By Myrna Trauntvein
Times-News Correspondent
A plan for protecting students at Juab High School in
case of a crisis has been developed.
"Our Task Force is trained in how to respond to a
crisis at the school," said Chad Bowles, Nephi City Police
Chief.
In the last few years, a great deal of media attention
has been focused on school shootings. This has led many to
become concerned about their own school's safety, wondering
whether such tragic violence could happen in their
schools.
Utah County Metro SWAT Team members, a combined team
of police officers from Brigham Young University,Provo and
Orem, helped with the training of all officers in the Nephi
City Police Department.
"Two Nephi city officers are members of the Utah
County Metro SWAT team," said Bowles.
However, in terms of risk for homicide, schools are
about the safest place for teens&emdash;safer than their
homes or their neighborhoods&emdash;and violent deaths at
schools or school events are extremely rare. Less than 1
percent of the murders of children and teens in the United
States are school-related.
Nevertheless, local law enforcement now has a plan for
dealing with such a horror if it were ever to occur.
"We have everything in the school mapped out," said
Bowles. "So if we ever did have a problem we could
respond."
He said law enforcement officers now have all of the
doors, even closet doors, exits and entry levels on
maps.
They know all the internal workings of the school,
where power sources are, for example, so they could react to
a violent situation.
The formal school security assessment conducted at the
school by police is a strong step in a crisis emergency
plan.
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