Schools talk safety after weekend shootings in Texas and Ohio

GLASGOW Ky.- School is meant to be a place for education, growing and most of all, safety. School shootings are devastating, but when the unthinkable happens, schools have various safety procedures in place.

From school security checks to alarm systems, Kentucky State Trooper Daniel Priddy said a big factor in safety is speaking up.

“We want to make sure that parents and students both if they see something, say something. Find and administrator or a teacher,” Priddy said.

With the inclusion of school resource officers, students now have another layer of protection.

“We have school resource officers at a lot of these schools, and they definitely need to find a school resource officer to notify of anything,” Priddy said.

Speaking of School Resource Officers, the Barren County School Resource Officer Mike Houchens said there are plenty of security measures in place.

“When we have outsiders come in, we have alarm systems on the doors. We have what we call our gatekeepers who are our receptionists at school,” Houchens said.

Houchens emphasized that dire situations can be eliminated from the beginning. If you see something, say something.

“Come to a teacher, come to an administrator, come to the SRO if you see something that’s out of place or someone that’s not supposed to be there,” Houchens said.

In the end, it’s all about bringing attention to the safety of the students.

“It’s about building a relationship with the kids, and making sure there’s a comfort zone with them that they can come to me and let me know something, not having fear of retribution or somebody coming back and giving them a hard time about it,” Houchens said.