A teacher allegedly overheard the student threaten to put a gun to another teacher’s head and kill her, according to a Cadiz Police Department press release. The report did not give the age of the student accused in the February 28 incident.
With two assaults on teachers in the New Year, a student found with a loaded firearm on school property and police arresting a student for making terroristic threats to a school bus driver, The Cadiz Record discussed school safety with Trigg County Schools Assistant Superintendent Beth Sumner.
“Each year we have incidents that occur on campus, but we don’t take them lightly. In the code of conduct, we have specific consequences for these actions. It may be different for a student in kindergarten to a 12th grader based on their maturity level, but it is dealt with appropriately,” said Sumner.
The assistant superintendent said that the code of conduct outlines five levels of infractions with a range of consequences for each one. For terroristic threatening or assault, Sumner said that the circumstances of the infraction are examined by the principal, and would be considered a class five infraction. At that level, the principal could refer a student to the Board of Education for possible expulsion.
She declined to comment on any specific case.
“We have had weapons violations in the past. This is not the first time. We take it seriously and attempt to deal with it appropriately,” said Sumner.
She outlined several steps the schools have taken to ensure safety on campus. “We are not ignoring the problem and have taken additional security measures. We’ve installed secure entrances to the schools were a button must be pressed and a person appears in a video window. The person must be admitted by the office. We’ve installed cameras with a computer net upgrade. We have video surveillance of the entire campus. The internal cameras monitor halls, stairwells and other likely spots for students to misbehave.”
For more on safety in schools, read your March 7 Cadiz Record.
