JCPS asking families to take school safety survey

The Jefferson City Public School District is asking families to take a school safety survey.

Superintendent Larry Linthacum said the district is taking a “proactive” approach to keeping students safe.

“I think we just recognize that we wanted the parents’ perspective…so we thought we would just ask them. We recognize there are areas where we can get better, and we’re just trying to be proactive with that,” Linthacum told ABC 17 News.

Linthacum said the district is making some changes in order to help keep students safe. He said they are increasing intruder drills to once every quarter instead of just twice a year.

“We want to do everything we can to insure a safe learning environment for all of our students,” Linthacum said.

While students ABC 17 News spoke to said they felt safe at Jefferson City High School, they were also quick to say that they felt like a shooting could happen anywhere.

“I can’t say for sure that it would never happen in Jefferson City because I’m sure that’s what all the other kids said,” Emily Louraine, a senior at Jefferson City High School, admitted.

In terms of arming teachers, Linthacum said the district is not looking to do that, but he said it’s something they could discuss in the future.

“Is that an option for Jefferson City Public Schools? It is an option but as a general rule or a general guide, we are not looking to arm our teachers or arm our administrators,” he said.

Another Jefferson City High School senior said he’s just fine with that.

“I think they should leave that to the resource officers and the trained professionals,” Sean Rielly said.

Linthacum said they will share the results of the survey at the April board meeting. You can take the survey here.