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Safety experts tell Senate committee locked doors, SROs and funding remain critical to protect Arkansas schools
Summary
Panelists at the Senate Education Committee described lessons from national school shootings and a Parkland site visit, urging mandatory locked classroom doors, improved law-enforcement response, consistent drills and targeted funding for equipment and threat-assessment implementation.
Senate Education Committee members on the panel heard experts on Wednesday who said Arkansas has made progress on school safety but must keep sharpening prevention, mitigation and response.
Cheryl May, director of the University of Arkansas System Criminal Justice Institute and the Arkansas Center for School Safety, told the committee that the state’s policy work after the 2018 and 2022 School Safety Commissions has been substantial but incomplete. "Since Columbine in 1999, there have been 389 school shootings in The United States," she said, citing national data and noting the particularly high counts in recent years.
May recounted a tour of the Parkland crime scene to explain how seemingly small operational details — an unlocked exterior door, classroom door/window panel…
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