The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
Jonathon Naylor Editor Flin Flon and Creighton schools are taking a second look at student safety following one of the worst school shootings in history. As a result of December's shooting in Connecticut, the Manitoba and Saskatchewan governments asked schools across the provinces to examine their school security protocols. 'We can always probably do a better job, but we seem to have reasonable precautions in place,' said Blaine Veitch, superintendent of the Flin Flon School Division. Flin Flon schools have practiced lockdown drills to prepare for emergencies that include an intruder in the hallways. Surveillance cameras are also in place, and just one entrance at each school is left unlocked for parental and public access. Veitch said a majority of school staff have also received training in how to spot the warning signs that have been so often missed in past school shootings. 'When (different agencies) communicate with each other and put supports in place prior to an individual actually proceeding into a shooting situation,' he said, 'you can prevent a lot of these things from occurring, and that's where a lot of our energies go.' See 'Threat..' on pg. 6 Continued from pg. 6 Across the border, school trustees in Creighton will review safety over the next several months, including whether there is a need to follow in Flin Flon's footsteps and install surveillance cameras. Creighton Community School already has a threat assessment protocol and lockdown procedure in place to respond to emergencies or site intrusion. As the minutes of the latest school board meeting noted, the school does not, on a regular daily basis, lock all outside entrances or classroom doors. In their review, Creighton trustees will aim to balance student safety with the desire to remain accessible to parents, groups and the public at large. It's an approach Veitch believes is necessary. 'We want all of our parents to be in schools and participating in their child's learning and in their school,' he said. 'So to lock doors and prevent all people from coming in works against that philosophy. So I think you have to find a balance for what's appropriate between those two issues.' The December 14, 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, claimed 26 victims, most of them young children.
