McAuliffe Elementary School in Riverside was wrapped in a 6-foot-high, chain-link fence and monitored by a campus supervisor — and still an assailant got in and groped a student in a restroom.
Taft Elementary in Santa Ana was outfitted with high-tech safety equipment — and still an intruder pushed his way in, attempted to use the restroom and then drove over three children while fleeing.
“Staff don’t feel safe, our parents don’t feel safe, even after (the killings in) Uvalde,” said Valerie Amezcua, a board member for the Santa Ana Unified School District. “It’s sad, but that’s where we are today.”
School officials everywhere insist safety is their No. 1 concern. But in the aftermath of the massacre at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, and other high-profile school shootings, how can parents be sure their school is doing all it can to protect their kids?
Safety experts say no school is 100% inoculated from crisis.
“I tell school officials, ‘Do everything you can, knowing you can’t do everything,’ ” said Ron Stephens, executive director of the National School Safety Center in Agoura Hills, an advocacy group that provides school communities and their partners with resources, consultation and training services.
Now that school districts everywhere in Southern California have welcomed students back for the 2022 fall semester, safety experts encourage parents to get involved and not take for granted that schools will keep their children from harm.
“Parents are paralyzed … and they believe in keeping their fingers crossed in the hope that their school is not like the schools where bad things happen. And the reality is, it is,” said Eric Rosoff, chief executive officer of the Burbank-based Campus Safety Group, which provides training and support to school officials to ensure their facilities are as safe as possible.
Christina Treble, mother of a 5-year-old at Taft, said engaged parents often can be more powerful than administrators in demanding safety equipment and reforms.
“We as parents can play a really big role in understanding what our school is asking for and not getting,” Treble said. “We can be the ones to voice the need for things.”
School safety experts say parents can help assess how well their school is prepared to prevent a crisis and, if one does occur, how they are equipped to handle an emergency. Here are some tips for what questions parents can ask:
Where do we start?
Ask to see your school’s safety plan. Under state law, every school is required to create a Comprehensive School Safety Plan each year and keep a copy of it in the school and district offices. These plans are public and parents can request to review them.
Experts say planning is the first step, the foundation of managing emergencies. But while the plan is considered the cornerstone of the school’s safety strategy, the quality of these plans and the effort put into them varies from school to school. Some plans reflect a real effort to ward off tragedy, while others are treated like a bureaucratic exercise.
“What most of these schools are doing is gathering some policies and saying, ‘We have these policies, so we’re safe,’ ” Rosoff said.
One key thing to check, experts say, is how much input parents, teachers, city officials and first-responders had in developing the game plan. The planning should not be done by administrators alone. “We all have a role in keeping schools safe,” Stephens said. “Part of it is knowing who’s on your team and what’s your plan.”
Safety plans should be reviewed by the public at a community meeting. The more the neighborhood is involved, the better, experts say.
What specific things should be in the plan?
The plan should not only cover hardware — such as cameras, perimeter fencing, special lighting, door locks, etc. — but also social issues, such as what the school does to reduce bullying and racial tension. (Ask for school stats on suspensions/expulsions as well as bullying incidents.)
Parents also can ask how often the security equipment is inspected and maintained to ensure it is working properly. And how well the staff is trained to use the equipment.
For instance, safety equipment was not used properly in May when a man with an incendiary device in his car walked onto Santa Ana’s Taft Elementary, attempted to use the bathroom and refused repeated requests to leave. When he finally did leave, his car struck and injured three students off campus.
Amezcua, the Santa Ana Unified board member, said the school has marquee signs with the ability to scroll text alerts and separate warning lights for Taft’s deaf and hard-of-hearing students. Neither the marquees nor the warning lights were used, so the deaf students were unaware that the rest of the children had been evacuated, Amezcua said.
Another consideration, according to experts, is how parents will be notified or updated in the event of an emergency. Is there a plan for reuniting parents with their children?
Parents also should ask if the school has a vision statement for safety and written goals to improve emergency preparedness.
What else should we be looking for?
Look at what kind of access there is to the campus to ensure it is appropriately restricted and that law enforcement has reviewed the access strategy.
Also, parents should ask whether the school has an adult monitoring the areas outside the classrooms. If so, Stephens said, is it a sworn officer, especially at middle schools and high schools?
“What the research tells us is, despite all the high-tech strategies, the main strategy is the physical presence of a responsible adult watching the facilities,” Stephens said. “Who’s walking the campus during the day?”
Experts also advise parents to make sure your school conducts drills that go beyond the standard fire drill. Are there active shooter drills? And drills on how to handle an intruder? Does the drilling include law enforcement? How often are these drills conducted?
The California Education Code requires a drop procedure drill, in which students and staff take cover, every quarter in elementary schools and once every semester in secondary schools.
Parents also can find out what training, if any, school staff receives in safe-school strategies, crisis response and dealing with student mental health issues. Amezcua noted, for example, that nonteaching personnel in the Santa Ana school district are not trained in CPR or first aid.
Many schools have received funding to address safety issues and how they respond to a crisis. Ask the school how much funding it may be receiving and how it is being used.
What about law enforcement? Should we check with the police?
Yes. Parents should request from their police and fire departments the average time it takes to respond to an emergency. An effective response “all depends on the efficiency and skills of our first-responders,” Stephens said.
Parents also can request police data on their schools, such as stats for campus crime. Local police also should have data on juvenile crime in the area. Use the California Public Records Act to get that information if you need to.
Any last thoughts?
Stephens, the school safety expert, emphasizes that schools must have a Plan B, in case something goes wrong with their strategies.
Flexibility is important, the ability to adapt, he said.
“Schools are not the ensurers of safety,” Stephens said. “But we can ensure we have a plan in place.”
Source: Orange County Register
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