Mid-Missouri school security

School security is on people’s mind, in the wake of the Florida shooting and the incident in Centralia.

Today, it was security that prevented the possible shooting in Centralia, which brings us to the security and safety of the Boone County School District.

ABC 17 learned that school officials feel it is difficult to ever feel safe. “I don’t know if you ever feel safe, you just want to provide the best environment for your kids,” said the Superintendent of the Harrisburg School District, Steve Combs.

There is a major issue that school districts face: adequate funding to provide education, as well as enforcing security.

John Warner, the Emergency Planning Coordinator of the Center for Education Safety, M.S.B.A., told us there is very little funding for school security. There is no state funding at all; there is only some grant funding from time to time. “The funding for doing school safety is really the burden of that is really born by the school districts themselves.”

A couple years back, Harrisburg School District voted on a $2 million dollar bond issue, which included updating security. The money provided the school with access cards and limited entry. We asked the superintendent, Steve Comb’s if it was money well spent. He said, “That’s really locked down our building, and made sure we don’t have intruders schlepping in the side door so really feel safe and secure with that.”

Even though, there is some updated security on campus, we asked Combs if he feels safe. He answered, “It’s hard to say, you know everyday you try to be vigilant and you try to make sure that you’re doing the right thing in talking to kids and talking to parents and working with our community to make sure we are as safe as possible.”

This April, Columbia voters will vote on a no-tax-rate-increase bond issue, which will include $750,000 for safety and security enhancements.