LINCOLN, Neb. (WOWT) – If there’s a fire, tornado, or other safety threat, Nebraska students practice.
It’s required by state law to do these drills, but some say the requirements are rigid and even antiquated.
“We haven’t had a fire in schools, since the 1950s, so requiring a monthly fire drill seems a little too much in that particular area,” said Jason Mundof, Superintendent of Kearney Public Schools.
Mundof, also with the Nebraska Association of School Boards, supports Sen. Dave Murman’s education bill, LB 670, which aims to do the following, according to Murman: “Over the last two years, the governor has met with school administrators with both public and private schools to examine the current school mandates that could modified or eliminated to provide more efficiency and reduce the workload facing schools while ensuring reasonable standards remains.”
LB 670 provides the school district rather than the State Board of Education the authority to create their own safety plans and puts a limit on safety training hours for staff.
For example, a change in the current law would require school resource officers or security guards to attend training of “no more than twelve hours” rather than a minimum of 20 hours.
The ACLU of Nebraska and the nonprofit Voices for Children in Nebraska are against that.
“What concerns me is if we’re already having issues with the 20 hours of training, does that set up for more confusion,” said Katie Nungesser with Voices for Children in Nebraska.
One senator on the education committee is worried the language could greenlight the bare minimum of training.
“I would hope that we can use this bill as an opportunity to streamline things and most importantly figure out how to make a meaningful training,” said Sen. Danielle Conrad of Lincoln.
First Alert 6 reached out Omaha Public Schools, the largest district in Nebraska. Right now, they say they don’t have an official stance for -or against the bill – but they are monitoring and doing research.
Copyright 2025 WOWT. All rights reserved.
