.jpg;w=960)
There have been 28 school shootings that have resulted in injury or death in 2021, 21 of those since August, according to Education Week, an education news publication. Statista.com, however, states there have been 170 shootings affiliated with K-12 schools throughout the year, not all necessarily resulting in injury or death.
These are scary numbers for parents who send their students to public school. In the St. Vrain Valley Schools District, it is important for the administrative staff to look at all sides of the issue of safety.
“I want every child and every adult to be safe, welcomed and protected in our schools so we send them home safe-and-sound everyday,” Superintendent Don Haddad said.
In light of the recent shootings at high schools in Aurora and Oxford, MI, school safety has been a concern to parents and school officials.
There was a time, not that long ago, that SVVSD didn’t have a safety department. Over the years, the district has seen a need to implement a comprehensive safety plan which included adding SROs, or Student Resource Officers, cameras inside and outside school buildings, campus supervisors, training for all school staff and even modifications to school buildings that force all visitors into the office and eliminates the ability for them to roam the halls.
“The key to it has been the comprehensive nature of it,” Haddad said. “There is no one strategy. Safety is comprehensive in St. Vrain … We have put in millions of dollars to bolster our counseling staff, our interventionists … We are massively into prevention but we also understand the importance of response by the most highly trained people in the event it is necessary. It’s not an either-or for us, it's the big picture … Our students and our staff are worth that, worth that and more.”
The above list sounds comprehensive but according to Haddad it wasn’t enough. In addition to adding physical measures of safety, it was important to add student supports as well.
“I would never want anybody to confuse the difference between day-to-day situations in schools and the potential for something really wrong to happen on any given day. You have to be prepared from a comprehensive perspective, proactively, to address that.
Students, too, become part of the proactive process by running various drills for different situations. Those drills, according to the SVVSD website, include:
- Lockout (threat or hazard is outside the building) Students are brought inside the school building and exterior doors are locked and secured Whenever possible, classroom activities continue uninterrupted
- Lockdown (threat or hazard is inside the building) Classrooms are locked, teachers turn off lights and keep students quiet and out of sight. Other Lockdown scenarios involve evacuation, block and obstruct, and disperse and distract.
- Evacuate (moving students outside or to alternate location) Students are instructed to leave personal items and move in an orderly fashion to a designated location.
- Shelter (students move to the main level or interior rooms of the building) Students are asked to sit facing the wall while covering their heads.
- Hold: Students are asked to remain where they are within the building to keep the halls free. This situation is usually reserved for medical emergencies.
“These simple responses save lives,” said Richard Peebles, executive director of Safety and Security at SVVSD. “We want to give students and staff the tools to empower them to be safe.”
Also part of the proactive approach, SVVSD added counselors, interventionists, school psychologists, social workers and more campus supervisors to all levels of education throughout the district. These individuals are around to be a resource for students who may be struggling with stressful situations.
In addition to safety protocols and supportive staff, each education level has a social-emotional curriculum taught to students. “We have, over the past several years, worked on creating consistency and alignment across the grade levels so students have that progression all the way through and access to that age-level appropriate social-emotional curriculum,” said Kerri McDermid, SVVSD chief communications and global impact officer.
The district shares a wellness survey each year with students to gain feedback on how they are fairing in the school system. In the areas the district feels there is a hole, it turns to strategies or increasing resources to support students, Haddad said.
Students are also provided ample opportunities to get involved in extracurricular activities in a variety of clubs, sports, music, art and other activities. This provides teachers and coaches more one-on-one interactions with students and with parents. “That within itself is one way to champion behavior,” Haddad said.
While SVVSD has not faced the same situations like those in Aurora or Michigan, Haddad said there have been other situations that have been prevented because of the comprehensive approach the district takes.
Haddad remembered a time before he became superintendent when a call came into the district warning that a student was planning to smuggle a gun into a school inside a musical instrument case. An SRO met this student at the door of the school only to discover a gun and ammunition stored in a case. Haddad believes without that SRO being present at the school, the day may have turned out differently.
SVVSD trains all staff from counselors, principals, teachers and even custodians to focus on the safety of students. However, according to Haddad, SROs play a major role in preventing “bad things from happening.”
“SROs add another critical layer of protection for our children and adults,” Haddad said, adding that he feels SROs are the best people, in regards to training, preparedness, expertise and skill to handle serious issues when they arise within the school. “Where St. Vrain in concerned, we want the absolute, very best people in place to protect our children if a serious incident were to occur.”
Scott Pierce is an SRO at Altona and Sunset middle schools. He has filled the role for the last 15 years and is set to retire this year. Beginning his career as a patrol officer, Pierce said being an SRO is like choosing another career path entirely.
Although the debate exists over whether SROs should be in schools, SVVSD looks to these officers to build relationships with students, Peebles said.
SROs do not get involved in day-to-day discipline according to Haddad. “We have staff in place to deal with all those things (discipline issues),” Haddad said.
Unless he has to, either by the law or after attempting all other alternatives, Pierce does not like to write tickets to students. In fact, last year he said he wrote two tickets and one was to a parent, this year there have been none.
Pierce said, even though the law may require him to write a ticket to a student, his work doesn’t end there. He sees it as an opportunity to help that student develop a plan and stay on track by building a relationship with the student.
Students seek out their SROs when they are dealing with some vulnerable moments in life that the school might not have heard about otherwise, Pierce said, attributing the situation to the fact that SROs are able to build relationships with students.
In SVVSD, an SROs job is to mentor children. They teach classes, attend sporting events to cheer students on, lend a helping hand or an ear to listen, in general act as another resource for students to reach out in times of need, Haddad said.
“We want our students to feel comfortable around law enforcement. We want them to seek out law enforcement for safety,” Haddad said.
Another piece of the comprehensive approach to safety is community involvement. The school relies on people either within or outside the school to report potential threats. SVVSD works the Safe2Tell Hotline to allow for anonymous tips concerning school and student safety.
Individuals can reach Safe2Tell by calling 1-877-542-7233 or going to www.safe2tell.org.
“A constant reminder to the community is that their ears, their eyes, their awareness is so critically important to us, that if they hear anything, if they see anything, if they have an inkling of anything even if they don’t know for sure, report it to the school so we can look at it. That is always the most important preventative measure is the community’s awareness and communication,” Haddad said.
