The National Association for Pupil Transportation said it is developing an initiative to develop products and services to “enhance the national and local conversations about improved safety and security, especially involinvg schools and children.”
The call comes in the aftermath of the school shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Conn., in December. Alexandra Robinson, president of NAPT and the executive director of transportation for the New York City Department of Education, recently invited five industry professionals from around the country to sit on a committee that will steer the initiative.
NAPT also sent a survey to members that asks about 20 questions related to the priority level of security in local schools and communities and how transportation departments offer security awareness training to drivers and staff, if at all. Other questions include if districts have conduced security assessments, if school staff including bus drivers are allowed to carry concealed weapons, the security measures currently being implemented, and what the role of the federal government should be.
“As we said last February when we announced this project, NAPT believes school transportation professionals, and our members in particular, have much to contribute to the ongoing national conversation about school safety and security,” commented Michael Martin, executive director of NAPT. “This survey will help us not only re-assess the resources and education we can contribute to the national dialogue, it will help us determine the additional resources and education we can create for and bring to our members at the 2013 NAPT Summit.”
The NAPT Summit is scheduled for Oct. 20-23 in Grand Rapids, Mich.
The new NAPT secruity steering committee members are: Charlie Hood, state director of Pupil Transportation in Florida; Kathleen Furneaux, executive director of the Pupil Transportation Safety Institute; Gail Wilson Hyser president of Wilson’s Bus Service Inc., in Pasadena, Maryland and a director at large of the National School Transportation Association; Denny Coughlin, president of School Bus Training Company in Minneapolis; and NAPT Board member David Anderson, director of transportation for the Adams 12 Five Star School District in Thorton, Colo.
