STN Media Group, owner of School Transportation News and the North American School Bus EXPO Conference, reached an agreement with the National Association of School Resource Officers to present an address by Executive Director Mo Canady during the STN EXPO Brunch and Keynote address sponsored by Thomas Built Buses on July 23.
The 20th STN EXPO is scheduled for July 20-24, at the Grand Sierra Resort in Reno, Nev.
Canady is a retired lieutenant with the City of Hoover (Ala.) Police Department, where he served for 25 years and was a member of the Special Response Team. The final 12 years in the department were spent as as the supervisor of the School Services Division. He has also been a law enforcement instructor since 1993 and has taught classes on Evident Photography and Fngerprinting and Tactical Response to School shootings and Student Violence.
A graduate of Jacksonville State University with a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice, Canady was appointed as a NASRO instructor in 2001 and to the NASRO board of directors four years later. He is also a former president of NASRO.
In response to NRA recommendations in December following the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary in Connecticut that killed 20 students and six teachers and administrators, Canady said on behalf of NASRO that all schools nationwide should have carefully selected and properly trained and armed school resource officer on campus. He called such personnel “one of the best defenses to an active shooter in school.” But, NASRO’s official position also includes a recommendation that other school employees or community members without law enforcement backgrounds should not be allowed to carry a firearm on school property, which could include a school bus.
“School-based policing requires specialized training not covered in most law enforcement academies,” he added. “Because school resource officers are much more than armed guards, they need training in teaching, counseling and the special skills required to act as a law enforcement officer in a school setting. In addition, we recommend that all school resource officers receive special training to assure that their responses to an active shooter will be safe and effective.”
The agreement between STN Media and NASRO came just days before an armed man illegally boarded an Alabama school buses, shot and killed driver Charles Poland, Jr., and kidnapped a 5-year-old student with autism. The suspect was shot and killed by law enforcement on Monday after they raided a homemade, underground shelter where the man had been hiding with the boy. The student was recovered unharmed, according to reports.
