School safety is a hot topic these days with shootings taking place in schools across the country, in rich neighborhoods and poor alike.

But school safety doesn’t just mean identify potential shooters and prevent them from carrying out any plans they’ve already hatched.

It’s about teachers not getting punched by students. It’s about protecting students from all threats. It’s about protecting the learning environment.

While Minot Public Schools has not had a shooting – thank God or knock on wood – it seems not all is well within the walls of our schools, and teachers are speaking out.

How bad the situation is depends on who you listen to, or believe. There seems to be a lack of documentation concerning past incidents that teachers have recently disclosed to their negotiating team.

We’ll skip over what happened when, and why is there no record of the events and say emphatically that it is time to craft a comprehensive policy that teachers, administrators and parents can agree on. At issue – what should the protocol be for handling an assault on a teacher? Teachers also must, must know that they can report any incidents of violence or destruction of their property without jeopardizing their careers.

Those two elements should just be the starting point. The teachers have a proposal; now there needs to be candid communication.

Teachers and their representatives should begin hammering out new policy with administration related to these serious concerns ASAP.

That is not asking too much from a group of highly educated, motivated and compensated professionals.