The IRE Resource Center is a major research library containing more than 23,250 investigative stories — both print and broadcast. These stories are searchable online or by contacting the Resource Center directly (573-882-3364 or rescntr@ire.org) where a researcher can help you pinpoint what you need. Browse or search the tipsheet section of our library below. Stories are not available for download but can be easily ordered by contacting the Resource Center:
Search results for "school security" ...
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Wired for Waste
A Charleston Gazette investigation found the state of West Virginia used $24 million in federal stimulus funds to buy oversized routers that weren't needed. The high-end routers were designed to serve research universities, corporations and major medical centers, but the state installed the pricey devices primarily in small schools and libraries. The routers cost $22,600 each. The newspaper discovered that a high-ranking state technology office administrator warned that the routers were "grossly oversized," but the state's homeland security director and commerce secretary ignored the warning and authorized the purchase.
Tags: Federal funds; routers
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Campus Security
ChicagoTalks reporters found only a handful of the 63 colleges and universities in Cook County are following an Illinois law -- the Campus Security Enhancement Act of 2008 (SB 2691) -- aimed to make campuses safe. Under the law, colleges and universities are required to create all-hazard emergency and violence prevention plans, along with threat assessment teams and violence prevention committees. The schools are also required to hold annual security trainings. ChicagoTalks reporters contacted, often repeatedly, every public and private, two and four-year college and university in Cook County, and determined that 11 schools appear to be violating the law, while 45 schools provided conflicting or incomplete information -- or no information at all. Reporters found just seven schools in compliance.
Tags: campus security; Cook County; violence prevention; colleges; universities
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Gangs in Garden City: How Immigration, Segregation and Youth Violence Are Changing
Journalist Sarah Garland investigates how two of the most dangerous Central American gangs have made their way into the suburbs of Long Island. Garland also tells the story of several young people whose lives have been affected by gangs or gang violence. Her five-year investigation involves conversations with police, gang members and school officials. That information reveals a different opinion than that of the Department of Homeland Security, who believes the gangs to be a problem on the level of Al Qaeda.
Tags: street gang; gang violence; youth; Mara Salvatrucha; MS-13; Hempstead; immigrant gangs; Latin American gangs; Salvadorans With Pride; SWP; Long Island
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9/11 Redux: Thousands of Aliens' in U.S. Flight School Illegally
This investigation exposed the fact that thousands of foreign national were still obtaining U.S. pilot training and U.S pilot licenses illegally without the required security background checks implemented after the 9-11 terrorists attacks. The story exposed serious flaws in the TSA and FAA system of insuring pilots had successfully done in obtaining piloting skills in the USA prior to the September 11 attacks of 2001.
Tags: September 11, 2001; terrorism; flight schools; Department of Homeland Security; DHS; Transportation Security Administration; TSA; Federal Aviation Administration; FAA; pilot licenses
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Takings Initiatives Accountability Project: The Center for Public Integrity investigates ballot initiatives that would radically change land-use and environmental regulation in five Western states
The [non-partisan]Center for Public Integrity investigated 2006 "ballot initiatives that were designed to radically change land-use and environmental regulation in five Western states. They discovered that a trio of "secret donors" accounted for 99% of the propostions' bankrolls, and some of the initiatives did not comply with campaign-finance and other regulations. Then the Center revealed that 85 percent of the funding was coming from a single wealthy real estate investor and Libertarian activist, Howard RIch All but the Arizona inititative failed at the ballot. The Center for Public Integrity set up a stand-alone website-- www.takings initiatives.org-- and filed more than 50 articles on it. "Our general practice-- and a novel one as far as we can tell-- was to mount verbatim transcripts of the interviews on our website, including audio recordings where available. We sought to allow proponents, opponents funders and experts to have a chance to present their side of the story in their own words." The Center also checked with state and federal regulators for compliance of relevant laws and regulations.
Tags: Takings Initiatives; takings clause; ballot initiatives; land-use regulation; environmental regulation; tax-exempt organizations; Howard Rich; Andrea Millen Rich; Council for Responsible Government; William A. Wilson; state campaign-finance filings; public records requests; state freedom of information requests; America At Its Best; Americans for Limited Government; John Tillman; Howard Ahmanson; Fieldstead & Company; property rights; prefessional signature-gatherers; Colorado At Its Best; term limits; nonprofit advocacy organizations; Sam Adams Alliance; Sam Adams Foundation; Legislative Education Action Drive; Parents in Charge Foundation; Social Security Choice.org; Illinois Charitable Trust Bureau; educational vouchers; tuition tax credits; National Taxpayers Union; First Class Education; Susquehanna International Group; Jeffrey YAss; Cato Institute; Alliance for School Choice; Decision Education Foundation; Eric Brooks; Susan Mitchell; Pete Sepp; Kern Family Foundation; Generac Power Systems, Inc.; Milton Friedman; Taxpayer Bill of Rights; TABOR; Laird Maxwell; This House is MY Home; John Whitehead; Lower Manhattan Development Corporation; Exoxemis, Inc.; Family Farm Preservation Pact; Citizens for Community Protection; Kelo v. City of New London; eminent domain; New York Millionaires Assistance Act; Wallace Global Fund; Nicholas C. Dranias; PRNewswire; Eric O'Keefe; getliberty.com; George Soros
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School Security
A team of 14 reporters "tested security at 37 local schools by walking into unlocked elementary, middle and high school and moving through the halls until stopped by a school employee or student." The reporters were able to walk around without beinmg confronted for 10 minutes or more. In one of every four schools, the reporters were never challenged. Some schools did have their gates locked, and reporters were confronted at the gate.
Tags: Schools; school security; public schools; locked campuses
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Left Behind, The Failure of East St. Louis Schools
KMOV-TV looks into the state of the public schools in the East St. Louis area, finding that they are not providing an education that meets state and federal standards. Among the issues are: a shortage of special-education teachers, a lack of at-home teachers, the fact East St. Louis is one of five public school districts (of 900 total in the state) that are on state academic probation, friends and relatives being hired for security, secretarial and custodial jobs and a high number of managers without teacher certifications, administrators taking expensive trips for seminars on taxpayer dollars.
Tags: District 189; East St. Louis; Missouri public schools; state academic probation; nepotism; misuse of taxpayer funds
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Archdiocese Hires Criminal
The personnel director for the Archdiocese of Cincinnati knowingly hired a criminal to run a new program designed to protect children. His job was to conduct the fingerprint and background checks now required of all volunteers who coach or help out in Catholic schools. The investigation uncovered the personnel director was a close personal friend of the criminal for more than 20 years and that the troubled young man claimed the personnel director had sexually abused him as a child. He claimed he continued his sexual relationship with the personnel director in exchange for jobs, money and clothes. The criminal had access to the social security numbers of thousands of Catholic volunteers. It was shown how he continued to commit crimes while employed by the Archdiocese, and how the personnel director continued to cover for him, even bailing him out of jail.
Tags: archdiocese; Cincinnati; criminal; social security; sexual abuse; crime; volunteer; hiring; back ground checks
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Student Tells of Terror; Local high school student abused and left in the woods for four hours while other watched
The authors investigated an incident near a local high school, in which a girl was abused for hours by other students, and school officials did nothing.
Tags: education; school; child abuse; security; teenagers; high school; rape
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How Much Is This Child Worth?
This series focuses on the discrepancies in school funding among the 537 schools examined by the magazine. They found a range of $2,200 to $8,600 in per-pupil funding for elementary schools;the range was $5,400 to $16,800 at the high school level. They also found that magnet schools who had selective enrollment practices and schools with better-off students tended to get more than their fair share. They used a tool they obtained from the Annenberg Institute for School Reform to analyze school district resources.
Tags: Arne Duncan; Chicago schools; federal Title 1 funds; school security; poverty funds; school budgets; Annenberg Institute for School Reform