February 1, 2013
Blueprint
Acalanes Safety
Issue 5
School Safety Reassessed in Wake of Newtown Shooting Acalanes Union High School District analyzes and addresses problems with current safety plan
America was blown into a state of shock on December 14, 2012, after a gunman shot and killed 26 students and faculty before taking his own life at Sandy Hook Elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut. Although the event was shocking and tragic, leaving the nation in a state of dumbfounded grief, it gave schools nationwide, including Acalanes, an urgent reminder of the need to reexamine their own safety policies and procedures. “It’s always a good time to [reassess safety policies],” said Chris Dorn, a school safety analyst with Safe Havens International, a non-profit campus safety organization. “At times like this, there is always a risk of copycat incidents or other types of violence. It’s a good time to review and be ready in case something did happen.” For many Acalanes administrators, this incident hit close to home, and they found themselves wondering about their own school’s security. Sandy Hook Elementary was a well-prepared school, and the community was viewed as a safe place. It would be difficult not to draw parallels between Newtown and Lafayette. “The community of Sandy Hook Elementary School is the community of Acalanes. It’s not as though you could qualify that community as being different from [Acalanes] and say that it couldn’t happen here,” said Acalanes Associate Principal Peter Stewart. Immediately following the massacre, administrators sent emails to teachers informing them of the situation, and Acalanes Union High School District (AUHSD) superintendent Dr. John Nickerson held a meeting with the four principals. School officials were more vigilant in the days following, and the Lafayette police department made extra trips to the town’s schools. Although staff members were indubitably affected psychologically, the massacre itself did not prompt any major safety reassessments at a district or school site level. Administrators are constantly revising and improving Acalanes’ comprehensive safety plan. Required by the state of California for school districts of a certain size, this plan covers the school’s policies and procedures related to a wide variety of topics,
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ranging from dress codes and school clubs to safety drills. “The comprehensive school safety plan is a document that details, for the purpose of the public viewing, the different strategies we use to make a safe culture [at Acalanes],” said Stewart. However, AUHSD is currently conducting a full revision of the safety plan. Chris Learned, Business Services Associate Superintendent for AUHSD, is the head of this project. He has formed a committee composed of associate principals from each high school to carry out the revision. To date, no major changes have been made to
there are a lot of things in school safety that you have to spend money on,” said Dorn. “But there’s also a balance, and schools need to prioritize.” When it comes to the safety procedures that are detailed in the plan, drills are a major component. Every school year, students and faculty rotate through fire, earthquake, shelter in place, and lockdown drills. These are meant to educate students about what to do in the case of an emergency and prevent them from panicking in those situations. In response to the Newtown Massacre, administrators have moved up a prescheduled lockdown drill to the end of January. However, some students acknowledge that these drills might not be as effective as the administration hopes. “I don’t think the [drills] are that effective for the students. Maybe for the teachers, [they’re] a little bit more, but I don’t really think the students take them seriously,” said sophomore Kennedy Kim. The administration recognizes that some students are not fully engaged in the drills. “To the extent that people don’t panic, these drills work beautifully. Kids simply do not panic when the fire alarm goes off. That’s a good thing,” said Stewart. Do I think students could be conscious of the seriousness of the drill? Yes.” Drills are as much designed to educate faculty as they are designed for students. Teachers receive training for intruder safety procedures at the beginning of each school year, as well as psychologically refresher courses throughout the year. After each drill, they meet to evaluate the drill’s success and discuss what can be done to improve procedures. “I’m trained as far as what the [administration] expects us to do. Anything beyond that is just what [I’m] going to do to protect what needs to be protected,” said music director Norman Dea. School safety experts also recommend incorporating reverse evacuation drills into safety plans as well. These drills simulate a situation in which a majority of students are outside when an emergency, such as an intruder alert, occurs. Faculty and students would practice getting all people into classrooms in a timely and efficient manner. Currently, Acalanes does not include reverse evacuation drills in its plan. However, Dorn believes that these drills can easily be coordinated Continued on F18 Blueprint Cartoon/Ruth Shaffer
Megan Yee Staff Writer
intruder lockdown procedures thus far. “We’re still reviewing. Nothing concrete has come down yet,” said Learned. “A lot of what is in the plan already is the result of other tragedies, such as Columbine. I think we’re pretty solid.” However, administrators are discussing problems with the locks on classroom doors at Acalanes. Currently, the doors only lock from the outside, meaning that teachers must open the doors during lockdown situations, which is a potentially risky maneuver. Because replacing an entire school’s worth of doors and locks would be very expensive, administrators are considering a change in rules to partially solve the problem “In general, a good practice is to just keep the door locked during the day. Ideally, you would have to install a new type of door or new type of door lock, that’s usually a budgetary concern, and
Safety of Acalanes
Safety of Acalanes Continued from F12
with regular drills. For example, after a fire drill, Acalanes could practice getting students back into classrooms in an orderly fashion. Once the overhaul is completed, the revised school safety plan will go to the school site council, consisting of a group of students, community members, and school faculty, for approval. From there, the plan will proceed to the district level. The finalized safety plan will be available for students, parents, and the rest of the community to view via Internet. This will be an unedited version that includes all of the information that faculty and administrators can see. While communicating safety plans to the community may seem like a no-brainer, releasing too many details can be a safety risk in and of itself. “There are certain things, like specific procedures for a lockdown, or procedures for a terrorist attack or a chemical weapon, that schools
February 1, 2013 Blueprint or other situation, this would allow parents to call the district office for information if the school’s phones were inundated with calls. All of the careful planning appears to have paid off, as Acalanes’ safety procedures were put to the test in recent years. During the 2009-2010 school year, the school was forced to go on lockdown. “There was a robbery in progress at a neighborhood home when a person had come home and found a robber in their house,” said Glimme. “ We went into lockdown because we didn’t know where he was. It ran very smoothly and people knew what to do.” Most importantly, students feel safe and secure at school, which is clearly one of the school’s top priorities. “I don’t think there’s a real present danger for our campus,” said junior Chris Wikler. “I don’t think we’re terribly unsafe at school because these are uncommon occurances, but they make us think about what we can do to prevent these
“There was one case where there was a shooting, and the ambulance couldn’t get to the school because there were so many parents. They actually had to carry the stretcher half a mile or so to get to the school.” -Chris Dorn, school safety analyst from Safe Havens International should not distribute too freely. There have been lots of examples of people, even students, who will take this information and use it to plan an attack,” said Dorn. “Basic safety topics should be shared with students just so they know what rules to follow, and so parents know what rules the kids have to follow.” Stewart reasons that there is no information revealed in Acalanes’ plans specifically that will give intruders an advantage. “Knowing the schedule, which is public, is probably the most powerful piece of information a person could have,” said Stewart. “Knowing that we’re going to lock our doors if they show up probably won’t help them one bit.” All parties agree that it is vital to inform students and parents about the basic rules that students are expected to abide by. Information such as the dress code, school campus hours, and school safety are important. Communicating with parents is also a key component, especially when it comes to procedures for lockdown situations. This is crucial for all parties involved, as it keeps parents’ worries somewhat in check, and it allows administrators and law enforcement officials to operate efficiently. “There was one case where there was a shooting, and the ambulance couldn’t get to the school because there were so many parents. They actually had to carry the stretcher half a mile or so to get to the school,” said Dorn. Parent communication is also a topic up for discussion in the revisal of the safety plan. Currently, administrators are looking for ways to make certain emergency policies uniform at all four schools in the district. In the case of an intruder on campus
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things from happening.” Parents generally share this view, in that they are completely comfortable sending their children to Acalanes, even in light of the Newtown Massacre. However, there is some concern about Acalanes being an open campus, it the sense that there is no single entrance. “I’ve walked on campus many times without being checked by anyone. Knowing I can walk into, for instance, the chorus classroom to work in the chorus library, and nobody has ever asked me who I am, makes me a little bit nervous,” said Kathy Biro, mother of sophomore Jewels Biro, class of 2012 graduate Zander Biro, and class of 2009 graduate Peter Biro. All Acalanes visitors are supposed to sign in at the attendance office and wear a visitor’s badge. However, this rule is not strictly enforced, and doing so would be difficult due to the campus’s open layout. Still, administrators do their best to keep an eye out for unfamiliar faces. Admittedly, asking faculty to question every unknown visitor on campus would require a small change in culture. Also, Stewart reasoned that strictly enforcing a visitor sign-in policy would not only be difficult, but may also not be completely effective in preventing incidents similar to the Newtown Massacre. “Anybody who is going to come on campus to hurt somebody, I don’t think they’re going to be paying attention to the rules. They’re not going to say, ‘We’re not going to do this because we didn’t check in with the office,’” said Stewart. Unfortunately, due to the school’s layout, there is no easy way to restrict access to classrooms and areas where students congregate. Fencing in the entire school is theoretically an option, but
Issue 5
it would completely change the atmosphere at Acalanes, not to mention the large price tag that would accompany the renovation. “I’m not sure that’s what the community wants right now. If we knew it would prevent what’s happened in Connecticut, it would be worth anything, and I think the community would agree. But, there’s the question of if it would prevent [a shooting]. Do you want all your students to be channelled in, channeled out. It would change the school environment, and there’s a question of would it prevent? In Connecticut, it didn’t prevent,” said Nickerson When it comes to security personnel, Acalanes has a campus supervisor, Andy McDonald, who patrols the campus. However, he is not armed and has no police background. “My specific title is campus supervisor. My number one priority is to make sure that [students] are safe, keep intruders off, make sure kids are in class. I supervise athletic events, dances, the parking lot,” said McDonald. “I’m probably going to be a bit more diligent, because of [the Newtown massacre].” While many schools have armed officers on campus, students and administrators do not see an immediate need to employ one. “I know the NRA [National Rifle Association] thinks we should have an armed guard here. [But] I think that’s pouring water on a gasoline fire,” said Wikler. In previous years, Acalanes had a youth liaison officer that periodically checked in at schools. However, there is no liaison officer for the 20122013 school year, and the administration is not aware of any plans to fill the position. Still, the Lafayette police department is quick to assist administrators and students during emergencies. Yet, even in light of the tragedy in Connecticut, schools must remember to keep things in perspective, and not lose sight of the fact that shootings are not commonplace. Part of this is ensuring that faculty also know what to do in more common emergency situations. “The most important safety considerations are things that we see every day in schools, the small things. More people die from medical emergencies, allergies, from accidents, things like that than they do from shootings,” said Dorn. Although administrators shoulder a large portion of the burden of creating a secure campus, parents, students, and the community must also do their parts in ensuring that Acalanes is a safe learning environment. “There are no guarantees. [Acalanes] prepares for things the best we can. I wonder sometimes if the best strategy is being aware of our surroundings and taking drills seriously,” said Stewart. Bottom line, safety is Acalanes’ top priority. The safety plan, drills, communication with the community, and other measures are all efforts to create a secure learning environment for students. “When we think about learning, the first thing that has to happen is that students have to feel safe,” said Stewart. “If you don’t feel safe, learning is truly jeopardized.”