcoin. He pleaded guilty to cyber extortion, unauthorized access to protected computers and aggravated identity theft. | BleepingComputer More than 100 school districts have filed lawsuits against PowerSchool alleging negligence and breach of contract. | K-12 Dive In just the last month, districts nationwide were the targets of extortion demands despite PowerSchool's decision to pay the ransom to prevent files from being shared publicly. | The 74 A prize nobody wanted: The education sector has come in first place … for being the slowest to report data breaches after ransomware attacks — averaging nearly five months. | Comparitech Kept in the dark: Meet the hired guns who make sure school cyberattacks stay hidden. | The 74 'Take it down': Trump has signed a new federal law that requires tech platforms remove non-consensual, sexually explicit deepfakes as teen girls nationwide are the victims of disturbing AI-generated images. | CNN Red Cloud Indian School, which operates on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, has filed a lawsuit seeking to halt the Trump administration's cuts to AmeriCorps. The suit charges the cuts would put job training programs and teaching assistants at 'serious risk' in one of the country's most impoverished regions. | South Dakota Searchlight Some seven years after the mass school shooting in Parkland, Florida, the Broward County school district plans to cut about 100 security positions as part of an effort to slash its budget by $65 million. | South Florida SunSentinel On the list of alleged violations of students' civil rights that may never be investigated after Trump gutted the Education Department: The case of a substitute teacher who was arrested on battery charges after she was captured on video dragging a 6-year-old boy with autism down the hallway of his Illinois school. | ProPublica Picking up the slack: The National Center for Youth Law has launched an initiative to help the families of students whose civil rights complaints to the department are no longer being investigated. The nonprofit's 'fellowship program' will connect fired Office for Civil Rights attorneys with families to provide pro bono legal services. | The 74 A Minnesota school resource officer was accused of helping to cover up allegations that a former middle school teacher was sending sexually explicit images to a dozen male students over Snapchat. | WCCO'Nazi swastikas and things like that': A 33-year-old Texas mother was arrested on terrorism-related charges after police say she bought guns and tactical gear for her 13-year-old son as he allegedly planned a shooting at his middle school. Officials said they found 'some very disturbing' stuff in the mother's home. | Associated Press Get the most critical news and information about students' rights, safety and well-being delivered straight to your inbox. Trump Official's Autism Schools Secluded and Restrained Students at High Rates Head Start Teacher and Civil Rights Lawyer Turns Her Social Justice Lens to Math Heat, Floods, Storms Limit Outdoor Play for Young Children, Surveys Show Met a new friend, Elmer, spotted in Ohiopyle, Pennsylvania, while biking the 333 miles from Pittsburgh to Washington, D.C., this week. Nice guy!
CBS News
5 days ago
- General
- CBS News
Michigan bills would require updated school safety training for teachers, staff
More of the school safety training recommendations made by a special task force after the 2021 shooting at Oxford High School in Southeast Michigan are making their way through the state legislature. One of them is House Bill 4315, which is cosponsored by Rep. Joseph Pavlov (R-Smiths Creek) and Rep. Cameron Cavitt (R-Cheboygan). It passed the state House on a vote of 82 to 24 and is now assigned to the state Senate education committee. House Bill 5315 intends to direct the Michigan State Police to create training materials for school resource officers, security personnel, teachers and staff in Michigan's public and private schools. "Ensuring every school has able, well-trained staff that know how to appropriately respond to emergency situations will go a long way in making our schools safer and giving every parent in Michigan greater peace of mind," Pavlov said about that bill. The companion legislation is House Bill 4223, which passed the House on a vote of 85 to 21 and has been assigned to the state Senate education committee. It would require a training plan starting in the 2026-27 school year that calls for certain school employees to participate in the training spelled out in House Bill 4315. The latest bills are part of a package meant to help address recommendations issued in 2022 by the Michigan House's School Safety Task Force. That was a bipartisan group that looked at existing rules, best practices and policy options in response to the tragedy at Oxford High School and other schools across the country.
Yahoo
24-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Why our kids can't wait for safe routes to school
A crossing guard escorts students and parents across the street after the first day of school Aug. 14, 2024, in Texas. (Photo by Janecze Wright/U.S. Army) This month, students across Maryland headed to school to celebrate National Walk, Bike and Roll to School Day. Many did so despite facing perilous routes, a stunning lack of basic infrastructure like crosswalks, and poorly designed streets resulting from decades of failed public policy that prioritized cars over pedestrians. Far too often, tragedy is no accident. It's inevitable. In November 2023, that reality hit Prince George's County when two elementary school students were struck and killed walking to school. Sadly, their deaths were no anomaly, with U.S. pedestrian deaths hitting a 40-year high – more than 7,500 – in 2022. That's 20 pedestrian deaths every single day, and meaningful action is long overdue. Prince George's County is leading the way. After tragedy, parent leaders from 11 schools representing 8,200 students came together with a clear message: Every child has the right to get to and from school safely. In addition to the immediate hiring of additional crossing guards, they also called for long-term reforms and a renewed policy focus on pedestrian safety. That effort and earned media campaign helped launch the Prince George's County School Pedestrian Safety Workgroup, a collaboration of parents, municipal leaders, and school and county officials who spent six months crafting a detailed report of 18 Safe Routes recommendations released last December. Some formalized existing policies, such as ensuring pedestrian safety infrastructure at the time of new school construction and proactive meetings between agencies to improve coordination and efficiency. The group encouraged partnerships between school, municipal and county officials. And recommended establishment of Safe Passage Coordinators, officially hired by Prince George's County Public Schools this spring. Maryland Matters welcomes guest commentary submissions at editor@ We suggest a 750-word limit and reserve the right to edit or reject submissions. We do not accept columns that are endorsements of candidates, and no longer accept submissions from elected officials or political candidates. Opinion pieces must be signed by at least one individual using their real name. We do not accept columns signed by an organization. Commentary writers must include a short bio and a photo for their bylines. Views of writers are their own. Many recommendations formed a roadmap for local education agencies and municipalities nationwide. Creating a unified walk audit template to help standardize data collection will help school administrators establish internal goals and timelines for implementing these walk audits, while collaborating with local officials to initiate an overall evaluation of accessibility around schools. Once concerns are identified, schools and municipalities are encouraged to establish long-term strategic plans to equitably improve pedestrian infrastructure. This data and planning can help create a pedestrian safety risk measure for each school, ensuring resource allocations are prioritized by need instead of politics. And Board of Education members are encouraged to take on greater roles engaging and educating their own school communities on pedestrian safety. One recommendation focused on bilingual outreach and pedestrian safety education to ensure 'every child has the right to get to and from school safely' truly means every child. Another empowers students to become Vision Zero advocates by launching an annual Youth Transportation Safety Summit. This event, organized by the Washington Area Bicyclist Association, successfully hosted more than 100 attendees earlier this month. And the group recommended working with artists to create walkability safety signs and high-visibility artwork for crosswalks. Schools are encouraged to participate in events like National Walk, Bike and Roll to School Days and Ruby Bridges Walk to School Day (Nov. 14) to increase parent and community engagement. County and school district officials are recommended to establish both as official events, and there's an ongoing legislative effort to recognize Ruby Bridges Walk to School Day statewide. Parents can organize 'walking school buses' and walking groups to help reduce the number of families driving to school. Less cars around schools means less opportunities for tragedy. One recommendation encourages increased traffic calming infrastructure around schools and temporary street closures at drop-off and pick-up. And it's crucial to encourage principals to be proactive and empower them to create their own innovative solutions to improve school pedestrian safety. Finally, some recommendations focused on legislative and government solutions. The group strongly encouraged using unspent funds to subcontract with municipal police departments for difficult-to-fill crossing guard positions. One of the most important recommendations involved lowering speed limits around schools. Municipalities must have greater autonomy to keep their own residents safe, without regulatory hurdles. The National Transportation Safety Board found a pedestrian struck at 20 mph has a 90+% survival rate; at 30 mph, chances of survival are around 55%. Lowering speed limits, while protecting and enhancing the radius of school zones, will save lives. Creating safe walkable routes to schools is a rare opportunity for bipartisan consensus at every level of government. Investing in safer streets around schools also helps create safer routes to small businesses, parks, libraries and other community hubs. But we can't expect students and families to walk to school – or anywhere in our communities – if we don't provide them with the safe routes to do so.
CTV News
23-05-2025
- CTV News
Police flood Orangeville high school after receiving online threats
A large police presence flooded an Orangeville high school on Friday morning after staff were alerted by a threatening message posted online referencing the safety of the school.
