The U.S.Department of Justice has awarded more than $85.3 million to bolster school security—including funding to educate and train students and faculty—and support first responders who arrive on the scene of a school shooting or other violent incident.

 

“These federal resources will help to prevent school violence and give our students the support they need to learn, grow, and thrive,’ said Attorney General William P. Barr. “By training faculty, students and first responders, and by improving school security measures, we can make schools and their communities safer.”

 

“Preventing violence in our schools is critical to the safety and security of all of our communities,” said Robert J. Higdon, Jr., United States Attorney for the Eastern District of North Carolina.  “These funds authorized by the Department of Justice will be used to better prepare school faculty, students and law enforcement to prevent, detect, and respond to security threats.”

 

The grants award more than $5 million in funding to prevent violence in schools in North Carolina.  President Trump signed the STOP School Violence Act into law in March 2018, authorizing grants that are designed to improve threat assessments, train students and faculty to provide tips and leads, and prepare law enforcement officers and emergency professionals to respond to school shootings and other violent incidents. The grant programs are managed by OJP’s Bureau of Justice Assistance and the Justice Department’s Office of Community Oriented Policing Services.

 

The Bureau of Justice Assistance, within the Department’s Office of Justice Programs, and the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services manage the programs and administer the grants, which include funds to:

·         Develop school threat assessment teams and pursue technological solutions to improve reporting of suspicious activity in and around schools;

 

·         Implement or improve school safety measures, including coordination with law enforcement, as well as the use of metal detectors, locks, lighting and other deterrent measures;

 

·         Train law enforcement to help deter student violence against others and themselves;

 

·         Improve notification to first responders through implementation of technology that expedites emergency notifications;

 

·         Develop and operate anonymous reporting systems to encourage safe reporting of potential school threats;

 

·         Train school officials to intervene when mentally ill individuals threaten school safety; and

 

·         Provide training and technical assistance to schools and other awardees in helping implement these programs.

 

For more details about these individual award programs, as well as listings of individual 2019 awardees, visit https://go.usa.gov/xVJuV

 

About the Office of Justice Programs:

 

The Office of Justice Programs, directed by Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Katharine T. Sullivan, provides federal leadership, grants, training, technical assistance and other resources to improve the nation’s capacity to prevent and reduce crime, assist victims and enhance the rule of law by strengthening the criminal justice system. More information about OJP and its components can be found at www.ojp.gov.