School safety starts with a sense of belonging

When most people think of school safety, they picture locked doors, cameras and trained staff. But school safety also includes markers that are more nuanced and harder to measure: whether students feel safe, supported and welcome in the places where they learn. 

Those markers were the focus of the Minnesota School Safety Center’s June conference in Duluth, where educators, public safety leaders, school resource officers and mental health professionals gathered to discuss the latest school safety research and strategies. The conference offered practical training, space for difficult conversations and a reminder that the strongest safety systems are built long before emergencies happen. 

One of the keynote speakers at the conference was Reichen Posey, a survivor of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, who spoke about moving from survival toward purpose. He was only in first grade when the shooting occurred. 

After Sandy Hook, young Posey struggled to process the trauma no person — let alone any child — should ever have to face. After moving to another state, he would walk the halls of his new elementary school each morning with the janitor to make sure all of the doors were locked. The school had given him special permission to do it, knowing what he had gone through. His turning point came when he learned how to reframe his trauma not as something to escape from, but as an opportunity to grow. 

“Those storms that come in your life — if you have people to hold onto, those storms are not going to blow you down,” Posey said. “Get those relationships in place before the tragedy in your life happens, instead of trying to scramble when it does.” 

That emphasis on relationships and preparation is central to the vision of Connie Forster, the new director of the Minnesota School Safety Center, part of the Department of Public Safety’s Homeland Security and Emergency Management division. 

Forster brings a unique combination of lived experience and perspective to the role as a former educator, retired assistant fire chief and longtime School Safety Center team member since 2017. Her career mirrors how school safety itself has evolved, from something rarely discussed within schools to something that demands deliberate planning, cross-sector partnerships and community trust. 

“My vision is bringing all of the right partners together so we can work collectively on school safety initiatives,” Forster said. “That also means hearing directly from schools so we are doing what is best for them, not what we think is best for them.” 

Forster is quick to point out that school safety cannot be reduced to a single product, plan or policy. Cameras, locked doors and emergency drills all matter, but none can stand alone. 

“You can’t buy your way into safety,” Forster said. “It takes people being trained, people knowing policies and procedures, people reporting things they see, and students, staff and parents feeling supported within that school community.” 

The School Safety Center will continue to provide guidance, training and technical assistance to schools and partners across Minnesota. The goal, Forster said, is not just that schools have safety plans and systems in place but that students experience school as a place where they feel safe and supported. From the conference in Duluth to daily work across the state, the message is consistent: School safety is not one person’s job or a box that can simply be checked.