A practitioner’s thoughts
on school safety
By making
safety routine, all
stakeholders in the
school community
will benefit.
20
Leadership
Safety in schools is a major con-
cern for all stakeholders in a community.
Safety is a multi-faceted topic, and is not just
about having a plan. It includes making sure
that staff and students know how to respond
to potential threats, assessing threats, miti-
gating those threats and communicating to
stakeholders after an incident. Administra-
tors are the key piece in developing a plan,
communicating the plan, assessing potential
threats and finding solutions.
In California, all schools are required to
develop a school safety plan. Having a func-
tional safety plan is different than having a
safety plan in a binder that sits in the office.
In my district, we have site safety plans that
are disseminated to all staff. We review the
plans with staff at the first faculty meeting of
the year and review safety topics at every fac-
ulty meeting. We also conduct drills often and
then evaluate our response during those drills.
Administrators should be aware of how
the first responders in their community
will respond to an incident at their school.
I oversee five schools in a district of 2,162
students. Four of the schools are in the city’s
sphere of influence for law enforcement pro-
tection, but only two are in the city’s sphere
of influence for fire services. The other two
schools are in the Cal Fire service area. The
fifth school in the district is in the sheriff ’s
department jurisdiction for law enforce-
ment services and in a small fire district for
fire services. Every agency has different ap-
proaches to responding to emergencies in
their areas. Administrators should contact
those agencies and meet with them to dis-
cuss the school’s safety plan and make sure
it aligns with how law enforcement and fire
will respond to incidents at their school. It
is also a good practice for first responders to
familiarize themselves with the school. In
my district, both fire and law enforcement
are familiar with the physical layout of the
school and have copies of our safety plans
and campus maps. The local sheriff ’s office
uses the schools to practice active shooter
scenarios and training their K-9’s when
school is in recess.
I schedule facility walkthroughs with site
administration, the facility/maintenance
supervisor, and the Chief Business Officer.
We develop a list of facility priorities during
those walk-throughs with site administra-
tion and then the maintenance supervisor,
CBO and I prioritize resources to address
facility concerns. In a walkthrough this
past fall, one of the principals pointed out
that four of the surveillance cameras were
not working and that people were entering
the school after hours and stealing from the
vending machine. We were able to fix the
cameras in a short time and fence the area in
the quad where people were entering cam-
pus. We also were able to make sure the sur-
veillance camera had an unobstructed view
By Dr. Corey Willenberg