Lee School district to vote on policy changes aimed at making schools safer

The system to protect your kids at school worked again in Lehigh Acres when a teen was arrested on Wednesday for making threats.

As soon as a victim received the threats, it was reported to the school’s resource officer, and it’s the kind of quick action Lee County School board is address today with several major policy changes to how the district protects 95,000 students daily.

The board will be reviewing almost every aspect of the safety plan including crimes on campus, safety drills, and the threat assessment team.

The definition of a threat will be made much broader and students who make them could be expelled. Active shooter drills will be required at least once a month and each school will keep a record of how it went.

There are also new definitions for the threat assessment teams put into place after the Parkland shooting, and part of it summarizes their mission:

“Identify members of the school community to whom threatening behavior should be reported and provide guidance to student, faculty, and staff.”

The threat assessment teams can even pull criminal records to get more information about someone they identify as a potential risk.

The board will discuss and vote on these changes at 1:00 p.m. Thursday afternoon.