Sheriff: No new social media threats to area schools.

I found it odd that at 09:15 on Thursday two schools I drove by had zero visible police presence. I’m not challenging the law enforcement response but did we just show up for drop off and leave these elementary schools? I’m guessing this is part of the reason a 1000+ kids were kept home. In the world we live the expectation is rapidly becoming that every building has a SRO. Public school enrollment is going to continue to plummet in this county until we address some of the safety concerns. Online public schools and homeschool leave protection to the parent. SRO’s cost money - I get it. AstroTurf Football fields, brand new athletic buses, scoreboards, and overpaid do nothing administrators cost money too. Which is more important the safety of students or everything else then safety? Putnam County schools seem only interested in spending money on safety when it comes in the form a grant or incentive program. Some of the “safety” upgrades made recently create tactical disadvantages for law enforcement if they were responding to a critical event. Some of this stuff is half thought out and poorly implemented. Parents need to voice their concerns in person at their respective school board meetings and not just on social media.

Humdinger - I am affiliated with one of the school districts in the county. While you may not have been able to physically see the additional police presence, they were there. I counted 4 additional officers in 2 buildings of our district. Their vehicles were parked in another location on campus. Outside optics are not always the truth of what is happening internally. I assure you that school safety is the #1 priority of schools. Why would schools openly discuss their safety protocols? It would be like a football coach telling the opposing team exactly what plan is in place for everything throughout the game. If all of the safety protocols are known by the general public, then the bad guys have the advantage. Did you know that the sheriff's department has run active shooter drills in each of the county's corporations? Planned and practiced safety precautions/protocols take place daily. Last week, we just went to the next level. We practice school safety every.single.day. We don't just practice safety when someone openly makes a threat. We treat each day as if there is a threat. Our kids are safe.

We'll determine for ourselves whether our kids are safe or not, jet, and while your perception of how things are being done might make sense to you, the concept of "hardening" comes to mind where transparency of protocols can result in improving processes and procedures as it provides everyone a chance to spot and improve weaknesses, suggest improvements, hold authorities accountable for lackluster procedures and assurances, etc. If revealing what those protocols are to the general public results in said bad guys exploiting them or succeeding in an attack, then said protocols were clearly deficient at best. And considering the fact that these school shootings, threats, etc. keep happening, even the village idiot understands that the approaches taken up to this point aren't working.

And really, let's be honest with ourselves here for a second: The reason people like you love to conceal security protocols isn't because you've prioritized the safety of said potential victims, but rather, it's to avoid culpability of said deficiencies in the event that a catastrophe happens anyway, which it probably will at some point given how often they occur. It's just more c-suite insulation from the general public to save face and avoid responsibility, the same crap we see all the time whenever an irate parent attends a school board meeting only to see said parent's mic get muted the moment he or she says anything that the board members dislike.

Douglas - If you think that law enforcement is NOT involved in making these protocols, conferences are not attended by school officials, committees INCLUDING parents and community members are not formed to look over plans, you are sorely mistaken. To say that I don't care about the kids' safety is one of the biggest lies I have ever read. I have devoted my ENTIRE LIFE to keeping kids safe. All I was trying to do was to assure the previous speaker that while some protocols aren't seen physically by the general public, it doesn't mean that they don't exist.

Yeah, well, as far as I'm concerned, that remains to be seen. Just understand that our interpretation of what constitutes adequate security provisions isn't something that's limited by your assurances or years of experience nor do you represent for us some kind of "good faith" safety benchmark. And we can pretend all day that you're a guardian angel watching over the little lambs, but if I had a dime for every single time some school administrator or faculty member person pranced around patting themselves on their backs over all the hard work they've done to make their school one of the best in the state only to see their actions result in a complete train-wreck of a problem, I'd be wealthy enough to buy the Banner Graphic. Maybe you're not one of those people, and if you aren't, great! But when it comes to assessing academic member quality, I err on assuming the worst because 9 times out of 10, they fulfill my expectations: They all hide behind canned responses and other layers of professional insulation like automated phone systems, contact forms that *sometimes* work but rarely receive responses to, keyed entryways you need pass codes for, constant scheduling conflicts, policy stipulations and safeguards to protect them (vs. their students), and whatever else there is that they use to avoid accountability with.

DOUGLAS, I would HATE to get into an argument with you! BTW, I enjoy both your and the MAYOR's comments. Common sense is pretty good medicine for a world that seems to have lost its direction.

DOUGLAS, I would HATE to get into an argument with you! BTW, I enjoy both your and the MAYOR's comments. Common sense is pretty good medicine for a world that seems to have lost its direction.

Prince, I appreciate the props, but I shouldn't have pounced on jet like I did. I'm in a foul mood today and she (or he?) was just at the right place at the right time.

(Apologies, jet. I didn't mean to be a jerk to you. I know you mean well and I'm sure the district is lucky to have you involved.)

That aside, I just get irritated at the things I see happening in situations like this, and I get so tired of knowing how those central to the problems rarely get held accountable for any of it since they're the primary beneficiaries of the very policies they get to pass that ensure their protections from responsibility or transparency. I see it with everything anymore, from these kinds of school system problems to even trips at the local grocery store or visits to the mechanic. Nobody ever seems to get held accountable for anything anymore and I'm just so fed up with it that I can't think straight about any of it. I even remember watching the Uvalde coverage when that all went down and seeing the parents being restrained by the law enforcement officers who were on the scene filled me with rage... Think about that: You're a parent outside the school--which is only a few feet away--listening to gunshots from inside knowing your child is likely in there peeing their pants in fear of some psycho who's about to put bullets in their body. And all you want to do is just go in and save them but can't because morons wearing badges were told by other morons to keep parents out only to later learn how the cops who were in the school at the time stood around long enough to let the killer have his way with the children... And I'm sure at some point prior to that carnage, those parents were also told similar things like, "Your child is safe in here. Not only do we have resource officers on-site, but this is a gun-free zone, too."

And not once do I remember ever seeing anything about any of the administration or anyone else "in charge" being held accountable for anything beyond maybe something like a resignation. Pfft.

I’ve performed hundreds of school safety trainings, managed federal grants related to school safety, and overseen projects for the largest school corporation in Indiana. Visible presence is level one of the continuum. I won’t specify the schools I was speaking of with no visible presence. It would seem counterintuitive for security and public relations not to have a visible presence on a day in which all the stakeholders were paying attention. Is a bad actor more or less likely to engage with a building with a law enforcement vehicle parked in the parking lot? The element of surprise is a great tactical advantage but I would rather deter the need for tactics to begin with. I’m not on here to troll anyone. I speak to things I actually know something about or can inject my flavor of sense into the conversation.

Any true professional in the realm of homeland security will refrain from assuring anyone of anything. A declaration that “Our kids are safe” is indicative of flawed mindset. We must not fool ourselves into the trappings of the security fallacy. I’m not questioning one’s motivations or actions. These issues are complex. What was attendance rate on Thursday? Perception is reality. Every parent who kept their child home spoke to you directly as a stakeholder in their child’s safety a vote of a lack of confidence in your abilities. Right, wrong, indifferent that means there is still work to do.

"It would seem counterintuitive for security and public relations not to have a visible presence on a day in which all the stakeholders were paying attention."

Well said, MAYOR HUMDINGER. Law enforcement is money well spent at every level.