Arkansas schools adding armed presence

By Adam Roberts

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    FORT SMITH, Arkansas (KHBS, KHOG) — Schools across Northwest Arkansas and the River Valley start the fall semester this month. 40/29 News has talked with several school district leaders about what they’re doing new this year to keep kids safe.

The Arkansas School Safety Commission has recommended an armed presence at every school campus across the state.

Fort Smith In Fort Smith, the school district has its own police department, but not enough officers to man every school.

Bill Hollenbeck is a member of the state’s school safety commission as well as chief of the Fort Smith Public Schools Police Department. It was formed in 2018 based on commission recommendations at that time.

“Our whole purpose is to try to divert the pathway to violence by early intervention,” Bill Hollenbeck, Fort Smith Public Schools police chief, said. “And so we’re very good at that. But we could always improve so it’s important that we keep looking for innovative ideas to keep our students, staff, and the public safe.”

Hollenbeck’s department is made up of 12 officers and a social worker serves as the district’s threat assessment advisor. The district would have to more than double in size in order to follow the safety commission’s recommendations.

“It’s vitally important that we do have some sort of armed presence on every single campus as the commission has recommended, but it’s also up to each individual district or school board to determine if that need is necessary,” he said.

Hollenbeck said he and Fort Smith school administrators will review the commission’s recommendations to see what can be implemented.

“Right now, a lot of the recommendations that they’re making, the Fort Smith public schools are already doing,” he said. “The behavior threat assessment teams, of course, you know, we’re on board with that. We have safe schools helpline.”

“It’s humanly impossible to do everything but we have to at least strive for that,” he said.

Springdale The Springdale School District is planning to add armed security officers at all of its elementary schools.

“Our school safety plan really has been copied across the state and some places across the nation,” Jared Cleveland, superintendent, said. “That doesn’t mean we’re perfect.”

Cleveland said there are 21 school resource officer positions throughout the district. He said armed, commissioned school security officers will be added to every elementary school to make them safer.

Right now, Springdale has hired two such security officers. Cleveland said the district plans to hire about 20 more.

“We won’t have them on day one because they’re hard to find,” he said. “And what that means is the security officers will have distinguished clothing that you’re going to know who they are and where they are. And we’re going to protect our elementary for sure and our middle schools and junior highs and high schools with SRO. So that is a huge expense to the school district but our effort is safety.”

Farmington Farmington Schools installed 180 cameras across the district. The system will run 24 hours a day, seven days a week. School officials believe this will help protect students against possible intruders.

Bentonville Bentonville students will start swiping a new ID card when getting on and off the school bus.

Siloam Springs The Siloam Springs School District is launching a 24/7, anonymous tip line for students, parents and the community at large.

“It’s not just about keeping our kids safe from say, an active shooter standpoint,” Shane Patrick, the district’s assistant superintendent, said, “but it also can be about self-harm. It could be about discipline issues in the school. It could be about bullying. It could be about sexual harassment. It could be all sorts of things.”

Talking to your kids about School Safety Fayetteville’s health officer, Dr. Marti Sharkey, said some students may be experiencing anxiety about school safety as they head back to class this fall.

“If your child is concerned about school shootings, talk to them about it, and talk to them about how it’s rare. Talk to them about how the school systems in our area are all working together and with our local law enforcement agencies to keep them as safe as possible,” Dr. Sharkey said.

Dr. Sharkey also recommends talking to your older students about the new suicide hotline, 988.

“That’s not just for them, but for their friends as well. If they see somebody that’s hurting and they don’t know who to turn to, they don’t want to go talk to a teacher or out them, that’s a number that you could call. If you have concerns about anybody, I encourage all of us to use that wisely,” she said.

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