The retiring head of the Idaho State Police will scrutinize security in Idaho's schools. Gov. C.L "Butch" Otter has asked Colonel Jerry Russell to make recommendations for safety and security improvements.
Along with the Department of Education, Russell will study current safety measures with local police departments and officials at individual districts.
According to the governor's office, Russell’s new task of recommending safety improvements will assess existing school laws and policies, and evaluate ‘best practices’ currently in place in Idaho. He will also look at what schools in other states are doing to keep students safe.
Russell is retiring this month after six years as head of the State Police. Prior to that, he served as deputy director for operations at the Idaho Bureau of Homeland Security. Otter says he asked Russell to take on one more job after last month’s deadly school shooting in Connecticut.
“He is willing to go through an analysis of what it would take in our public school system in Idaho in order to make them safer, in order to control access and those sort of things," Otter says. "And I really appreciate our top cop being willing to do that.”
Idaho's Department of Education studied security in the state’s schools in 2007 and 2008. That study showed widely differing security measures in districts throughout the state. It also estimated a cost of $20 million to upgrade all the state’s schools with modern security equipment. The Department of Education also plans to reconvene a stakeholder group this month to look at school safety and security
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