Austin Packer Bulletin - 2/2/24
Volume 2, Issue 25
Dear Families/Caregivers:
All students and members of our school communities deserve to feel safe, welcomed, and included. It is on all of us to work together to prevent firearm violence and to avoid the harm and tragedy that shootings of any kind can cause in the spaces in which we live, learn, work, and play.
Safe firearm storage is one of many preventative actions that you can take in keeping our school community and school buildings and grounds safe. When firearms are stored safely, it can help prevent them from getting into the hands of children and teens, who may use them to, intentionally or unintentionally, harm themselves or others. Safe storage can go a long way in preventing lives from being lost or permanently altered. If you have firearms in your home or if your child spends time in a space where firearms are present, there are important steps that can be taken to keep firearms secured and out of reach of unintended users.
Firearm-Related Injuries and Deaths: A Problem We Must Solve Together
Firearm-related injuries and deaths are a public health crisis that communities across the nation face every day:
- Since 2018, there have been more than 100 school shooting incidents per year in our country, and those numbers have steadily increased.[i]
- Approximately three-quarters of perpetrators in school-based active shooter situations acquired their firearm from the home of a parent or close relative.[ii] This illustrates the close connection between your role as families, caregivers, and guardians and the role of Austin Public Schools in keeping students safe while on school grounds.
- However, this issue goes beyond school-based active shooter situations and includes a variety of firearm injury types, including interpersonal violence, suicide, and unintentional fatal and non-fatal firearm injuries.[iii]
- More than 4 million children live in a household with at least one unlocked and loaded firearm.[iv] Studies have found that households with both locked firearms and locked ammunition have significantly lower risks of self-inflicted firearm injuries and even lower risks of unintentional firearm injuries among children and teens compared to households that did not safely store firearms.[v]
Safe Firearm Storage: Actions to Take to Keep Our Communities Safe
Safe firearm storage can help prevent and minimize the risk of firearm-related deaths and injuries. Everyone, both firearm owners and non-owners, has a role to play in building awareness of safe, responsible firearm storage. Below are simple, highly effective practices that can help to reduce firearm-related incidents in our community and help protect our kids. In addition to these practices, it is important to also engage children and adolescents in conversations about the dangers associated with using firearms and what to do and not do in the event they access a firearm, to prevent fatal or non-fatal injuries.
- Safely Store Firearms: Store firearms—always unloaded—in a tamper proof locked cabinet, box, safe, firearm vault, or storage case that children or other unauthorized adults cannot access.
- Safely Store Ammunition: Store ammunition in a separate, tamper-proof locked cabinet, safe, firearm vault, or storage case that children or other unauthorized adults cannot access.
- Secure Firearms: Use trigger locks or cable locks to prevent a firearm from firing. (More information can be found on the Safe Firearm Storage Fact Sheet, developed by the U.S. Department of Justice.)
- Trigger locks use a mechanism that clamps down around the trigger or trigger housing to prevent it from being pressed (Note: trigger locks should not be installed on loaded firearms).
- In a cable lock, a cable is threaded through the barrel or action of a firearm to prevent it from firing.
Austin Public Schools remains committed to helping ensure the safety of our students and school community. We can all work together to promote awareness about how we can protect our children and our whole school communities by safely storing firearms and prevent tragedies from ever occurring. Thank you for being a partner in these efforts, and for helping reduce firearm-related injury and deaths in our community.
Helpful Resources
More information about safe firearm storage and practices can be found below. Please feel free to read and share with family, friends, and neighbors.
This list below is included for the reader's convenience and contains examples of potentially useful products and resources. Inclusion of such information does not constitute an endorsement by the Department, the Federal government, or Austin Public Schools, nor a preference/support for these examples over others. The Department does not control or guarantee the accuracy, relevance, timeliness, or completeness of any outside information.
- Safe Firearm Storage Fact Sheet, U.S. Department of Justice
- Preventing Mass Attacks in Our Communities Webinar, U.S. Secret Service National Threat Assessment Center
- Securing Your Firearm and Explaining Gun Safety to Kids, Project Childsafe
- Be SMART, Guide to Secure Gun Storage Devices, Which States Have Child-Access and/or Secure Storage Laws?, Solutions: Secure Gun Storage, Everytown for Gun Safety Support Fund
- Secure Storage of Lethal Means: Keeping Children and Families Safe, Sandy Hook Promise
- Understanding Firearm-Related Injury and School Violence Podcast Series, Institute for Firearm Injury Prevention
- End Family Fire, Brady United Against Gun Violence
- i Riedman, D. (2023). K-12 School Shooting Database. https://k12ssdb.org/all-shootings
- ii National Threat Assessment Center. (2019). Protecting America's Schools: A U.S. Secret Service Analysis of Targeted School Violence. U.S. Secret Service, Department of Homeland Security. http://bit.ly/3SfmSgw
- iii National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, Division of Violence Prevention. (September 19, 2023). Fast Facts: Firearm Violence and Injury Prevention. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. https://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/firearms/fastfact.html
- iv Miller, M., & Azrael, D. (2022). Firearm Storage in U.S. Households With Children: Findings From the 2021 National Firearm Survey, JAMA Network Open, 5(2): e2148823.
- v Grossman, D.C., Mueller, B.A., Riedy, C., Dowd, M.D., Villaveces, A., Prodzinski, J., Nakagawara, J., Howard, J., Thiersch, N., & Harruff, R. (2005). Gun Storage Practices and Risk of Youth Suicide and Unintentional Firearm Injuries. https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/200330.
Finally, please see the Department's Dear Colleague Letter for more information.
Sincerely,
Dr. Joey Page, Superintendent
The Austin Public Schools will join school districts throughout the state to salute their local board members during Minnesota School Board Recognition Month in February.
The commemorative month is designed to recognize the contributions made by Minnesota's school board members, including the Austin School Board, who are charged with governing public education under state law.
Minnesota school board members are chosen by their communities through election or appointment to manage local schools. They oversee multimillion-dollar budgets that fund education programs for more than 870,000 students in more than 2,200 schools. Their personnel decisions affect more than 57,000 teachers and thousands of administrators and support workers.
Also, these volunteer leaders are responsible for formulating school district policy, approving curriculum, maintaining school facilities, and adhering to state and federal education law. Legal concerns and the complexities of school finance, including budgeting and taxation, require them to spend many hours in board training programs and personal study to enhance their understanding of these issues.
Our deepest appreciation is extended to the dedicated men and women who make it possible for local citizens to participate in education in our community. We salute the public servants of the Austin School Board whose commitment and civic responsibility make local control of public schools in our community possible:
- Chair: Carolyn Dube
- Vice Chair: Kathy Green
- Clerk: Peggy Young
- Treasurer: Cece Kroc
- Director: Don Leathers
- Director: Carol McAlister
- Director: Evan Sorenson
- School Board Representatives: Anita Rao and Nawras Zaki
Learn more about the School Board here.
Please join us by saying thank you to our school board members during Minnesota School Board Recognition Month.
The U.S. Department of State's International Visitor Leadership Program, in partnership with Hormel Foods and the Chamber of Commerce, is hosting over twenty prominent leaders and politicians from various European countries. This delegation will visit four major U.S. cities and Austin to learn from our effective approaches to integrating immigrants and refugees into our communities. Today, Austin Public Schools showcased our efforts in this area to the delegation.
Communication helps serve as the basis for the relationships we build and maintain with our students, families, and community partners. Austin Public Schools strives to maintain open and transparent communication with students, families/caregivers, staff, and community members to maintain a high level of accountability, trust, and collaboration, all to provide our students with the best education possible. Please visit our Communications page for more information.
On Tuesday, January 16, the Office of Administrative Hearings released its decision on the 2021 K-12 Academic Standards in Social Studies. MDE is pleased both Judge Lipman and Chief Judge Starr have approved the standards in Citizenship and Government, Economics, Geography, and History and that Minnesota will now have both standards and benchmarks in Ethnic Studies.
- Judge Lipman and Chief Judge Starr also found that Anchor Standard 25, or subpart 6c, needs revision in order to be approved. MDE will adopt one of the options provided by the judge.
- The revised standard reads, "The student will use ethnic and Indigenous studies methods and sources in order to understand the roots of contemporary systems of oppression and apply lessons from the past that could eliminate historical and contemporary injustices."
- This wording aligns closely with the Social Studies Committee's intent in drafting the standard. As a result, MDE is revising Anchor Standard 25 and resubmitting it to the Office of Administrative Hearings for final approval.
- Once approved, the new K-12 Academic Standards in Social Studies will go into effect during the 2026-27 school year. (Source: MDE)
If you have any questions, contact the Teaching and Learning office.
In this week's Alumni Spotlight, we catch up with alumna Sandra Wollschlager.
Are you an alumnus of Austin Public Schools? If so, we'd love to hear from you! We're excited to hear about your accomplishments and are eager to share your successes and advice with our current students, families, and the Austin community.
All you need to do is take a minute to answer a few quick questions at https://www.austin.k12.mn.us/alumni-spotlight.
Thanks, and we look forward to hearing all your wonderful stories!
