VIrginia School Safety Panel: Restore Resource Officer Funding, Tighten Gun Penalties

Gov. Bob McDonnell's task force releases recommendations to the General Assembly.

Police to Discuss School Safety at February Forum

Find out how Fairfax County Public Schools and the police department work to keep students safe.

After the December shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., it's natural for parents to have questions about their children's safety at school.  School resource officers from the Fairfax County Police Department and safety experts from Fairfax County Public Schools will be on hand at the Sully District Governmental Center this month to answer those questions. During the monthly meeting of the Citizens Advisory Committee, on Feb. 13 at 7:30 p.m., officers will talk about how parents can help keep schools safe, and the measures the school system has in place.  Anyone with questions can contact Crime Prevention Officer Tara Fruecht at 703-814-7018 or SulCPO@fairfaxcounty.gov.  Like Centreville Patch on Facebook for local …

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Survey: Majority of Teachers Don't Want Guns in Fairfax Schools

Educators don't support arming teachers or principals, but would welcome more trained, armed School Resource Officers "if money was no issue."

A group of educators from one of Fairfax County's largest teachers' unions says it doesn't want guns in schools, according to a survey released Thursday morning by the union, which goes on to say security personnel "can help address a portion of the issue (of school security), but they cannot fix the entire problem." The results come after nearly 500 members of the Fairfax County Federation of Teachers responded to a survey on school safety and security — in an effort to make teachers' voices a larger part of state and nationwide conversations about gun control and schools, according to the federation's president, Steve Greenburg "The issue of guns being brought to schools and the issue of making our schools more secure is a complex effort…

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Don Joy

11:54 am on Thursday, January 24, 2013

Yet here we have the very topic of the article, which would involve no expense to the taxpayer at all, and you liberals drone on and on with your falsehoods ad nauseum. Typical.   more ›

Fairfax Teachers Union Launches Safety Survey

In light of Sandy Hook shootings and ahead of Virginia General Assembly kickoff this week, union turns to members to get opinion on guns in schools and what safe schools should look like.

In the weeks since the shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., politicians and advocacy groups have issued recommendations for how schools can try to prevent the tragedy — which killed 26 students and school employees — from happening again. A voice so far largely absent from those discussions in Fairfax and Northern Virginia: teachers. One of Fairfax County's largest teachers unions is hoping to change that, launching Tuesday a security and schools survey asking its 4,265 members about the use of guns in schools, where the system could use extra security personnel, how safe schools are now and how to make them safer, among other topics. "What I see more and more of is politicians posturing up and taking positions …

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Governor McDonnell Orders School Safety Review

In wake of Newtown shooting, Gov. Bob McDonnell wants to look at all resources to keep campuses from kindergarten through college safe.

In the wake of Friday's school shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, CT, Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell has announced a state plan to review school safety in Virginia at all levels. McDonnell said Monday he plans to identify statewide and locality, school division, college and university resource needs to "ensure that we are doing everything humanly possible to keep our children, young people and educators safe while they are in the classroom."  "Just as public safety is the bedrock responsibility of government, the safety of our young people must continue to be the top priority in our schools and our campuses," McDonnell said in a statement. In Fairfax County, there are regular safety and lockdown drills, and there was increased …

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