This year Jackson-Milton has taken new security measures to ensure the safety of the students and staff that attend school everyday.  The school resource officer, Bill Sosnosky, along with the school’s superintendent, Kirk Baker and principal, David Vega have all agreed on ideas to make the school grounds a safer place for students and staff. 

Some new things that were adding to to the school include new security cameras, a new bookbag policy, and bolo stick security devices.

Deputy Sosnosky states, “We decided to upgrade our security equipment because the previous equipment was out of date and we were able to receive a grant from the Bureau of Workmen’s Compensation which provided us with 40,000 dollars to upgrade our camera system.” 

Along with new security cameras, the new bookbag policy was also put in place to reduce concealment possibilities. Deputy Sosnosky states, “It helps us be proactive in today’s society.”

The last safety measure that was put in place took place last year, these measures included bolo sticks along with emergency windows. Bolo sticks are to be used in conjunction with the emergency windows, the bolo sticks are utilized as a barricade tool to allow for more time to escape in case of an intruder.  

Principal David Vegas states, “We can never do enough to make sure the students are safe, so any time we can implement things to make sure they are safe, we do that.”

In regards to other incidents happening around the world in other schools Mr. Vega also states, “We ask ourselves, ‘Are we doing everything we can to prevent these things from happening?,’ everything we do is a team effort, we have a lot of discussions amongst ourselves and we do what we feel is best for our students. ”

Principal David Vega, Deputy Sosnosky, and Superintendent Kirk Baker took these new safety measures to the Jackson-Milton Board of Education last year. All parties involved spent a great deal of time deciding this was the right choice to ensure the safety of the staff and students today.