National School Safety and Security Services

www.schoolsecurity.org

EXPERT CALLS FOR SCHOOL SAFETY "BAILOUT"

National school safety expert scolds Congress as Columbine 10th Anniversary nears

Congress has grossly neglected K-12 school safety, security and emergency preparedness in its education stimulus bills and annual appropriations spending as the nation nears the 10th anniversary of the Columbine High School attack, says Kenneth S. Trump.

"It is absolutely pathetic that Congress as a whole has not blinked an eye at including excessive and questionable funding for everything from contraceptives to building water parks and new grass at the National Mall, while refusing to restore funding they have repeatedly cut to protect children and teachers in our nation's schools," said Trump, a Cleveland-based national school security expert and President of National School Safety and Security Services.

Congress has repeatedly cut funding for K-12 school safety over the past decade, including slicing the state grant component of the federal Safe and Drug Free Schools Program in half from over $600 million to $300 million. Funds for the Readiness and Emergency Management in Schools (REMS) grant programs dropped from an already pithy amount of $39 million its first year of awards in 2003 to currently around $24 million. The COPS in Schools program in the U.S. Department of Justice that funded police officers for our nation's schools was decimated over the past eight years, Trump said.

Trump applauded Congresswoman Carolyn McCarthy of New York for her leadership in making sure that the most recent House stimulus package included language to allow security improvements in the school modernization and repair component of the bill. The language allows schools to use funds from this program for physical security enhancements. McCarthy has been an outspoken leader on K-12 issues in Congress, Trump says.

But Trump said that the Congress overall has ignored the needs to restore cuts to school safety that should never have been in the first place is shocking.

"As we approach the 10th anniversary of the horrific attack upon Columbine High School, the inaction of Congress to tackle school safety funding tells me that our national leaders have forgotten the Columbine tragedy and lessons learned in that event and other school shootings over the past decade-plus," Trump said.

Trump called upon President Obama and Education Secretary Duncan to exercise immediate leadership to restore and expand funding targeted exclusively for K-12 school safety, security, and emergency planning.

For a listing of school-associated violent deaths, non-fatal shootings and other high-profile incidents since the start of this school year in August of 2008, see www.schoolsecurity.org/trends/school_violence08-09.html

Contact Trump for stories on trends and lessons in the past decade since the Columbine High School attack in 1999.

EXPERT BACKGROUND AND CONTACT INFO

Kenneth S. Trump, MPA

President

National School Safety and Security Services

Cleveland, Ohio

216-251-3067

For full biographical see

www.schoolsecurity.org/school-safety-experts/trump.html

Kenneth S. Trump, M.P.A., is the President of National School Safety and Security Services, a Cleveland-based national firm specializing in school

security and emergency preparedness training and consulting. Ken served as a school safety officer, investigator, and youth gang unit supervisor for the

Cleveland City Schools' safety division, and as a suburban Cleveland school security director and assistant gang task force director.He has authored two books and over 50 articles on school security and crisis issues. As one of the leading U.S. school safety experts, Ken has 25 years experience in the school safety profession and has worked with school and public safety officials from all 50 states. He is one of the most widely quoted school safety experts,

appearing on all national news networks and cable TV and in top market newspapers. Ken is a three-time invited Congressional witness testifying on school safety and emergency preparedness issues. For more background, see www.schoolsecurity.org/school-safety-experts/trump.html