Missouri Schools to Discuss Medical Marijuana, Active Shooter Issues

Missouri Schools to Discuss Medical Marijuana, Active Shooter Issues

In an annual Missouri school safety forum, legal experts will provide updates on a variety of school safety issues including marijuana laws, suicide, and active shooter issues.

  • By Kaitlyn DeHaven
  • July 08, 2019

The Missouri Safe Schools and Colleges Conference, a three-day event that will be held in Springfield this year, will help individuals involved in keeping schools safe better understand some of today’s most pressing school safety issues.

Legal experts will speak on a range of topics at the event to ensure all in attendance understand the laws behind school regulations. According to the Springfield News-Leader, these experts will also provide guidance regarding state law changes including the marijuana issue, and compliance with federal laws such as Title IX and the Clery Act.

Gerry Lee, associate executive director of MSBA, who leads the center, said the conference will draw individuals from all over Missouri.

“This will draw educators, law enforcement, community resources, not-for-profits and school counselors and nurses, school resource officers – a broad spectrum of those dealing with school safety, from early childhood to higher education,” Lee said.

He said that this conference will also provide participants to connect and share ideas.

“There is no one-size-fits-all for school safety, so any way we can learn from one another and provide a venue for that is going to be beneficial and help our students feel safe and be safe,” Lee said.

Some of the breakout sessions that will be offered at the conference include effective safety drills, emergency training, active shooters, crisis communications and how to report, analyze, and reduce threats in school and campus settings. Others will include suicide prevention, trama-informed schools, social media abuse and bullying, violence hotlines, and educators who become sexual predators.

Lee said these conferences are of the utmost importance to educational institutions because the times are changing and issues are getting worse.

“We talk about active shooters all the time, which is critically important and high consequences, but really we have to talk a lot about the mental health and well-being of our students to head off and prevent some of these situations that occur,” Lee said. “School security is so broad, it runs from cybersecurity and technology to tornadoes, earthquakes, flooding.”

About the Author

Kaitlyn DeHaven is the Associate Content Editor for the Infrastructure Solutions Group at 1105 Media.

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