California R-I school district emphasizes safety measures as new school year starts
CALIFORNIA, Mo. (KMIZ)
With the new school year underway, many districts are left wondering how they can keep their staff and students safe after mass shootings like the one at Robb Elementary in Uvalde, Texas.
The California R-I School District follows what is called a "locked classroom door policy." The policy requires entrance doors to be locked to prevent unauthorized guests from getting in.
Superintendent Daniel Williams said disaster prevention starts with the people inside the building.
"We must cultivate a culture and climate of students and staff being the first line of defense," Williams said.
That includes making sure doors are shut, adequate training is being done and people are proficient in the training, and keeping a sharp eye out for warning signs.
The school district uses the state's anonymous reporting system called Courage2Report. This system is advertised throughout the district and is available on school websites. Anyone can log in and send tips whether it be from a conversation they overheard or a social media post they saw. The system automatically sends a notification to administrators and notifies law enforcement of a potential threat.
"What we really coach people is if you see something, say something. We certainly err on the side of caution, regardless," Williams said.
The district also uses a text alert service. Non-emergency alerts are saved and sent during hours when school is not in session. This way if an alert gets sent out to parents during the school day, it is something that should catch their attention as abnormal.
"By really identifying that our school day, we don't use that system, it really gives a sense of alert to any recipient of that message I need to look at this right now, because that's outside the norm," said Williams.
The alert system is available on the district's website.
The district is researching the use of an anti-intruder safety system called Safe Defend. Safe Defend offers a fingerprint-activated device that is installed in classrooms. It reads pre-registered fingerprints and only works with the prints in the system, preventing false alarms.
"Once that is activated, in any space in our district, it sends an automatic message to every staff member, to our SROs, to our city police department, to our county sheriff's department, as well as our local highway patrol division. It's instant notification that we have a lockdown situation in our district," Williams said.
The school district has also installed entry vestibules in two out of the three buildings and will finish the vestibule in the elementary school soon. These security vestibules give staff members the ability to assess people coming into the building before letting them in. Visitors must be buzzed into the locked area and then buzzed in again to enter the school.
Most importantly, the superintendent says, is his message to students, staff and families.
"We're in this together. It'll take all of us together to further education and success of the students in this district," Williams said.
