Board addresses school safety planning
By LAURA ROADY
Staff writer
BONNERS FERRY — Depending on the part of the country you grew up in, as a student you practiced drills for fires, tornadoes, earthquakes or even tsunamis.
Students in schools today are faced with another drill most adults never had to worry about — lock down drills.
“This is all new,” said Boundary County School District Board chairman Melanie Staples .
“It is something we don’t want to talk about, but we have to.”
For the last year, the school board and superintendent have been talking about what to do in situations with armed intruders in schools.
“This is the most emotional issue you can address in schools,” said Superintendent Richard Conley .
“How far do you want the school to go?”
Conley said there are two extremes: do nothing or have armed staff in school buildings.
Deciding on how to address an armed intruder, whether an adult or child, is an issue the school board wants to involve the community in, especially parents. A community meeting is being planned to discuss the issue before the end of December.
During a school safety workshop on Tuesday, Nov. 12, Chief of Police Steve Benkula said every plan needs a three-prong approach: prevention, response and after-care.
Prevention should minimize threats and take steps to make schools safer, said Benkula.
“I can walk into schools undetected and that concerns me,” said Lisa Carle.
When the schools were built, lock down procedures were not an issue. Annexes and separate buildings at several of the schools complicate locking doors.
Each school keeps most of the outside doors locked during the school day except for main entrances and doors accessing other buildings.
Since last year, security cameras were installed at all schools except Valley View Elementary.
The school board approved surveillance systems for Valley View and the Early Childhood Center at the board meeting on Nov. 12.
The school board also had all the classroom door locks switched to the inside so teachers could lock their doors without opening them.
The response time of law enforcement within Bonners Ferry is quick but not for the schools out of town, said Conley.
U.S. Border Patrol agent Manuel Figueroa said the first response of staff and students should be to get out of the building if possible, even breaking windows if necessary. If they can’t escape the second action is to hide and a last resort is to fight back.
“It’s horrible to tell a fifth grader to fight but it is reality,” said Figueroa. “Hopefully it never happens but in reality it could.”
Benkula said that as a father he believes the teacher should protect the children and ensure their safety.
He continued that if you double-duty teachers by arming them, their attention will be divided and they may leave a child behind.
One concern of parents at the meeting was kids being identified as the ones to distract and attack after a middle school lock down plan was discussed.
“My two kids came home with two different stories,” said Debbie Youngwirth. “Roll it out uniformly. Talk with parents so they can discuss it with their kids at home.”
Every single parent needs to be informed before a plan is implemented, said Teshra Robles.
“It’s unrealistic to think it can’t happen to us,” said Carle. “People want to see a plan. What can we do as a community?”
The police department and other law enforcement agencies are willing to assist in the formation of a plan to keep the children safe, said Benkula.
“It’s a discussion we have to have,” said Staples.