On Thursday, The Alabama State Department of Education (ALSDE) held a Region C presentation that helped prepare counselors, administrators and first responders in Dallas County for violent situations concerning students.

ALSDE Regional Safety Coordinator Greg DeJarnett said the key to understanding mental health is through empathy instead of sympathy.

Our schools should be safe havens for teaching and learning and be free of crime and violence.

Crime and violence at schools not only affects the individuals involved, but also disrupts the educational process and the community as a whole.

ALSDE also has what is called Indicators of School Crime and Safety.

This report is annual publication produced by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), Institute of Education Sciences (IES), the U.S. Department of Education and the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS).

The report shows that from July 1, 2014 through June 30, 2015 there was 47 school-associated violent deaths.

Recent school shootings and events have caused the school setting to change.

The indicator shows that public schools reporting a presence of security staff was higher during the 2015-16 school year than during the 2005-06 school year (57 percent compared to 42 percent) as was the percentage of schools reporting the presence of a School Resource Officer (SRO (42 percent compared to 32 percent.)

It is important for all our school employees and leaders to be ready for any type of situation that may happen.

While it is unfortunate that school settings have changed, this is our reality now.

The recent plans to have SROs in Selma City Schools is a very important step to keeping our schools safe.

Once the SROs are in place it will hopefully have a drastic and positive change in the Selma City School system.

The ALSDE indicator also claims that this correlation can happen.

Even with the SROs preparing to enter our school system, it is important for everyone to be ready to respond to a violent situation.

There is strength in numbers and the more prepared we are, the quicker we can stop a deadly situation.