By Adam Dodson | The Selma Times-Journal

Earlier this week, Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey announced a new “Smart on Safety” initiative regarding schools in Alabama, focusing on the importance of inter-organizational communication and preparedness.

The announcement comes on the heels of the Parkland, Florida shooting a couple weeks earlier, and a day before an accidental shooting at a Birmingham school killed one person and injured another.

“In announcing a four-pronged approach to school safety, we will build on the foundation already in place and allow all available state resources to be focused on efforts to keep our children safe,” Ivey said in a press release. “Ensuring safety in our schools is a bipartisan issue, and we must do all we can to prevent violence and be sure we are ready to respond in the event such violence does occur.”

Ivey’s aforementioned four-pronged approach for Alabama school safety are listed as follows:

Secure Schools: Ivey has vowed to support local school officials and law enforcement for their specific needs regarding school security. For example, school officials in larger metropolitan areas, such as Hoover, may have different security needs than school officials in smaller rural areas, such as Dallas County. Ivey also wants to use the Education Advancement and Technology fund for school safety purposes.

We Know Our Kids: Governor Ivey encourages schools to focus more of their attention on identifying at-risk students before they act violently. There are multiple avenues to help achieve this, such as student engagement or counseling.

Emergency Operations Plans (EOPs): Each school will be expected to work with local law enforcement and other entities to work on their emergency plan in the event of something tragic happening. Ivey wants schools and local law enforcement to have an emergency plan in place so they can act before first responders show up to the scene. All schools are expected to continuously update their EOP to fit changing circumstances. Having an EOP in place could help combat the situation before first responders are even there.

The Securing Alabama Facilities of Education (SAFE) Council: The SAFE Council will be the governing body to implement her school safety initiatives. The council is comprised of the secretary of the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency, the secretary for the Office of Information Technology, the Alabama State Superintendent of Education and the Commissioner of the Alabama Department of Mental Health. These four individuals will advise Ivey on school safety topics while monitoring the implementation of her safety plans. This is made possible due to Ivey signing Executive Order 713, allowing the creation of the SAFE Council and their authority surrounding school safety issues.

In Selma and Dallas County, the announcement of Ivey’s plan is something that has been received positively, as all parties involved want to do whatever is possible to make their schools and students safe. This includes Selma City Schools Superintendent Avis Williams, who saw the need for up-jumped safety plans.

“The largest concern for me with the safety of our schools is updating security,” Williams said. “While this is not the only concern we have, we need to do all we can so our students feel safer.”

While school officials across the state work to update their security plan and emergency protocols, other issues surrounding education may see less attention due to the necessity of delegating funds and human resources towards ensuring student safety.

According to Dallas County superintendent Hattie Shelton, she is fine with this funding going towards security causes, rather than whatever the funds were originally intended for.

“I am on board with additional funding for student safety. Even though some of the funding is going to hurt funding elsewhere, school safety comes first,” said Shelton. “Dallas County has to implement whatever Ivey chooses to. We are currently working to better our schools’ access, because we need to know who is on our campus at all times.”

The timeline for the implementation of Ivey’s security overhaul is scheduled to go into full effect sometime after the end of the current legislative session.