USD 235 students to enjoy Seuss

Wednesday, March 14, 2012
Tribune Staff Report

UNIONTOWN — USD 235 students in preschool through second grade will be traveling to Iola today for a free theatrical performance at the Bowlus Fine Arts Center.

“As much as we can expose kids to the arts, I like it,” West Bourbon Elementary School Principal Tracy Smith said. “And free? We like it even more.”

The free performance of the popular Dr. Seuss book “Are You My Mother?” is being provided through support from the Sleeper Family Trust Fund. Since 1975, the Sleeper Family Trust Fund has provided for programming for the fine arts center, including more than 30 years of free performances.

“It’s one of the best things we do,” Executive Director Susan Raines said.

The Bowlus Center is hosting two performances for students at 9:30 a.m. and 1 p.m. The performances are also open to the families of the students, if seating is available.

In November, third, fourth and fifth graders had their chance to attend a free performance.

Smith said the teachers come back afterward and said the students were “mesmerized with wide eyes and open mouths.”

“It’s not an everyday experience in Southeast Kansas,” Smith said. “It’s an opportunity that I would say most of our kids don’t get to go to a theater like that often. And we take advantage of every opportunity we can to educate the whole child.”

DHS assesses U-235 security

Wednesday, March 14, 2012
By Angelique McNaughton, The Fort Scott Tribune

UNIONTOWN — The Department of Homeland Security recently assessed the safety and security of schools in the Uniontown USD 235 school district.

During the all-hazards assessment which took place last Wednesday and Thursday, local law enforcement and emergency management officials worked with school officials to evaluate the districts ability to handle serious, life-threatening situations.

“The goal is to evaluate where we stand strategically in dealing with any type of emergency and taking where we stand now and developing a comprehensive approach to be more prepared to meet the needs of our kids,” Superintendent and high school principal Randy Rockhold said.

The assessment took two days to complete and consisted of a comprehensive overview of the school’s ability to handle or prevent hazardous situations including law and fire response time for the area. Fort Scott Police Department School Resource Officer Toby Nighswonger, also an active shooter instructor, participated in the assessment along with Bourbon County Emergency Manager Keith Jeffers and Sheriff Ronald Gray. The DHS looked into the safety and security of students in situations of: an active shooter, water and food contamination, and any natural or accidental issue that could arise.

Nighswonger said the assessment considered anything that could possibly “shut down a school and put kids at risk.”

“It was basically how can we screw this school up,” Nighswonger said. “And then we take each one of those ways and see how we can make the school a little bit safer.”

Jeffers said he wants to make sure everybody is aware that an active shooter and other problems are a major concern for emergency management education.

“The point of the assessment is to give a second view of what people might take for granted; they don’t see the problems that an outsider would,” Jeffers said. “In some way, about 25 percent of an area population is at a school five days a week.”

The assessment also addressed the risk natural disasters and the effectiveness of plans for events such as an earthquake or tornado, such as the EF-5 twister that hit Joplin and destroyed its high school.

“It wasn’t just for the bad guys,” Jeffers said. “It was for bad weather, accidents, ice storms and so forth. It’s interesting to note that in a lot of cases the plan was perfectly adequate for that school.”

Teachers were questioned about certain scenarios throughout the assessment, and officials said there were no common answers.

“We asked what would you do if you heard ‘bang, bang,'” Rockhold said. “It was the most depressing two days I ever dealt with. You talk about all the stuff that you never want to think about. We’re trained to teach kids to read and write and get along not to keep terrorist invaders out.”

Now that the assessment part is complete, DHS will issue a report of its findings. In six weeks, the department will issue a report offering safety improvement recommendations.

“We are in the process of going through all of our emergency preparedness plans and updating them and making necessary modifications, including training our staff so we can actually being implementing recommendations,” Rockhold said.

The physical examination was the first of its kind for USD 235.

In 2009, USD 234 in Fort Scott participated in a Law Enforcement Response to the Active Shooter training course coordinated by Fort Scott police and the state. Emergency officials said they will next consider assessing the local private schools.

A startling rash of school shootings across the country in the past 10 to 15 years has shocked educators, prompting tighter security and enforcement measures. Two Littleton, Colo., students killed 14 students and one teacher in 1999.

In 2007, a Virginia Tech student killed 33 people on the campus before killing himself. Last month, a Chardon, Ohio, youth killed three former classmates and injured six others before being arrested by police.

School and emergency officials said the assessments were booked prior to the February shooting and just happened to be scheduled for last week.

“There is no way to make a school 100 percent safe, but it’s the perception,” Nighswonger said. “Every time we have another school shooting it is going to get tighter and tighter and the more the economy goes in the tank, the more weirdoes there are out there. It’s a scary time, sometimes.”