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Board reviews gang‑awareness procedure and reporting duties under Safe Schools Act
Summary
District administrators reviewed the gang-activity response procedure, mandatory reporting to administrators and school resource officers under the Safe Schools Act of 2010, and external coordination with law enforcement and the state's attorney's office; staff named David Owens and Babe Wilson as school-safety liaisons.
The board received an overview of the district's gang-activity response procedure, including definitions, reporting steps and coordination with law enforcement.
Dr. Obarski outlined the procedure's definitions (a criminal gang as a group of three or more engaged in criminal activity) and said staff must report suspected gang activity to administrators and the school resource officer, consistent with the Safe Schools Act of 2010. Administrators are responsible for completing incident-report and investigation forms; the school safety coordinators — David Owens and Babe Wilson — act as liaisons to law enforcement and the state's attorney's office.
Dr. Obarski said the district has worked with IT to streamline reportable-offense reporting through a dashboard so principals and the state's attorney can share disposition information in a single system. She stressed the district's goal is prevention and intervention as well as correct reporting and said the 400-level discipline infractions are not primarily gang-related but sometimes bleed into school incidents when community events provoke in‑school disturbances.
Why it matters: the presentation clarified staff responsibilities under state law for internal reporting and external coordination and described systems to expedite information flow to schools and law enforcement.
Next steps: staff will continue training administrators on the procedure and use the IT dashboard to streamline reportable-offense communications.
