Last week, I brought security experts, police chiefs, and delegates from Arizona’s tribal reservations to discuss school safety. Arizona is greater than just Maricopa County and I am committed to bringing every one of the fifteen Arizona counties to each discussion as I am repeatedly reminded on the campaign trail by the other fourteen Arizona counties that they have been ignored by bureaucrats for decades, but that changes when I am elected.

One of my first initiatives will be to establish a school safety unit that focuses on bringing security solutions to the children and families of these very important parts of Arizona. The purpose of the unit will be to ensure safety compliance on campuses. The experts agree that we need armed guards on each campus, but there are so many other simple solutions such as door-locking mechanisms, surveillance systems, alarm buttons on teachers’ desks, and much more.

Additionally, we need more School Resource Officers (SROs) to bring their expert eye to issues such as drugs, violence, and gang activity. The current Superintendent, Kathy Hoffman, intentionally spends security grants on counselors and social workers while ignoring school requests for more SROs.

Parents should know which schools refuse help and funding from the Department of Education. Families should feel confident and comfortable when dropping their children off at school in the morning. My administration will protect students instead of sacrificing them in the name of politics. 

I will also require schools to report security assessments to the Department. My administration will notify the parents of schools that do not accept the funding to implement security measures and have security policies and resources in place.

Other school safety policies my administration will enact are as follows:

·  Security assessment requirements.

·  Lobbying for mandatory safety policies required by law.

·  Hire and train more school resource officers.

·  Meaningful security solutions such as armed guards, one point of entry, multiple points of exit, window and doors mechanisms, cameras, and communications systems that law enforcement has access to in real-time once an intruder is inside the school.

·  Law and order measures to reduce gang and drug activity with more trained SROs on campus, periodic dog swats visits, etc. 

Our event ended by discussing how politicians are not taking our children’s’ well-being seriously and it is beyond time that we did. I will have zero tolerance for schools and administrators that allow chaos and security breaches to continue just so gun-grabbing policies can be enacted. This is not about the second amendment. This is about one simple question:

·  Why should your Department of Education neglect the safety and security of your children in favor of a political debate that interferes with our parental instinct to secure and protect our most precious and innocent population? 

I am surrounding myself with the best of the best to formulate solutions to this horrific agenda against our youth.  Together, we bring common-sense reform to a lingering problem that simply isn’t addressed due to political rhetoric.

My promise is to prioritize the physical, academic, and emotional health of our children by keeping them safe. 

Yours truly,

Shiry Sapir

Candidate for Superintendent of Public Instruction