SLIPPERY ROCK — With today’s atmosphere, safety is very important in schools.

“Safety is paramount,” said Bernie Hoffman, a national education consultant and former superintendent in Bucks County.

Hoffman spoke at a school safety conference on Wednesday at Slippery Rock University. About 75 teachers, principals, superintendents and others attended.

Last spring, he said there was a case in which someone dressed in religious garb, with only their eyes visible, entered an elementary school and took a female student out, claiming she was their child, which she was not. Police found the girl the next day, beaten and sexually assaulted.

“Do you think the school won that case? Are you kidding me? Everything that could be done wrong, they did,” Hoffman said.

A $4.5 million lawsuit settlement with the parents came out of the case.

He said that, if courts get involved with a school district in cases like this or others, they will be looking at the school’s mission statements to make sure they are clear and being followed.

“There are only three mission statements,” Hoffman said.

The first one is to work to educate all students in the school.

The second and third ones are the ones the courts really look for, Hoffman said. The second one is to provide a safe and orderly environment for all students. The third one is to protect the health, safety and welfare of all students.

“Those two mission statements are absolutely the same as spelling out the word safety,” Hoffman said.

Additionally, when courts look at situations in schools, they are going to ask, first, why administrators did what they did, and then ask where the authority to do that came from.

For example, the first question may be asked when administrators want to drug test. The administrators may say they do it because it’s the right thing to do, which Hoffman said is an invalid answer.

“You better have reasons,” Hoffman said.

As far as getting authority, he said that authority comes from “the big five,” which are written polices, procedures, guidelines, job descriptions and contracts.

He also said there is confusion about confidentiality in the schools.

“If it’s an issue of health, safety or welfare, or if it’s an issue of an impending situation, you can break confidentiality,” Hoffman said.

He relayed a story where a SWAT team member called him and a principal early in the morning, asking to see past yearbooks.

In situations like this, Hoffman said there should be good records kept of where yearbooks are and guidance departments should have it known where critical cases are so administrators can access them in critical situations.

In addition to confidentiality, Hoffman said this case also dealt with a newer concern, computer hacking.

Several teachers had received an e-mail from a recent past student who said that he was going to shoot up a school. In cases like this, confidentiality does not exist, he said.

Police went to the house of the suspect immediately and arrested him. However, the man was much older than expected. After going through records, they discovered that he graduated in the 1980s and could not have been the person who sent the e-mail.

“Basically, he was hacked. His e-mail was hacked, his life was hacked, and he didn’t even know it,” Hoffman said. “This, my friends, is happening all over the United States, especially with youngsters in schools, who are sharp as a tack with technologies.”

Hoffman said key questions need to be asked when making policies to ensure that they are clear and well thought out.

For example, when writing a drug testing policy, schools need to ask which students will be tested, what process will be used for selecting students, who will conduct the test, what the consequences are for a positive test, are steps clearly articulated for students who test positive, who pays for the test, if test results are cumulative through a student’s tenure in school and what happens if a student refuses to take a test.

“There are 60 questions,” Hoffman said.

If the courts get involved in the district and someone appeals these policies, the policy needs to be clear and there needs to be a clear reason for having the policy.

He said that there was a district in the state that created a strip search policy, passing it over the summer without telling parents.

“It was certainly challenged and repealed immediately,” Hoffman said.

He said that the state House is strongly considering a bill referred to as “pass the trash,” which would prevent schools from transferring teachers with a history of problems to other districts, and would prevent contracts that hide information about allegations of abuse.

In cases of teachers or other staff members being accused of sexual abuse, schools can take a number of actions.

“Some of them are very foolish and allow the person to resign, without turning anything in,” Hoffman said.

He relayed a case of a well-liked art teacher who was accused of sexual abuse. In the first accusation, the principal told the student not to spread rumors. The week after that, a parent came in with accusations involving another child. When the teacher was called in for a meeting, the teacher denied the accusations and asked to resign for personal reasons.

A few months later, he applied to teach in another district, administrators from which asked the principal about the teacher’s employment. The principal said the teacher left for personal reasons. Hoffman said that the principal should have confirmed the teacher’s employment and then referred the person calling to the district solicitor.

The teacher got the job, and shortly after that was caught abusing an eighth grader at school. A lawyer began checking into the teacher’s past, and asked the teacher’s old school if it was aware of any past accusations.

“That cost them, I’m talking big bucks, and it cost the superintendent his job,” Hoffman said.

In cases like this, districts could be asked in court if they were aware of any problems or allegations, if they investigated, if they came to a conclusion and if they took an appropriate action.

“If you do those things ... you’re not going to get in trouble. But if you don’t do those things, that’s where you’re going to get killed,” Hoffman said.