WAUSAU, WI (WSAU) – Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul was back in central Wisconsin on Thursday morning to discuss the issue of school safety with staff and students as concerns continue to mount nationwide.
Kaul, who was joined by two Wausau West students as well as interim superintendent Cale Bushman, spoke about what safety concerns mattered to them as well as what improvements have been implemented to make Wausau West a safer school for everyone who works or learns in the building.
“This is the fifth city around the state of Wisconsin where we’ve had these types of engagement meetings, and we’ve heard a lot from school officials, policymakers, and teachers about school safety issues, but one of the important places we can get information from the students themselves, so it’s a privilege to be able to hear about the kinds of things they’re seeing and the environment they are going to school in,” Kaul said during his opening remarks.
Kaul stated that students told him that they appreciated the updates to the building, such as the installation of a new buzz-in system that requires visitors to present photo IDs before they can enter the hallways. Other resources the students told Kaul that they believe help them feel safe during the school week included the clubs they were members of as well as the easy access to trusted adults they could go to if a safety concern was to arise.
According to Statista, since 2018, there have been more than 100 firearm-related incidents at K–12 schools in the United States annually. However, comparable instances are extremely uncommon in other industrialized nations; from 2009 to 2018, there were only five school shootings in G7 nations other than the United States.
Kaul’s visit comes after staff members at Roosevelt Elementary School in Kenosha prevented a possible incident earlier this month when they alerted police to a 13-year-old student who made threats against the school and attempted to enter the building through a secure area carrying a duffel bag. Police found no real firearms in the boy’s home during their search, and he was charged with one count of making “terroristic threats.”
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