Blunt personally visited Joplin today to thank law enforcement and first responders for their work in today's school incident.
"In light of several school attacks that have occurred in different parts of the country in recent weeks and today's incident in Joplin, I want to ensure our state agencies as well as our schools are doing everything possible to protect children," Blunt said.
DPS is also working on bringing together law enforcement tactical team leaders from the federal, state and local level to discuss best practices for law enforcement in school hostage situations. The DPS is also adding an education representative to its regional homeland security advisory councils to ensure an educational point of view is represented.
The Department of Health and Senior Services has partnered with the MSBA to make available, at no charge to every school in Missouri including private and parochial schools an Internet based safety emergency planning tool. This tool allows school plans to be instantly updated as the threat level changes. It also allows the schools to attach photos, diagrams and other documents to the plan and to make them available to first responders before or during a crisis.
