Alabama Attorney General Troy King was in Decatur this week for what is becoming an annual event at our schools.

He honored Cedar Ridge Middle School and Chestnut Grove Elementary School with the Attorney General’s Alabama Safe Schools Award and will return later this month to honor Brookhaven Middle School.

Decatur becomes the first system to have three schools earn the award. The distinction is not by coincidence, because the school administration takes the awards seriously.

This is Chestnut Grove’s first time to earn the award. Both middle schools earned Sustained Performance awards for winning school safety awards for two successive years.

Even though Brookhaven has a reputation for being a troubled school, anyone who visits for 30 minutes sees the no-nonsense attitude about safety. King was right to single out Supervisor of Safety Phil Hastings as the school system’s “secret weapon.”

A visitor is apt to see him walking the halls of any school, whether there is a problem or he is merely observing. It’s his job to keep students safe, which takes organization and coordination with teachers and principals, and an ability to work closely with the fire and police departments, the courts and the Morgan County Emergency Management Agency.