Capitol News

Keeping students safe was a topic of discussion for the Haslett Public School District in the wake of the MSU campus shooting.

At their March 13 board meeting, members of the district talked about initiatives that would help keep school campuses safe.

Superintendent Steven Cook opened the discussion by thanking Sergeant Ed Besonen and the rest of the Meridian Township police department for their many years of partnership and support in the district’s safety efforts.

Cook highlighted several of the measures the district has already put in place over the last few years.

The district now requires key card entrances for all buildings that require a staff card to be swiped to open, along with keeping doors locked except for when students are entering and leaving school.

All buildings in the district have key card entrances that require a staff card to be swiped to open, and all doors are locked in each building except for the times when students are getting to school in the morning or leaving after. All buildings have a camera intercom system, and everyone inside the building except students have to wear their ID badge.

The district has worked with Meridian Township police to enhance communication protocols and was recently awarded $109 in funds per student from the state, which means the district will receive over $300,000 to use for safety improvements.

Moreover, they also received $200,000 for three years for an SRO program and are in discussions with the police department to provide an officer on a full-time basis.

“We also went through behavioral threat assessment training, through Michigan State Police in cooperation with Meridian township police, they helped us, and they attended that session with us. And now we're doing additional training for threat assessments,” said Cook. “Basically, if there's something that is going on, there's actually a process to go through with documentation that we've now included in our crisis system that if there's a student or something going on, it gives you kind of a pathway to determine how serious the threat is and what the steps would be to handle the threat, who to get involved and what the process is to move along throughout that assessment.”

He added that they were looking at improving their alarm systems through exterior speakers and flashing lights, upgrading all the locks on their interior doors, go bags for students, improving windows and HVAC systems, along with providing more first aid kits and instructions in classrooms.