Safeguarding the student body

As parents, one of the most frightening days is the day your child leaves your side for the first time to brave a whole new world, a world filled with learning, sharing and trusting others. That same day, parents too learn to entrust another with the safety and well-being of the embodiment of their world, their child.
Schools across the nation take measures to ensure the safety of the student body from all forms of threats, whether it be a natural disaster or an out-of-place individual within the walls of a school. Drill after drill has been conducted to prepare the students for these scenarios. Manson and Chelan schools have been equipped with automatic or key fob door-locking systems, locked side entrances, video surveillance and more, in an effort to provide the utmost protection and safety for the students.
But, what do you do when the threat to a student body is a member of the student body? Manson School District Superintendent Matt Charlton and Chelan School District Superintendent Barry DePaoli explained what steps are being taken for prevention and preparedness of the students in an exclusive interview with Lake Chelan Mirror (LCM) staff.
Manson School District
Manson Superintendent Charlton explained drills conducted in preparation for disasters or a crisis. Along with the monthly disaster drills, the district does a district-wide emergency drill at least once a year, he explained, “we coordinate that with our emergency services partners, fire, EMS and the Sheriff’s department, and we do a pretty extensive drill,” he continued, “the staff doesn’t know what’s coming, they know something is happening, we do plan that, but they react to whatever the scenario is … we try to test our system and see how would we react? We’re not looking for 100 percent,” he emphasized, “we’re looking for where we can improve.”
Last fall, the district conducted a weapon on campus scenario, Charlton stated, then explained the situation, “we fired some blanks in a classroom, and looked to see how people would respond to that and looked to see how kids would respond to that. Based on how we did with that, afterward, the staff started asking about how we can improve and what can we do better?” Details of the drills and preparedness methods are not all divulged, as the safety of the students remains the primary focus and details of the school’s safety provisions are only effective when they can be used without expectation from the threat.
The school district also uses an incident command system, Charlton revealed, “where during a crisis or emergency, there’s a clear chain of command, but there’s also a clear way of dealing with things,” he stated, adding, “we have staff that are already on teams … there’s a first aid team, there’s a recovery team, there’s a reunification with parent team, so depending on what the incident is, we’ll activate those teams.”
“On the proactive side (of preparing for an active shooting scenario),” Charlton expressed, “we do put a lot of our energy and resources to that. One of the best ways to prevent a school shooting is to have really good relationships with your students,” he voiced, emphasizing, “with all students … making them feel supported, that they are connected and that they have people they can talk to if they need help, but also with other students who might report or might share ‘I’m worried about my friend,’ or ‘my friend said this,’” he expressed.  
The district is using an ACE system in the social/emotional aspect of prevention. “We’ve done a lot of work, on trying to help children learn those skills that they need to deal with conflict and if I’m hurting how do I get help,” Charlton stated, “and how to be advocate for themselves. So, trying to teach our staff how to teach students that, but also staff how to work with kids that have come from where they’ve had serious incidents in their life. We’re doing a lot of work in that realm, and I think as a school, systems statewide, but also right here in Manson, I think we’re doing a lot better there. It’s never perfect,” he conveyed, “every community has kids or people in their community that you could go ‘gosh, those people need more help,’ you know.”
Looking at the possibility of such a tragedy happening here, in Chelan Valley, Charlton stated “we’re proactive, we try to never let it happen. We prepare for if it does happen, what are we going to do in the moment. But, we also have to think about afterwards, recovery,” he explained, then continued clarifying steps taken, such as the combat training received by many staff, allowing the on-site staff to handle a traumatic injury until emergency services arrive, if needed.
“If you see something, say something,” Charlton challenged the students. The district strives for each student having at least one adult at the school they feel comfortable talking to. “We really do encourage students to take care of one another and if you see something, share it with an adult you trust. We try to have every student in the school have at least one adult they trust in the school, it could be a cook, it could be a coach, it could be a teacher … at least one adult that the student knows they really care about them and there’s a relationship there. We really work to make that happen.”
Lake Chelan
School District
Looking into the Lake Chelan School District (LCSD), Superintendent DePaoli began with a summary of the physical security measures being taken to ensure safety of the student body.
“The way I look at school safety is there’s really two areas of safety,” he began, “there’s the building safety, then the second piece is the psychology safety, which is the social/emotional wellbeing, which is the prevention part for our students.”
Starting with physical safety, in regard to the building, the LCSD board has been really proactive, expressed DePaoli. “We’ve upgraded our security (in recent years),” he explained, “all of our schools have automated door locking systems on all the exterior doors … our entrances, at both the elementary and junior/senior high schools have the buzz-in system, which is the current state of the art standard.” The system requires an office staff to buzz in any visitor, he explained, as the doors to access the students are locked. “We also have a school resource officer that is employed on campus, and he advises both students and staff regarding personal safety, drills, prevention, all that stuff. We have some really strong community partnerships, one with local law enforcements and one with our fire district, so that we’re prepared for all emergency situations. And, like all schools, we have a crisis response plan, and that would address a full range of emergency situations, including a lock down.”
From a psychological standpoint, the district has recently hired a district counselor, explained DePaoli, “we’re just training our district counselor in a course, so that she can train all of our front-line staff, bus drivers, secretaries and eventually teaching staff, on any signs of kind of a mental wellness piece where kids aren’t feeling well, or may be feeling uneasy, so we’re doing that training as part of a preventative process in the psychological area.”
After the most recent school shooting, the district had created a safety summit, DePaoli explained, “I got all our nurses, counselors, teachers, liasens, and some administrators on that group and we just took a look at what we need to look at going forward.” The active shooter drill was the primary focus of the summit safety, and the group evaluated and discussed how well the district is prepared in the event of a school shooting … “we’ll reconvene in early April and really put together a strategic plan to really focus on this active shooter issue.” School shooters, DePaoli explained, “(are) not just the school’s issue, it’s about the community. How do we keep our community safe? So, everyone has a responsibility for keeping our kids safe at school,” he emphasized, “the parents do, they have a responsibility to report anything they see as awkward or unfamiliar with their own students, or friends of their students, and our teachers have that responsibility. I really believe our students do as well, so we’re going to educate our student on the idea of ‘if you see something, you need to say something.’ It’s about everybody working together,” he expressed, “we can’t just rely on the school. We’ve learned that in some of these shootings too.”