The murder of 19 students and two teachers at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, has refocused the national conversation on the issue of safety and security within schools and on school buses.
The shooting is the deadliest school shooting in Texas history, and the third deadliest school shooting in modern U.S. history, news outlets reported.
School Transportation News sent questions to the district on the use of student transportation services during the tragedy, they had not been answered as of this report. But The Washington Post reported that school buses were used in the evacuation and reunification efforts of students to a local civic center.
This is not the first-time school bus drivers and buses have been used to respond to communities in crisis, which further stresses the importance of incident response training for school bus drivers.
Related: Increased Behavior Challenges Complicate School Transportation Operations, Staffing
Related: Washington School Bus Driver Stabbed to Death with Students on Board
Related: Following Hijacking Attempt, Michigan School Bus Driver Embraces Survivor Role
Related: U.S. Army Trainee Hijacks School Bus in South Carolina
Several recent articles at stnonline.com highlight the importance of training school bus staff for incident response. Bret E. Brooks, the chief operating officer and senior consultant for Gray Ram Tactical, comments that the frequency and severity of violent attacks in and around school buses nationwide have increased since the informal reopening of schools following the COVID-19 pandemic.
Brooks will be presenting a session at STN EXPO Indy on June 5 that discusses the warning signs of school bus security issues and how to de-escalate them.
Plus, the article “Proactive Incident Response” in the May edition of STN magazine discusses the fatal Washington state school bus stabbing last fall and how training is now being developed following that murder to better prepare school bus drivers for intruders. Katrina Morris, the transportation director for the Shore Education Service district in Michigan, in conjunction with her local law enforcement, also developed a Proactive Response Training for School Bus Drivers that is required of all school bus drivers and their supervisors statewide. Morris has started teaching the training in several other states across the U.S. and provides an overview of the program at STN EXPO Reno on July 20.
Read these articles and more at stnonline.com.
