Boone County students return to class Aug. 19, with the district's threat assessment teams active and a new graduate course at Northern Kentucky University now training the region's future principals on how to keep schools safe.
NKU's College of Education in Highland Heights completed its first-ever graduate course built entirely around school safety this summer. The seven-week online elective enrolled 14 students, most of them current or aspiring school principals. Every one chose to take it, according to WCPO.
The curriculum covered threat assessment protocols, crisis response, school culture and student relationships. Students heard from people who have lived through school safety emergencies firsthand, including Missy Jenkins Smith, who was paralyzed from the chest down after the 1997 shooting at Heath High School in Paducah.
"I had student teachers who came to my office, and they were really concerned about continuing in the profession because they were afraid," said Ginger Blackwell, associate dean of NKU's College of Education. "It made me realize that everything they were hearing about school safety was mainly getting that from media coverage of traumatic events and school crises, and school safety involves so much more than that."
Blackwell said the idea for the course grew out of conversations with student teachers following several high-profile school shootings in 2018, including one at Marshall County High School in Kentucky.
The only named Northern Kentucky enrollee is Hannah Campbell, an instructional coach at Miles Elementary in the Erlanger-Elsmere School District. No Boone County Schools employees have been publicly identified as participants.
Boone County's safety measures
The district has taken its own steps heading into the new year. During the most recently completed school year, 2025-26, the Kentucky Center for School Safety conducted safe school assessments in 54 Kentucky districts, including Boone County, according to the center's annual report. Statewide, KCSS trained 1,178 participants in threat assessment implementation that year.
Kentucky law requires threat assessment teams in every public school under the School Safety and Resiliency Act.
In August 2025, Boone County Schools sent a district-wide letter to parents warning it would pursue felony terroristic threatening charges against any student who makes school threats, in coordination with local law enforcement. The district's statement said it investigates all threats thoroughly.
What's next
Jon Akers, executive director of the Kentucky Center for School Safety, said he is not aware of other universities offering school safety programming at the same level as NKU. He said social media is probably the biggest issue affecting students across Kentucky and the country, and cited a Kentucky Department of Education statistic that five incidents of bullying occur every minute during the school day statewide.
NKU plans to offer the course every summer, with more frequent sessions possible depending on demand. Akers is scheduled to speak to NKU student teachers on Wednesday, Sept. 2. Educators interested in the course can visit NKU's College of Education website or email Blackwell directly.
