Attorney General Brad Schimel last Tuesday announced plans to train more than 2,000 teachers and other education professionals by the end of 2018, and more than 5,000 by the end of 2019.
His ongoing training will lead to the creation of School Safety Intervention Teams (SSIT) at schools across the state to combat threats of violence against schools, students, and teachers. In addition to these training benchmarks, Attorney General Schimel also announced that 167 schools and school districts will receive $11,938,492 from the second round of the Wisconsin Department of Justice (DOJ) School Safety Grant program, which focuses on advanced initiatives to bolster student mental health. Out of 595 schools and school districts that successfully applied for round two grant funding, 549 grants have been awarded, as of Oct. 15. DOJ staff is waiting on additional information from the remaining applicants before awarding the final funds designated as part of the second round.
Four parochial schools in Merrill were among that were awarded round two grants. NTC Christian Academy was awarded $9,990, Saint Francis Xavier Catholic School was awarded $9,729, Saint John Lutheran School was awarded $9,940, and Trinity Lutheran Grade School was awarded $9,745.
Round two school safety grant funding requires that, in addition to training 10% of all staff in advanced adolescent mental health, awarded schools must create a local team of educators, counselors, and law enforcement that will assess threats and identify students in need of support. Based on a model set by the U.S. Secret Service, a local SSIT will engage in ongoing violence-related threat assessments, behavior monitoring, and intervention.