CPS high school students request school board's help in protecting them from gun violence

Outreach campaigns for safe gun storage, mental health, tourniquet and CPR training and weapon detectors using artificial intelligence were requests of Students for Change, a group of high school students seeking safe schools.

Their audience on Monday was the Columbia Board of Education.

It's five years since the mass shootings at Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida, said Hickman sophomore Karli Jones, the group's president.

"This is the world that me and my classmates live in," Jones said.

Student mental health is critical for schools, said Sara Won, also a Hickman sophomore.

"School is supposed to be a safe space for us," Won said.

The student group already has conducted tourniquet training for fellow students, said Leila Christiann, a Hickman freshman. It's useful to stop bleeding on appendages from gunshot wounds, she said.

An artificial intelligence alternative to metal detectors is needed, said Virgil Worstell, Rock Bridge sophomore.

The technology uses artificial intelligence to detect weapons and weapons parts, he said. Other students who were part of the presentation were Hickman junior Gus Lookingbill and Hickman senior Opal Weber.

John White, CPS security director, will meet with a representative from the company that makes the AI weapons detectors next week, said Superintendent Brian Yearwood.

The student presentation received praise.

Board president David Seamon said he only learned tourniquet training in the Marine Corps.

"The fact that you have to think about this is incredibly disturbing," Seamon said.

Teachers' union President Noelle Gilzow was emotional about the presentation.

"I am really proud of the students who got up to talk and I'm exceedingly sad about what they talked about," Gilzow said.

School Bus Driver Shortage

The school board approved a one-year contract extension with Student Transportation Services costing $965,000.

There's inflation, a national labor shortage and low unemployment, said Randy Gooch, CPS chief operating officer.

"Those are things on a big level that are affecting us," Gooch said. "The number one factor is our inability to hire enough drivers."

The district and STS already have reduced the combing routes and reduced the number of drivers needed from 184 to 125, Gooch said.

He said very few routes have been canceled, but they increased in January and February, he said.

"None of these problems that we've described are going away quickly," Gooch said.

Starting pay for drivers now starts at around $18 an hour and that will increase by 8% to $19.44 per hour.

"We have issues," Gooch said. "We know that. But it is not broke."

Curriculum audit

Among the findings of a curriculum audit: "Administrators and teachers expressed concerns about communication and trust during interviews and on online surveys."

The concerns had the potential to create a negative school climate and decrease morale, the document reads.

Jim Ferrell, with Curriculum Management Solutions, presented the report. The cost of the report was $123,250.

The district is starting from a good place, Ferrell said.

"You're not building from scratch," he said "You have a very strong foundation."

Among positive findings is the district's strong financial position, a desire for equity and a supportive community, the report reads.

Recommendations include: Adopting and updating policies that govern the management of the curricula, Developing a curriculum management plan for the design, development, implementation, monitoring and assessment of the curriculum.

Continue work to ensure equitable and equal access to a rigorous curriculum.

Traci Wilson-Kleekamp, with Race Matters, Friends, addressed the curriculum audit during public comment.

"If there's anything super-important in this report it is the way that we communicate externally and internally sucks," Wilson-Kleekamp said."

Roger McKinney is the Tribune's education reporter. You can reach him at rmckinney@columbiatribune.com or 573-815-1719. He's on Twitter at @rmckinney9.

This article originally appeared on Columbia Daily Tribune: School board tackles school safety, bus driver shortage at meeting.