safety

For seven years, the video cameras sat in boxes gathering dust at Mount Mansfield Union High School. Now the same cameras that were yanked down from school hallways after parents and students complained are on the verge of going back up. What’s changed?

Boston Public Schools, in a push to beef up background checks on employees, will meet the requirements of a new state law mandating that all staff be fingerprinted, and will go a step further by scouring court documents to see if a string of “nonconvictions” is a sign of questionable character.

Teachers attending a meeting at a small school in rural Oregon last Friday were shocked when two masked men wearing hoodies burst into the conference room and pretended to open fire. The surprise shooting drill at Pine Eagle Charter School in Halfway was designed to test the school's preparation for an assault by "active shooters," The Oregonian reported.

In the months following the Sandy Hook massacre, schools nationwide have stepped up efforts to provide safe environments for teachers and students, and many have turned to high-tech solutions.

More than four months after the shooting, just two Connecticut school districts are pushing forward with the idea while others are calling it unaffordable or imprudent.

New research from the University of Luxembourg shows that there is a direct link between school climate and school violence. Most importantly, the social climate in class and in school is assumed to have a significant effect on the prevalence of violence in schools.

Arlington school board members say they have no desire for teachers to bring concealed guns to class and instead are focusing on measures such as new surveillance cameras and door buzzers to improve security at elementary schools.

Arson is suspected in a three-alarm fire that heavily damaged the Penn Wood High School in Lansdowne overnight and may force it to remain closed for the rest of the academic year, authorities said. The blaze followed a series of bomb threats at the school that stopped about two weeks ago, said Fire Chief Daniel Kortan.

Longview Elementary School, at 12th Street and Indian School Road in Phoenix, Ariz., was evacuated after administrators received a phone call about a bomb threat on Thursday. Students were momentarily moved to Montecito Community School, which was closed down two years ago and is still maintained by Osborn School District.