John Calvert isn't just in charge of the Kansas Department of Education's Safe and Secure Schools unit. The former school resource officer is a dad who is concerned about his own children experiencing a school shooting.
The uptick in threats to start the 2024-2025 school year in Kansas has been challenging for Calvert.
"It has been a rough couple of weeks when it comes to the social media threats and things that are out there," he told Up to Date.
Calvert stressed the importance of building relationships between law enforcement personnel and educators in order to respond to threats quickly and effectively.
"Relationships are the number one thing we can do to keep our schools safe," he said, "because 'See something, say something' only works if there's somebody to say something to."
Calvert also said it's important to learn from tragedies like Uvalde, where an inadequate and indecisive response from law enforcement cost lives. The new orthodoxy in law enforcement response must be "We're no longer waiting, we have to go in," he said.
Most importantly, Calvert warned safety officials in Kansas must always look for areas to improve. Becoming too comfortable with current measures can leave schools unprepared for shootings.
"I've been in school safety now for 12 (years)," he said, "and I'm not comfortable in this at all."
- John Calvert, Kansas Department of Education Safe and Secure Schools unit director
