Powell school district moving forward with safety, security plan

Posted 1/15/19

The new year will bring a new safety plan for Powell schools.

From stronger windows to revamped fire drills to in-depth training, district leaders continue to take steps toward making local …

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Powell school district moving forward with safety, security plan

Posted

The new year will bring a new safety plan for Powell schools.

From stronger windows to revamped fire drills to in-depth training, district leaders continue to take steps toward making local schools safer and more secure.

“It’s a pretty broad topic that we’re dealing with,” said Rob McCray, support services coordinator for Park County School District No. 1. “And we’re doing something with it all day, every day. Just to know the right path to go down at the right time — we’re working through that as we go.”

The school board voted last spring to create a comprehensive plan that focuses on five pillars of safety: Building safety, access and protocol; employee and student training; social/emotional and mental health; emergency preparedness and crisis management; and interagency agreements and coordination.

“We are on pace to have this [plan] done by this spring,” said Superintendent Jay Curtis.

Curtis will update the board when the plan is finished, but the details won’t be discussed in public.

“To keep our kids as safe as we possibly can, it just can’t be out there, what we’re doing,” Greg Borcher, school board chairman, said in November. “They’ll have to trust that we’re doing what’s right.”

The Wyoming Legislature is considering a bill that would require schools to adopt safety and security plans, similar to what Powell is developing. Senate File 64 unanimously passed the Senate Education Committee on Friday — with support from state Sen. Hank Coe, R-Cody — and will next be heard by the appropriations committee.

As legislators discuss school safety issues, Curtis would like to see the state provide funding for at least one school resource officer (SRO) for every district, then after that, fund another officer for every 800 students.

Under that model, Powell would have two officers, which “would help us a lot,” Curtis said.

“Currently, one SRO for 1,800 kids is just not enough,” he said.

The state doesn’t fund SROs, so Powell and other districts use money out of their general funds to pay for the positions.

Securing schools

All visitors to Powell schools must sign in using an electronic system installed last year. At school entrances, protective film has been added to windows, so they cannot be shattered.

The district also plans to partner with the Powell Police Department and possibly other law enforcement to do updated threat assessments of local schools. That will allow “an outside eye to come to our facilities and see where our vulnerabilities might be and the areas we might put more attention on,” McCray said.

Powell teachers and students have undergone ALICE training, which focuses on barricading by stacking furniture to secure classroom doors if there’s an intruder.

Curtis said the district must choose between that option or a simple barricade device, which takes less time and that a teacher could put in place without students’ help.

“We can’t expect our elementary kids to be stacking desks alongside of their teachers,” he said.

The superintendent said he had “considerable back-and-forth discussion with our fire marshal” about using barricade devices. When the barricade is engaged, it’s a violation of fire code.

“The only time it will be engaged — if we use those — will be in the instance of an active shooter in our building,” Curtis said. “And if that were to occur, fire code will be the least of our worries.”

The district also is changing how it handles fire drills, since some gunmen in school shootings have pulled the alarm to get people to go into hallways.

“We have safety protocols that we follow — if we see or smell smoke or see fire, we evacuate immediately, otherwise we go into safety protocols,” Curtis said.

As part of its plan for emergency preparedness and crisis management, the district is looking at its process for reunifying kids with parents following an emergency.

“So if we have an instance where we have to move kids somewhere and then reunify them with their parents, we have those documents pretty well hammered out to allow for identification of parents or custodial guardians,” McCray said.

Mental health

Powell’s safety and security plan also will focus on mental health and social-emotional learning.

“... Never in history have kids really chosen to come do harm at school in the ways that they’re doing now,” Curtis said.

When he was in high school, it was not uncommon for a student to drive to school with their hunting rifle still in their truck, he said.

“Kids today, their social emotional state is very different than it was when we were in school,” Curtis said, adding, “Today, if a kid is being bullied, they can’t get away from it. Social media follows you home.”

Social media means there aren’t any safe places to escape bullying.

“Our kids are having to deal with things that we didn’t have to,” Curtis said, adding, “We have to provide them tools, starting at a young age, on how to deal with and direct that anger, hurt, humiliation — whatever it is.”

Powell’s school counselors would like to see social-emotional curriculum adopted for students district-wide, he said.

The district’s counselors, social workers and psychologists also have undergone more training, including FBI active shooter detection and prevention training last fall.

In February, they will undergo training on threat and suicide risk assessment. The Powell district invited counselors from around the Big Horn Basin to participate in that training.

The school district applied for a grant with Powell Valley Healthcare and Heritage Health Center to increase mental health services for students, Curtis said. The Wyoming Department of Education also contacted Park 1 to be one of four districts in the state to apply for a federal grant aimed at improving and increasing mental health services to school-aged children.

There has been some discussion about whether school counselors are stretched too thin with the needs of kids today.

“I want to make it really clear that they’re not complaining. There was never a time when I felt like they were complaining about it,” Curtis said. His wife, Erin Curtis, is a counselor for Parkside Elementary School and the Shoshone Learning Center “and I see that she is going to work early, she stays late, goes in on the weekends” the superintendent said, adding, “It’s because we have a lot of kids in need.”

There are local kids dealing with trauma in their lives, whether it’s physical abuse, drugs and alcohol, poverty or other issues, Curtis said.

Raising the security IQ

The district’s hope is to have staff and students working together to keep local schools safe.

“Part of the goal is going to have to be to raise the security IQ of every individual in our school system,” Curtis said.

During security audits of the buildings, they will see whether a kid will open the door to let someone in the school.

“Some of this is training our kids to keep our buildings secure,” Curtis said.

Another focus will be teaching students what steps to take if they find out that someone is intending to harm others.

“What they do say is that nearly every violent offender has told at least one person,” McCray said.

Last spring, the district dealt with two potential threats.

In March, a Powell Middle School student made a threat “that included the potential of direct violence against our staff and students,” Curtis said at the time.

Then in May, school officials requested a heightened law enforcement presence after a post on social media showed handguns with the caption, “Can’t wait for school.” A police investigation indicated that a Powell High School student’s post had been manipulated, and the incident was deemed a hoax.

The superintendent told the school board that all of the training and work to adopt a comprehensive plan takes time.

“I wish that all of this was faster and that we could magically make it happen today, but it is a process — we’re learning more and more all the time,” Curtis said.

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