Archive
Wichita teacher arrested for carrying concealed gun speaks out www.privateofficer.com
Wichita KS June 19 2013 A Wichita elementary teacher facing a misdemeanor charge for carrying a concealed gun on school property is speaking out.
Dan Nagel was arrested at White Elementary last month. He says he had completed the concealed carry courses. The law does not allow concealed carry permit holders to carry weapons in school buildings.
Nagel came to the Wichita School Board meeting Monday hoping to read a statement to board members, but didn’t sign up early enough and was turned away.
He read part of his speech to Eyewitness News.
“I’m not here to try and save my job, I’m here to try and save kids,” says Nagel.
Kansas lawmakers passed a law this year that allows school districts to designate an employee to carry a gun. The law goes into effect July 1st.
Nagel came to the board meeting Monday because board members took up the issue of concealed carry.
Wichita has a policy in place and board members don’t support changing it to allow employees to carry a weapon. No vote was taken, but the board wants the district to clarify current policies to prevent anyone other than law enforcement from carrying a firearm on school property.
Superintendent John Allison also says insurance companies that cover school districts have said they will not provide coverage to districts that allow concealed weapons.
Nagel also explained why he decided to carry a firearm.
“The reason I brought my firearm to school is the punishment I would receive would be way better than having the possibility of standing by and watching my kids be executed.
Our children can no longer be sitting ducks with bulls-eyes on their back.”
Nagel says there is a petition with thousands of signatures supporting him.
Since his arrest he has been on paid administrative leave. He faces a court date in July for his misdemeanor charge.
Source- KWCH
NY student reporters testing school security arrested www.privateofficer.com
West Islip NY June 19 2013 “As the cold metal cuffs were tightened around our wrists,” the article began, “it was clear that we were in way over our heads.”
When two student journalists from Paw Prints, the newspaper of West Islip High School, set out to investigate school security, they thought they might do some good, maybe win the award for story of the year in the Long Island Press high school journalism contest. Instead, the article was quashed, and they wound up with a grown-up lesson in the consequences of testing nerves in a post-Newtown-massacre world.
Court proceedings against the students, Paula Pecorella and Nicholas Krauss, finally ended last week. But there are still bruised feelings and recriminations all around.
“I certainly hope that high school kids get an opportunity to engage in the real-world issues, and part of our job is to help them do that in an appropriate and responsible way,” said Richard A. Simon, the West Islip schools superintendent. “I would say that their heart was in the right place, maybe, but they didn’t go about it in the best way.”
Though the Newtown school shooting was in the back of their minds, the two students said their inspiration was what they saw as the folly of the $10 swipe cards offered to West Islip seniors as a way to gain access to the school via the back doors. As a February editorial in Paw Prints put it, “Why are students being presented the alternative of using the unlocked main entrance?”
Physical security at West Islip was spotty, the budding reporters believed: the main entrance was effectively wide-open; the back doors had locks, but students could prop them open with sticks or stones; surveillance cameras were antiquated; and the few guards assigned to patrol the perimeter — to make sure students were not cutting class — sometimes simply waved from their cars.
“It’s harder to get out of the building than it is to get in,” said Ms. Pecorella, 17, the managing editor of Paw Prints.
On Feb. 22, two teenagers Ms. Pecorella knew from church who were not students at the school pitched in with the reporting. They succeeded in entering West Islip High School, making laps around the first and second floors and exiting.
What occurred next, and who precipitated it, is at the heart of the continuing quarrel.
The students said they initially envisioned their article solely as an analysis of West Islip. Mr. Krauss, the paper’s features editor, said it was their adviser, Tina Schaefer, who “recommended to us that we should take the project to another school.” They picked North Babylon High School, which was rumored to have fortresslike defenses.
Ms. Schaefer did not return phone calls. The superintendent, however, said Ms. Schaefer “categorically says it was not the case” that she made such a suggestion. “And I absolutely believe her,” he said.
Either way, on Feb. 26, Ms. Pecorella and Mr. Krauss drove to North Babylon High School. According to a copy of the unpublished article provided by Ms. Pecorella, this is what happened:
“First, we entered through a set of doors toward the north end of the high school. Upon entering the building, we were immediately intercepted by clearly marked security guards wearing bright orange jackets, who asked for our school identification cards. After a quick excuse that our cards were left in the car, we were escorted back out the doors and were instructed not to re-enter without our cards.”
But re-enter they did.
“When we located a door not protected by security, we were sighted by a passing student who opened the door for us,” their account continued. “Upon entering the building, the next step was to make a full lap around the school as our first subjects had done in West Islip.”
Within moments, the students were stopped by a security guard and taken to the dean’s office, where, Ms. Pecorella said in an interview, the principal told them they “would see the full extent of the security at the school.”
The two were taken by Suffolk County police officers to the First Precinct station in separate cars, searched, photographed and shackled to a table with other prisoners before being freed on $50 bail. They were charged with trespassing, a misdemeanor punishable by up to 90 days in jail.
That night, they wrote their article together via Skype. But it never ran.
According to Superintendent Simon, the principal of West Islip, Anthony Bridgeman, said the article was too focused on North Babylon. It also “kind of glorified their being arrested,” Mr. Simon said. He added that Dr. Bridgeman offered the students a chance to recast their article, but that they stopped going to journalism class and did not return text messages from the editor in chief of Paw Prints.
Ms. Pecorella disputed that, saying Dr. Bridgeman “absolutely did not want us to print anything about the topic of security; he was not willing to work with us to change the story.” Mr. Krauss conceded that they had mentally checked out of journalism class, amid feelings of betrayal.
The two students also said they deserved credit for exposing poor security at the school.
Last week, a reporter for The New York Times and a photographer carrying a bag of camera equipment were able to walk to the principal’s office without being stopped.
Mr. Simon said security would be reinforced beginning in the fall, but added that plans to do so had been under way since the Newtown shooting, and not because of the students’ article.
Mr. Krauss, who is headed to Suffolk County Community College, said he had soured on journalism as a possible career and would study international relations. Ms. Pecorella, who won 10 journalism awards this year and is headed to SUNY-Cortland, said the experience had ignited in her an even fiercer fire for the craft.
Both acknowledged the holes in their effort: not seeking interviews with West Islip school officials, misrepresenting themselves to the first guard at North Babylon and then pressing on to enter the school.
“There’s a million things we could have done to prevent what happened,” Ms. Pecorella said. “But at the time, we wanted to get to the next part of our experiment, and so we did what it took.”
Deirdre Gilligan, a spokeswoman for the North Babylon school system, said school officials followed protocol in calling in the police when the students could not show proper identification and were found to be trespassing.
“Just because they say they are working on a story for the newspaper, why is the school district supposed to take their word for it?” Ms. Gilligan said. “God forbid they were there for something else.”
Ultimately, she said, “the district decided that they did not want to go ahead and press the charges.”
So, in court on May 24, Mr. Krauss accepted an “adjournment in contemplation of dismissal,” meaning “the charges will be dismissed if there are no rearrests within six months,” said Rita Bonicelli, his lawyer. On June 6, Ms. Pecorella got the same result after a prosecutor told the judge it was offered, in part, because of “the very bright future that she does have before her.”
Source- New York Times
D.C. police lieutenant arrested after son brings gun to school www.privateofficer.com
WASHINGTON DC June 17 2013 – A D.C. police lieutenant has been charged with providing access to a firearm to a minor, after his teenage son got a hold of his gun and brought it to school in March, according to NBC Washington.
Court documents filed in Prince George’s County indicate Mark Antonio Hodge, of Glenn Dale, was charged with leaving a loaded firearm in a place where he would have known a minor could gain access to it.
NBC Washington says the gun was linked to an incident at DuVal High School in Lanham on March 27, in which a 15-year-old student brought a firearm into the school.
Police later learned the teen had gotten the gun from his home, saying his dad kept the weapon under some clothes in his closet, NBC Washington details.
It’s unclear whether the gun was Hodge’s police-issued weapon, or a personal firearm.
Police say Hodge remains on “full duty” status within the department.
Source- CBS
Teen with fake AK-47 assault rifle found on college campus www.privateofficer.com
Freemont CA June 15 2013 June 15 2013 A 15-year-old boy gave a career college a scare when it looked like he was carrying an AK-47 assault rifle while walking outside the Fremont school Tuesday evening, a Fremont police spokeswoman said.
Officers responded to the Medical Career College at 41300 Christy St. when there were reports of a male with an AK-47 assault rifle walking outside the school and pointing the weapon at windows around 7:30 p.m., police spokeswoman Geneva Bosques said. The juvenile suspect with the gun was found at a nearby business that his family owned and it was discovered that he had three realistic-looking airsoft guns, Bosques said.
The three replicas were confiscated, she said.
The boy was reprimanded and told that it is illegal to display a replica firearm and to alter an imitation gun make it look more realistic, Bosques said.
He was released to his father, she said.
Source- Freemont Patch
Private School Police Bill Signed by Gov. McCrory www.privateofficer.com
Source- elonlocalnews.com
2 arrested in connection with body found at Ga. Perimeter College www.privateofficer.com
ATLANTA GA June 14 2013 — The GBI says two people were arrested Thursday morning on charges related to the murder of Alpha Oumar Diallo, whose body was found Monday on the campus of Georgia Perimeter College in Clarkston.
Christopher Shepard, 28, has been charged with murder and 44-year-old Constance Mason was charged with giving false statements and writings. The two live at a home on North Indian Creek Drive, not far from where Diallo’s body was discovered near the college’s library.
Diallo was not a student at the college. He was a citizen of French Guinea in West Africa and had been a resident of the United States since 2008.
The GBI said an autopsy revealed Diallo’s death was caused by strangulation and blunt force injuries to the head.
Shepard and Mason are in the DeKalb County Jail awaiting a bond hearing.
Source-11alive
30 states consider firearms in the classroom www.privateofficer.com
Charlotte NC June 13 2013 CNN While most of the nation’s students are enjoying summer break, teachers in a handful of states are studying- not their fall curriculum, but how to take out an assailant.
In Ohio, the gun rights PAC, Buckeye Firearms Association, has launched a program to educate teachers on how to take down a gunman.
“We were mocked when we first said we wanted to teach this class,” Jim Irvine, president of Buckeye, said. “People doubted if we could fill the class.”
Yet more than 1,400 school staff members applied for the 24 spots first offered in late December, he said.
Interest in arming teachers has grown among some school staff, gun rights groups and lawmakers in the aftermath of the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School, in which 20 students — ages 6 and 7 — and six adults were killed in Newtown, Connecticut on December 14.
Gun rights groups have sponsored classes for teachers in a number of states– from Texas to Ohio.
In the six month since the mass shooting at Newtown’s Sandy Hook Elementary, legislators in at least 30 states have proposed laws allowing teachers and other school staff to carry firearms on primary and secondary school campuses, according to Lauren Heintz, a research analyst at the National Conference of State Legislatures. In most states the bills have failed, but laws have been enacted in South Dakota, Alabama, Arizona, and Kansas. Texas, which already allows staff to carry firearms with school approval, passed two new laws creating a “school marshal” program and addressing training teachers.
Some bills proposed in the past six months require only that the school employee have a concealed-firearm permit, but many of the bills include training provisions. For example, South Dakota’s new law requires law enforcement-approved training for every appointed school sentinel.
The week after Sandy Hook, NRA Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre told the media that all schools in the United States should have armed security, and an NRA-backed task force proposed training and arming adults at schools.
“Will you at least admit it’s possible that 26 innocent lives might have been spared?” LaPierre asked. “The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun,” he said.
Before Sandy Hook, no state’s law explicitly permitted firearms on school campuses, though some states had exemptions, according to the NCSL.
For 12 years Utah’s concealed weapon law has permitted a person to have, on his or her person or in a secure lockbox, a weapon inside a school. As concealed firearm permit holders, they are not required to tell parents or school officials.
But in Texas and Ohio, for instance, a person must get permission from the school district to bring a concealed weapon on school grounds
The Harrold Independent School District board in rural Texas, approved a plan to arm certain staff members in 2007. Under the so-called Guardian Plan, identities of armed staff members aren’t divulged. This way, a shooter can’t target them, the superintendent wrote in a column for CNN’s Schools of Thought blog after Newtown.
“At the end of the school day, we at Harrold want to know we’ve done everything possible to protect our children from people who are intent on harming them,” he wrote.
The Union Grove independent and Van school districts, both in East Texas, became the second and third districts in the state to authorize teachers with concealed handgun licenses to carry firearms on campus in January.
Ohio allows school boards to vote on whether teachers and administrators can carry a concealed weapon into schools, a stipulation that was largely overlooked until Sandy Hook. The exception has existed since at least 2008 when the law was last amended.
Dick Caster, head of the Ohio School Board Association, said school safety plans are private documents so there isn’t a list of every school district with armed employees. Though not required to disclose, a few school districts have made headlines for voting to allow teachers to carry guns. Sidney City Schools announced it would be arming staff in March, and the school board in Montpelier approved arming its custodial staff in January.
But Bill Bond, a former principal who confronted a shooter, isn’t so sure arming teachers is the answer. A student shot eight of his peers at Heath High School in Kentucky in 1997 where Bond was principal at the time. Three of those students were killed in the shooting. Looking back, Bond said he wouldn’t have wanted a gun. “It could have made the situation worse,” he said. “The potential for wrongful accidental killing is greater than the potential for saving,” he said about arming school personnel.
He supports having trained school resource officers on campus, but educators have enough on their plates without the responsibility of a deadly weapon, he said.
“Anytime you have divided or added responsibilities, it distracts from primary responsibilities,” he said. “From an educational standpoint, I’m against it.”
Bond worked 29 years in schools and has been the school safety expert with the National Association of Secondary School Principals for 12 years. He’s heard talk of arming school personnel before, but it wasn’t seriously considered until Sandy Hook, he said.
“I do realize that the only thing that would have been able to stop him was gunfire,” he said, “but that particular situation is an anomaly.”
He also points out that an armed educator would have had only one gun with a few rounds, where as the shooter had multiple firearms and 30-round magazines.
“Teachers will hesitate and that will cause teachers to be killed, and if they don’t hesitate they’ll make the wrong decision,” Bond said. “It’s wracked with danger.”
Ken Trump, a school safety consultant who runs his own firm, agrees that it’s a high-risk, high-liability proposal and thinks only a law enforcement officer should carry weapons on campus.
“There’s a huge difference between saying, ‘I can protect my family and my home,’ versus ‘I’m prepared to protect the masses,’ ” he said.
You also have the matter of whether teachers want to carry guns. Nearly three-fourths of teachers said they would not bring a firearm to school even if allowed, a February School Improvement Network survey showed. However, the survey showed most educators believedarmed guards would improve safety.
John Benner, president and chief instructor at the Ohio-based Tactical Defense Institute, has trained school resource officers for years. He taught his first class to teachers this spring.
The three-day class sponsored by Buckeye Firearms Association examined mass shootings and taught school personnel how to predict a killer’s behavior and shoot on the run amid obstacles like narrow hallways and stairwells. Police officers and SWAT commanders help instruct the course, and participants must have a concealed weapons permit before registering.
Buckeye paid about $1,000 per teacher, which includes tuition, food, board and ammunition. The group will cover tuition and board for the six courses offered this summer.
Benner would like to see all school employees – teachers, resource officers, administrators- learn to use firearms.
“I hate the idea of arming teachers, but we have to,” Benner said. Signs and locks won’t deter an attacker and police can’t respond quickly enough, he said. “It’s the only thing that’s going to work.”
Asked if training law enforcement officers to patrol schools was a better idea than arming teachers, Caster, who was the executive director for the National Association of School Resource Officers before joining the Ohio School Board association, said it’s not possible.
School resource officers are typically funded by either the school or the local law enforcement agency.
“This is what it boils down to: can you afford to have an officer in every school?” Caster said. “It’s not in the budget.”
In any event, he said, emotions should not drive the discussion.
“This isn’t about guns, it’s about a possible tactic,” Caster said. “My plea is that we have a rational, logical discussion (about arming teachers) as an additional possible tool.”
Elizabeth City State University security officer guilty of sexual assault www.privateofficer.com
ELIZABETH CITY, N.C. June 12 2013
A man was convicted Monday in a dorm room sexual assault case that led to the departure of a university police chief and chancellor.
Elizabeth City State University student Katherine Lowe testified that not only did campus police fail to investigate her complaint, college administrators, including from the Human Resources Department, pressured her to drop it.
A spokeswoman for the university would not comment via email on the accusation Monday night. She said the school would have a comment Tuesday.
Anthony Butler, a dorm security officer at ECSU, is to serve 34 days in jail and pay a $500 fine. Another 150 days in jail was suspended. He was convicted of two counts of sexual battery, two counts of breaking and entering and one count of sexual assault.
Lowe testified that Butler came to her room in February, March and April and tried to force her to have sex.
Butler, who was acting as his own attorney, asked her, “Why didn’t you put up a fight?”
“I did put up a fight,” she answered.
The Virginian-Pilot normally does not publish the names of victims of sex crimes, but Lowe has agreed to go public.
Campus police Officer April Ashmon testified that when she realized that her department was not going anywhere with the case, she directed Lowe to report the charges to the Elizabeth City Police Department.
City police arrested Butler on April 17. During the inquiry, they found 126 campus crimes dating to 2006, including 17 reports of sexual assaults, that had not been investigated.
Campus police Chief Sam Beamon resigned May 10, and Chancellor Willie Gilchrist announced May 17 he would retire. The State Bureau of Investigation is looking into the school’s reporting of campus crime.
Source: pilotonline.com
Nassau County school resource officer arrested www.privateofficer.com
NASSAU COUNTY, Fla. June 10 2013 — A Nassau County Sheriff’s Office school resource officer is facing charges, accused of Sexual Battery and Lewd and lascivious Behavior with a Minor.
The Nassau County Sheriff’s Office tells Action News Alan Manchester was arrested Friday. He is currently serving as a school resource officer at Yulee High School.
The Sheriff’s Office says the charges are connected to an incident that happened 10 years ago. It also says Manchester was not working at the school at the time of the alleged event.
Manchester has been suspended without pay.
The State Attorney’s Office is leading the investigation.
source-actionnewsjax.com
Arkansas campus bans guns, tells people to nod at attackers www.privateofficer.com
Little Rock AR June 8 2013 In lieu of guns, people who find themselves in dangerous situations at or near the University of Arkansas at Little Rock should defend themselves by glancing and nodding, said a university safety expert.
Earlier this year, the Arkansas legislature approved a concealed carry law, but gave school administrators permission to override the law and ban guns on campuses. Most Arkansas universities, including the University of Arkansas and Arkansas State University, opted to prohibit concealed carry, according to The College Fix.
But disarmed faculty and staff members are vulnerable to attack when traveling to and from campus, according to a chain of emails sent between UALR staff members, one of whom was assaulted by three teenagers on his way to class.
“I had not gone very far before I was attacked from behind by two of them and received a number of blows to the back of my head,” wrote the faculty member, a UALR professor of biology, in an e-mail. “Given the proximity to this campus and the fact that a number of our students, faculty and staff walk through this very same area on both a daily and nightly basis I felt it prudent to share this info with you and to advise you to be on your guard while in the vicinity.”
Another faculty remember responded to the email saying that a student had been attacked in the same area.
Sharon Houlette, a detective with the UALR Department of Public Safety, responded to the thread with advice for avoiding being attacked, which included a suggestion to “glance or nod” at possible attackers.
“A glance or a nod will help you show anyone who might think that you are not paying attention, and you are aware of their presence,” she wrote.
She also suggested parking on campus and using the trolley system, and offered to host a crime prevention workshop.
But Nic Horton, editor of The Arkansas Project, had a different suggestion for keeping safe on campus.
“If you must step foot on a college campus, choose one that respects your 2nd Amendment rights,” he wrote.
source- dailycaller.com
Gas explosion damages building at Nyack College www.privateofficer.com
NYACK NY June 7 2013– Investigators are trying to find the source of the gas that sparked an explosion that badly damaged a building and injured several people on the campus of Nyack College in Rockland County.
The explosion happened shortly before noon inside Sky Island Lodge, a building on South Highland Avenue that houses the School of Business and Leadership, on the Rockland County campus. Fire officials say a small fire broke out, but the building’s sprinkler system extinguished it. Mike Donohue of Orange & Rockland Utilities says the elevated gas levels had been detected in the manholes around the Nyack College building. Officials say they assume that’s what caused the blast.
The force of the explosion blew out windows and doors. One nearby resident heard the explosion, and said it was very loud.
There is extensive structural damage inside the building, according to officials. The building’s basement and first floor have been severely damaged, with blown-out windows, staircases pushed aside and columns displaced.
Six employees and a female student were in the building at the time, the college said. They were taken to Nyack Hospital for treatment. One was later transferred to Westchester Medical Center for additional treatment. The others were released. The school sent out a tweet saying that “Everyone is doing ok.”
For several hours after the explosion surrounding buildings were evacuated as a safety measure. Personnel were permitted to reenter the campus facilities after 2:30 p.m.
Nyack College is a Christian college about 25 miles north of New York City.
Students from Nyack Middle School were also evacuated to Nyack High School as a precaution after the explosion.
Source: WABC
Students try skirting ‘social host’ fines with private security www.privateofficer.com
EUGENE, Ore. June 7 2013– Some University of Oregon students are hiring private security to cover the door at their house parties, hoping to avoid the up to $1,000 fine from the social host ordinance.
UO student Armon Petrossin says he’s paying a private security company 25 dollars per hour to prevent hefty fines of hosting an “unruly gathering”.
“I mean, I don’t know if they want to end our parties just because they don’t want us to have fun … but it doesn’t work,” said Petrossin.
Since the “Social Host” ordinance went into effect April 1 Eugene police have cited 11 people for partying too hard. That’s why hosts like Petrossin have started hiring private security to make sure their gatherings don’t get out of control.
Eric Hartman, a state-certified security guard with Oregon Event Enterprises said he’s seen nearly an 80 percent increase in house party patrol over the last two months.
“A lot of parties are choosing to be responsible, hiring security help to keep a cap on the party if it gets out of control. We let them know if it’s approaching that (level),” said Hartman.
It’s a price that Petrossin says is well worth it, as he has yet to have police interfere with his partying.
“We’ve had hundreds of people coming through (our) door – in and out – a couple times and we’ve never had issues with the police,” Petrossin said.
With all those people coming and going, Hartman said that Oregon Event Enterprises prefers to monitor inside house parties. While that allows them the opportunity to check IDs and make sure everyone is of age, Hartman said security isn’t always allowed inside.
“It’s really up to the client, as to of they need that or want that,” Hartman said
Eugene Police substation manager Kelly Putnam said that even if they have private security covering the door, officers can still issue citations for unruly gatherings.
“If they’re observing criminal behavior but it falls outside of what their client is asking them to do, they may be in a tough position,” Putnam said.
Putnam added that party security guards have to be state certified and are required by law to report all crimes.
Source- KVAL.com
Student Faces Charges for Spiking Cafeteria Marinara with Ultra Hot Sauce www.privateofficer.com
Chicago IL June 7 2013 A Chicago area high school student is in hot water after a potent prank sent school employees to the hospital, police said.
The student is facing charges as a juvenile after he allegedly spiked a container of marinara sauce in the Highland Park High School cafeteria with a spicy sauce that sent three people to the hospital, according to police.
Several cafeteria workers were taken to the hospital on May 14 after they began coughing, wheezing, and experiencing shortness of breath and skin rashes, said Natalie Kaplan, the director of communication for Township High School District 113.
The employees were released later that day with no serious injuries and some students reported symptoms but did not require medical attention, Kaplan said.
The hot sauce was a specialty hot sauce called Da’ Bomb not found in ordinary grocery stores, according to Highland Park Deputy Chief George Pfutzenreuter, and reports of the symptoms came from just being near it.
A student reported a reaction to the sauce to the cafeteria manager, who then removed the sauce from the shelf, Kaplan said, but not before several other students and staff began experiencing symptoms just from being near the sauce.
Kaplan said the school contacted poison control and followed their direction and reported the incident to the area police.
An email was sent to the school’s students and parents stating that a hot sauce was “inappropriately and deliberately” put into the marinara sauce in the cafeteria, effecting several students and staff. The sauce was reported and immediately removed, the email stated.
The prankster was identified by the school and the 17-year-old is expected to be referred to juvenile court this week on five counts of misdemeanor battery, Pfutzenreuter said.
Da’ Bomb Hot Sauce’s website says when ingesting their sauce “you may feel death is around the corner, but if you’re a warrior, that just heightens the pleasure.”
source-www.nbcchicago.com
Man Accused of Breaking into a Mobile High School www.privateofficer.com
MOBILE, Ala. -June 6 2013
Mobile Police arrested a man accused of breaking into Williamson High School just after midnight on Wednesday.
Police responded to a call from a school security officer, and found the suspect who matched the security officer’s description.
After a brief foot chase, police captured the suspect and arrested him.
The suspect was identified as 29-year-old Darren Anthony Sykes and was charged with Burglary Third Degree.
source-wkrg
Former Virginia Beach school security guard indicted www.privateofficer.com
 |
| Police Photo |
VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. June 4 2013 - A former Virginia Beach school security guard accused of having a sexual relationship with a student has been indicted by a grand jury.
Perez is also charged in Norfolk with conspiring with the student to kill her husband and engaging in inappropriate activity with the student at her home.
CT bill requires trained school security officers www.privateofficer.com
HARTFORD, Conn. June 3 2013 (AP) — A bill that sets standards for school security officers in the wake of the Newtown school shooting has received final legislative approval.
The House of Representatives voted unanimously Saturday in favor of legislation that requires public elementary and secondary schools that choose to hire security officers to hire only active or retired police officers. Those officers must complete the Police Officer Standards and Training Council, or POST training.
The legislation already passed the Senate. It now awaits Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s signature.
Since the Dec. 14 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School, the towns of Enfield and North Branford have discussed hiring armed security officers for their schools.
A legislative task force that examined school security in the wake of the shooting did not recommend requiring districts to hire armed guards.
Security guard busted with drugs at East St. Louis school www.privateofficer.com
St. Clair County IL June 2 2013 Authorities conducted a drug sweep at an East St. Louis school after a security guard was busted with drugs, police tell News 4.
Deputies with the St. Clair County Sheriff’s Department performed the sweep at Lincoln Middle School Friday morning.
Lincoln Middle School was placed on lockdown while deputies swept the bulding with drug dogs. After the dogs detected drugs in a 2003 Dodge Neon in the parking lot, it was determined it belonged to the school security officer.
Inside 29-year-old Alvin Golliday Jr.’s car, 97 grams of cannibis was found. Officers say a throrough search revealed something even more troubling.
“Also inside the vehicle besides the 97 grams of cannabis was a digital scale and a box of sandwich bags which leads to believe there may be a delivery involved which is the equipment for that,” said Sergeant George Makriakow with the St. Clair County Sheriff’s Department.
Because of the distribution materials, authorities are looking into whether he was selling to faculty and staff or even to the students.
A school district spokesperson says Lincoln Middle has one school resource officer who is from the East St. Louis Police Department.
Golliday was one of two unarmed security guards that are school district employees, meaning the district conducted a background check on him when he was hired.
“Every employee in district has a fingerprint background check and this district goes step further and when an employee is hired have to undergo a drug test,” said Beth Shepperd with the school district.
Golliday is being held on $75,000 bond. The 97 grams of pot found in his car is considered at felony in Illinois.
source- KMOV.com
Dunbar High School security guard charged with battery www.privateofficer.com
Chicago IL June 2 2013 — A Chicago Public Schools security guard is charged with battery after he allegedly pushed a female student.
The incident at Dunbar High School was recorded with a cell phone camera on May 21.
Investigators say the recording shows Preston Dixon pushing and hitting the 16-year old victim.
The victim suffered injuries to her face and body.
Dixon is now charged with battery.
Source-wls
Security Company Conducts Eye Scans of Students Without Parental Consent www.privateofficer.com
Polk County FLA June 2 2013 A Florida school district is facing outrage after a private security company conducted eye scans on students without notifying parents.
A Polk County School spokesman confirmed to Fox News that students in three schools were scanned – but the program has since been stopped and the iris scans that were already collected have been destroyed.
“I have a letter from the security company telling us everything has been destroyed,” said Rob Davis, the district’s senior director of support services. “We never intended for this to be something forced on parents.”
But those reassurances have done little to calm parents who want to know why they were not notified that a security firm was performing eye scans on children – a story first exposed by conservative columnist Michelle Malkin.
“This is all a bit ‘Big Brother’ and parents should be quite disturbed,” one unidentified parent wrote to The Ledger newspaper. “These people sent out an opt-out form to watch the presidential address, but they can’t notify the parents of children when the are acquiring extremely personal information about minors?”
Another parent posted her thoughts on Facebook – calling it an “invasion of my family’s Constitutional right to privacy.” She also took issue with the “school allowing a private company access to my child without my consent or permission.”
Davis told Fox News that a letter was supposed to have been sent to parents on the week of May 15th.
“Unfortunately, that did not happen,” he said. “The person responsible for sending the letter had a medical emergency.”
The iris scans were part of a pilot program targeting students who ride school buses and three of the district’s 130 schools. The scans were conducted by a private security company called Stanley Convergent Security Solutions.
“We were trying to provide an extra layer of security for parents whose child rides a school bus,” Davis told Fox News. “It would identify the student who got on a bus, when they got on the bus, what bus they got on, when the arrived at school and vice versa in the afternoon.”
The scanning started on May 22 and was finally halted on May 24 when the district realized the opt-out letters had not been sent.
Davis said it’s unclear how many students had been scanned because all of the records have been destroyed. He also said he understands why parents are upset.
“I’m a father of three daughters,” he said. “I can understand their concerns. If the information had been sent out when it should have – they could have opted out.”
Regardless, he said parents have nothing to fear about the iris scans – and – he stressed – the data has been destroyed.
But parents aren’t so sure – considering the records were kept not by the school –but by a private security firm.
“It seems like they are mostly focused on this program, like the program was the problem,” one parent wrote on Facebook. “It’s not, it’s the invasion of my family’s Constitutional right to privacy that is the problem.”
And while the pilot program has been suspended, Davis said he’s not ruling out using iris scans in the future.
“We will always look for innovative ways to communicate with parents that will provide a level of comfort and safety for their child who rides a school bus,” he said.
Convicted felon security guard arrested with gun at school www.privateofficer.com
Austin Joe Domebo, 26, has a substantial criminal history.
Brawl breaks out at Ohio kindergarten graduation www.privateofficer.com
CLEVELAND OH June 1 2013 (AP) — A brawl that started over spilled punch at a kindergarten graduation ceremony Friday resulted in the arrest of eight people, authorities said.
NC man faces burglary charges in theft of loolipops www.privateofficer.com
Disneyland Employee Arrested After Explosion, Held on $1 Million Bail www.privateofficer.com
Anaheim, California May 30 2013 A Disneyland arrest has taken place, with an employee being taken into police custody on suspicion of planting a so-called “dry bomb” in a trash can at the theme park where hundreds of families visit every day.
A 22 year old suspect, Christian Barnes of Long Beach, has been arrested, according to Anaheim police Sgt. Bob Dunn on Wednesday.
Detectives have taken Barnes into custody as part of their investigations into the destructive device found at the park, which has shocked Disneyland tourists.
A small explosion took place on Tuesday at the Disneyland park, with visitors in the Mickey’s Toontown left stunned by the incident.
Authorities have said that dry ice was placed inside a bottle and left in one of the trash cans in the Toontown area of the park, and although a small explosion took place fortunately no one was injured.
Barnes was an employee at the park and worked as an outdoor vendor. Police have arrested him and he is now being held on $1 million bail.
The explosion, which was described as a “small bang” by some eye witnesses, occurred around 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, Anaheim police representative Bob Dunn told CBS.
“It sounded louder than a gunshot,” Allen Wolf, who was only 20 feet away from the trash can that exploded, told the Associated Press. “I looked up. Everyone stopped and looked up.”
“Just a big boom and the trash can exploding … the lid coming up … people were at a standstill,” Vanessa Vasquez, who was at the park with her family, told KCBS. “It was kind of a little scary when I saw the whole area (look like a) ghost town.”
“In an abundance of caution, the area was evacuated,” Disney officials confirmed, saying they were working with local police and the Orange County bomb squad.
Two hours after the evacuation, visitors were allowed back into the area.
Here is a video news report into the Disneyland explosion incident on Tuesday.
Alabama school deciding on school security or tornado shelters www.privateofficer.com
GADSDEN, Alabama May 29 2013 — Etowah County Commissioner Larry Payne said today he believes there is a difference of opinion between city and county residents as to which is a bigger need for schools – resource officers for security or storm shelters.
Payne’s comments came after a tornado May 20 plowed through two schools in Oklahoma. State lawmakers there are already drawing attention to the fact that 94 percent of the state’s public schools do not have storm shelters.
However, Etowah County, like other areas across the nation, has spent the last few months debating how to provide more security for its schools. Last week, the county commission agreed to apply for a federal grant to pay part of the salaries for three school resource officers. The City of Gadsden has also approved a plan to put an officer in each of its public schools.
As Payne pointed out, the average salary for a school resource officer is roughly $50,000, plus supplying a car. The cost of a storm shelter is about four times that.
“Whenever you ask in the city what’s the biggest need, people will say an SRO,” Payne said. “When you talk to the people in the county, and I must have talked to about 100 people, not one of them wanted an SRO. They want a safe place for their kids.”
Payne said most of his district lies outside Gadsden. While parents, school officials and government officials have all focused on improving school safety in the wake of December’s Newtown school massacre, the Moore tornado has brought back reminders of the destruction left locally in the wake of the April 27, 2011 storms.
“Anywhere you go looking for money for the SROs, there’s no funding,” he said. “And no one wants to raise taxes. I certainly don’t. But looking at it as to what the people want, it has to make you think. What if something else happens, and all of a sudden, we have a new problem that we want to get fixed? It’s just food for thought.”
Source- AL.com
Junction City teens cause $250,000 school vandalism www.privateofficer.com
Dayton school security officers must be certified to use firearms www.privateofficer.com
Dayton OH May 28 2013 The 28 security officers employed by Dayton Public Schools don’t carry firearms on the job, but they do have to be trained and certified to use them.
The Montgomery County Commission, on Thursday, tabled a vote on a contract between the sheriff’s office and the school district for use of the Regional Training Center/Firing Range. The county commissioners said they wanted more details about why the training was needed given the officers don’t carry guns.
Jill Moberley, a spokeswoman for Dayton Public Schools, said the security officers are commissioned peace officers through the city of Dayton Police Department. As a result, the training is a requirement of certification from the Ohio Peace Officer Training Academy and the certification is a requirement of employment with the district.
“They are required to achieve a certain score on the firing range to attain the job and they have to maintain that level annually,” Moberley said.
Major Dave Hale of the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office, said the training center has 14 firing ranges, for different types of firearms. The cost to use the facility is $100 per day, per firing range. About 50 local, county, state and federal agencies train at the firing range on Webster street in Vandalia.
The school contract is for $500, Moberley said. The county commission will consider the contract again on June 4.
Source-Dayton Daily News
Oregon high school student arrested for making bombs www.privateofficer.com
ALBANY, Ore. May 26 2013– Police took a 17-year-old West Albany High School student into custody Thursday for making two bombs.
Police said the explosive devices could have caused serious damage and loss of life. Officers said they got a tip that the student intended to detonate them at school.
Just before 10:30 p.m. police took the student into custody at his father’s home on Northwest Violet Street in Albany, said Capt. Eric Carter with the Albany Police Department.
He was lodged at the Linn-Benton Juvenile Detention Facility on two counts each of possession and manufacture of a destructive device.
The bombs were found at the home of the student’s biological mother in the 2600 block of Northwest Raymond Court.
On Friday, The Oregon State Police Explosives Unit obtained a search warrant and safely removed all explosive items from the home, Carter said.
Police searched West Albany High School on Thursday evening and searched the school again Friday with an explosive detecting K-9 to ensure the campus is safe for students to return on Tuesday.
Police and the district attorney don’t know if they will prosecute the student as an adult because the investigation is still ongoing. The suspect is due in court Tuesday.
Anyone with information was asked to call Albany Police at 541-0917-7686.
source- kgw
Easton Honors Director of Public Safety Hugh Harris www.privateofficer.com
Easton PA May 26 2013 Easton’s City Council, Police Department, Fire Department, and Emergency Squad honored Hugh Harris, the College’s retiring director of public safety, for service to the city and the College.
At its meeting May 8, members of City Council praised Harris’ professionalism, collegiality, and effectiveness, as did Mayor Sal Panto, City Administrator Glenn Steckman, and Police Chief Carl Scalzo. They cited the strong and productive partnerships he forged with the city’s police and fire departments, emergency squad, and other law enforcement and public safety agencies during his 31 years as Lafayette’s public safety director. Council adopted a resolution recognizing Harris’ contributions “to the greater good of the City of Easton.” (The full resolution is at the bottom of this article.)
At the annual Easton Police Awards Ceremony on May 15, where Harris gave a keynote talk, officials of the Police Department, Fire Department, and Emergency Squad presented him with plaque featuring the insignia of the three agencies and the inscription “In grateful appreciation for your 31 years of outstanding service and devotion.”
Harris formed the Office of Public Safety when he came to Lafayette in 1982 by bringing functions related to the safety of the campus community and functions related to the security of campus facilities together in one operation. He oversaw the expansion of the department’s services to include police and law-enforcement services, with greater capability to conduct investigations, and services related to environmental health and safety.
Harris introduced many enhancements to the department’s systems, services, and effectiveness. Among these were the installation of a centralized fire-detection system across campus, sprinkler systems in all residence halls, and a closed-circuit TV system to aid visual monitoring of the campus. They also include the establishment of an emergency communications system that uses text messages, email, public-address announcements, and siren to alert the campus of emergency situations.
Harris also established the College’s comprehensive incident response plan that is reviewed and updated on an ongoing basis and includes protocols for ensuring the safety of the campus community in the event of emergencies of all kinds.
Harris will retire effective June 30. Here is the text of the City Council resolution.
Franklin County To Provide Their Own School Security Force www.privateofficer.com
FRANKLIN COUNTY, Ala. May 25 2013 – This week the state legislature voted to over-turn Governor Bentley’s veto of a local bill arming certain teachers and administrators in Franklin County Schools.
With the passing of the bill, school administrators and law enforcement must now write a new chapter in the book of protecting students at school.
To say that all eyes will be on the Franklin County School System this upcoming school year, could be an under-statement.
The school system is the first in the state to take student protection into their own hands.
“We don’t want a misconception to be out there that every teacher and employee is going to have a weapon, that is certainly not the case,” explained Superintendent Gary Williams. “There will be some qualified people who are able to handle emergency situations and well as handle a weapon. And they will have to go through training.”
Williams said he must now start the process of working with law enforcement to train educators for possible intruders.
According to Williams, there will be an application process for certifying that certain school personnel can handle emergency situations.
Only then, Williams stated, can the training process begin.
“With this in place, and even with an intruder knowing or a potential intruder knowing that there is someone in the school that can protect those kids, it might change their mind about entering the door.”
Superintendent Williams stresses the main reason for the arming of educators, is to slow down a possible intruder until law enforcement can get to the school.
Williams said the legislation is important because law enforcement response times to certain rural schools in the district can be more than twenty minutes.
source- whnt
Chicago School Security Pushes Student Down Stairs www.privateofficer.com
Chicago IL May 25 2013 A former prosecutor representing a Chicago family said he anticipates criminal charges will be filed against a school security officer who was captured on cell phone video being aggressive with a student.
Chicago Public Schools officials said they removed the employee from duty following the Tuesday incident. Video appeared to show him throwing the female student down the stairs at Dunbar Vocational Career Academy and punching her in the face.
“Seeing this video, it boiled my blood,” said attorney Mark Sutter. “[It] made me wish I was a prosecutor again because I would love to prosecute this man for doing what he did to this young child.”
The video was first published to the website WorldStarHipHop.com with the title “Caught On Cell Phone: Chicago School Security Guard Pushes Female Student Down Staircase & Then Decks Her In The Face For Allegedly Putting Hands On Him!” In it, 16-year-old Lauren Goodlow is seen lying on the floor. She was approached by a woman who appears to be a teacher or administrator at the South Side school. Goodlow then stood up and moves toward the guard. The guard appears to punch Goodlow in the face.
“I broke down crying because I couldn’t believe that a staff member at a school would treat a child like that,” said the girl’s mother, Pershaun Goodlow.
A second video showing more of the scuffle was released Friday.
Other students said they believed the safety official was trying to intervene in a fight between two students, one of whom was Goodlow. Witnesses said the girl began hitting the guard about the head and chest as he tried to separate her from an altercation.
“He grabbed her arms to stop her. And she was like, ‘Don’t touch me,’ and she started hitting him. She hit him in his chest. He got mad. He just picked up her arm and threw her down the stairs,” said freshman Antonese Brown. “She was laying on her side. Then he tried to help her up and when the girl got up she went to hit him and he pushed her by her head and pushed her back down to the ground.”
“He was wrong, but then again, if you’re trying to attack this man, why are you trying to attack the man when he grabbed you and told you to calm down,” added student Breana Jones.
Pershaun Goodlow said her sophomore daughter went to the emergency room immediately after the scuffle. Days later, she said the teen was still in pain and hadn’t yet returned to school.
“She’s upset. She’s right now complaining about a great deal of pain,” the mother explained.
School officials said they do not condone such behavior and turned the case over to the Chicago Police Department.
“The safety of our students is our top priority,” CPS spokeswoman Becky Carroll said. “CPS takes matters of employee misconduct very seriously, especially when it involves an employee whose job it is to ensure the safety of students.”
Both CPS and CPD officials said interviews and the investigation were ongoing. It wasn’t known by Friday afternoon if charges would be filed against anyone involved.
Source-www.nbcchicago.com
