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Sikeston hosts spring regional school safety workshop
SIKESTON — Sikeston recently served as the host site of the spring regional school safety workshop by the Missouri School Safety Association.
Sikeston R-6 Safety Coordinator Scott Ezell, who is the Region E director of the Missouri School Safety Association (MOSSA), began the workshop at 9:45 a.m. March 29 at the Three Rivers College Campus in Sikeston by giving an organizational report to the MOSSA members who were present.
Others present at the Sikeston workshop were local emergency managers, school resource officers, and other local law enforcement officials.
Ezell gave an update on the work of the MOSSA subcommittees and announced his intent to step down from his position on the Board and gave details on the upcoming elections for his and other regional seats on the MOSSA Board of Directors. He then introduced the keynote speaker for the morning, Paul Fennewald.
Fennewald is currently a senior policy adviser for the Missouri Center for Education Safety and was recently appointed to the Governor’s Task Force on School Safety. Fennewald presented attendees a timeline for the Task Force’s outreach sessions, of which one will be in Poplar Bluff this summer. Fennewald’s presentation was about recognizing and responding to attempts by extremist groups to radicalize young people.
The speaker for the afternoon session was Emily Russell, who is the executive director of the Human Trafficking Task Force, Missouri Attorney General Office.
“She gave a very intensive presentation on human trafficking in Missouri. Emily had very powerful personal stories of past victims,” Ezell said.
Russell provided details on how to identify possible victims of trafficking and those potentially being groomed by traffickers, and what to do if you recognize those signs. Russell has upcoming trainings for law enforcement in Cape Girardeau and Perry Counties.