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Victor Deleon, 12, has a plan to keep himself safe if there is ever a school shooting.
“I think about it, not all the time, just sometimes,” Victor began. “I have my entire school mapped out just because of that.”
Victor went on to list his plans.
“It depends on the building,” explained the North Naples Middle School 7th grader. “If I was near the PE building, I would just get out of the classroom and get out the fence. The 7th grade building would be the hardest because it is in the middle, so I would have to see where the shooting is coming from and run the other way.”
A decade ago students didn’t have to make plans or worry about being safe in school. Now it is something they and their parents think about. For some the thoughts and worries happen only occasionally when they hear about a school shooting on television or have an active shooter safety drill. Others, like Victor, think about it more often.
“I feel safe with some of my teachers,” Victor said.
“I do feel safe,” said Veronica Trinidad Lopez,14, an Aubrey Rogers High School freshman. “There are cops on the campus, and they check if the doors are locked.”
“There is a rule about keeping the doors locked and they are supposed to look before opening the doors, but sometimes they just open the doors,” said Maria Deleon, 16, an Aubrey Rogers High School junior, who attended Gulf Coast High School last year.
“The shooting in Uvalde made me start thinking about it because we are right next to the elementary school and if they go there, they could come to our school,” added Aaron Rodriguez, 19, who just graduated from Gulf Coast High School.
Collier County public school officials want to assure students and parents about the safety of local schools.
Marc MacDonald, administrative supervisor of district safety and security, says Collier County schools are some of the very safest in the nation.
“The thing that they have to remember is we live in a very fortunate community,” MacDonald began. “We have law enforcement officers on every campus all day, every day. The commitment our sheriff has made to provide that coverage is unprecedented. “We don’t have just a security person, we have a professionally trained law enforcement officer in every school. We don’t have the B product or the C product. We have the best model available.”
Schools have greatly improved safety the last few years. After the Parkland shooting all schools made sure the only access to campus was through the main office. Visitors have to ring a buzzer and be identified before that door will open for them. Schools also have lockdown safety drills. In the past these have been monthly drills, but starting this year they will have one at the beginning of the school year and then one each quarter.
“They will still know the plan, but the repeated thing of it every month will go away,” MacDonald explained.
School board member, Stephanie Lucarelli has four children; one is in middle school and another in high school.
“I feel very secure with my kids being in school,” Lucarelli began. “I know that we have put a variety of layers of protection in our schools. I know our people have gone through extensive training, and I know that our kids have also been through enough drills and training to know what to do in an emergency. I know things can happen. I know they are not 100 percent safe, but I feel very secure with the people that are there with them.”
RUN OR HIDE
Years ago the plan was for teachers to make students hide in the classroom, closet or bathroom, but that has changed.
“One of the great things that we do is that every classroom is accessed every school year by law enforcement and administrators,” MacDonald said. “We decide: is there a safe space in the classroom? Am I protected enough? If a classroom doesn’t have that safe space then we talk about what is the run option. All spaces are looked at for a run option.” Students say they prefer to run.
“If you run you have a better chance of living,” said Elvin Alonso, 16, an Aubrey Rogers High School junior, who attended Gulf Coast last year. “If everybody stays in the classroom, he can take out the whole classroom and what can anyone do? They just stay in the class and wait to die.
“I would run because if you hide, they can find you,” Maria added. “People see on the news that everyone is hiding. They will know that people are hiding.”
GUNS IN SCHOOL
The Coach Aaron Feis Guardian Program was established in 2018 through the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Act after the deadly mass shooting at that school in Parkland, Florida. Guardians are armed personnel that respond immediately to a school shooting. They are either school employees who volunteer or personnel hired for the specific purpose of being a school guardian. Guardians must pass psychological and drug screenings, and successfully complete a minimum of 144 hours of training. Lee County joined the program in May, and Collier County is now considering adding this area to the list of almost 50 Florida counties now using guardians in schools.
Janeth Deleon, 15, an Aubrey Rogers High School sophomore, who attended Gulf Coast last year before the rezoning, says it is scary to think that teachers or people on campus would be carrying guns.
“A student would know and they could think, ‘there is a gun there and I can get it’,” Janeth said.
Cara Naso, 16, a junior at Palmetto Ridge High School, says it could be a good idea if it is done right.
“I don’t think it is a bad idea, but you have to make sure that whoever is carrying the gun couldn’t hurt someone at the school,” she said. “You have to pick them very cautiously. You never know what kid could grab a gun from an adult’s pocket.”
Dave Gaumer, father of a freshman at Aubrey Rogers High School, doesn’t think teachers should be armed, but he likes the idea of the Guardian program.
“I just think in a matter of seconds it stops something from happening,” he explained.
Lucarelli says if the Guardian program is implemented, it needs to be in addition to the sheriff deputies.
“In Collier County we are so fortunate to have a youth relationship program that instills so much more in our kids than just having a hired gun at our school,” she stressed. That program fosters a deep respect for law enforcement and community involvement and pride. Although I support implementing the Guardian program, I don’t want it to take away from the youth relations program.”
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HOW SCARY IS IT?
Younger students seem to feel safer at their schools.
“I feel safe mostly because the teacher makes sure everybody is safe and they help my classmates just feel good and safe,” said Paige Baily, 8, a third grader at Mason Classical Academy.
“I feel safe,” added Mila Bohunicky, 9, a fourth grader at St. Ann Catholic School. “There are security guards and alarms.”
Their parents also feel that their children are safe.
I feel very confident that the school is safe,” said Mila’s mother Cheryl Bohunicky. “They have taken measures to embrace the safety of the students. Everyone is very diligent in keeping it safe.”
“I think the school does a good job assuring there is safety,” added Paige’s mother Elizana Baily. “There is a sheriff. In the aspect of an intruder they do their basics, but there can always be room for improvement.”
Madison Mance, 11, a sixth grader at the Village School, feels safer than her mother. She knows about the school shootings at other schools, but only thinks about it occasionally.
“That kind of puts a thought in your head that these things actually happen, and that is such an awful thing and that is such a scary thing,” Madison said. “But I am reassured by the fact that there are drills and we have a lot of security.”
Her mother, Jennifer Mance, explained how things were very different in Ontario, Canada where they lived until they moved to Collier County a year ago.
“It is a bit concerning,” Mance began. “We don’t worry about the same things in Ontario. Here in the United States the chances of there being an incident are higher because we don’t have the guns in Canada. In some ways I feel safer because the schools have more things in place. You have to get through fences and gates and all the doors are locked all the time. In Ontario we only keep our doors locked when there is a threat and there is no extra fencing. There isn’t the need for it thankfully. So, I feel fairly safe, but it is always in the back of my mind. That was something we had to factor into our school choice is how safe does it feel. It is sad for me as a parent and an educator.”
IT GOT SCARY
On most days the students at Gulf Coast High School were not thinking about school safety. It only popped into their minds when they heard about a school shooting on the news, or they had a school safety drill. But things changed in February when students were in lockdown and didn’t know if it was real or a drill. Students were in the courtyard and hallways between 6th and 7th period when the alarm sounded. They were rushed into classrooms by teachers and staff.
“We were in the portables during a fake lockdown, but we didn’t know it was fake, and it is not safe in the portables,” Janeth said. “I wanted to run because we did not know if it was real.”
Janeth started texting her sister Maria, telling her how frightened she was. Maria was scared too.
“”We thought it was a real lockdown,” Maria described. “There were so many stories about what was happening.”
“I was in class and I was balling my eyes out and texting my mom,” Aaron described. “A lot of people were crying.”
Students later found out that the lockdown was caused by two students fighting, and there were no guns involved. But at the time the unknown was scary. Sitting quietly in the classrooms in lockdown, they were imagining the worst.
“Some people were having panic attacks,” Maria said. “The teacher was just trying to keep us calm.”
“I kept texting my sister because I was so scared,” Janeth said. “I thought the lockdown was real and being in a portable, I thought I had a higher chance of being hurt.”
It was even scarier at Palmetto Ridge High School earlier this year after a threat was phoned in about a possible shooter and the school went on lockdown.
“It was happening at a bunch of schools where someone was calling in a false thing,” Cara explained. “People barricaded the door and the teacher put up the curtain. I was in a room with a closet, and we all went in the closet and closed the door.”
While there was no shooter on campus, there was an actual threat, so officers had to check the classrooms. They went into each room with their guns out, pointed at the room and the kids.
“It was very scary,” Cara said. “I usually feel pretty safe at my school, except for the time there was that false lockdown. That felt real. It was very scary.”
MacDonald doesn’t like to see kids scared, but he said incidents can be helpful.
“We don’t want them thinking about it all day long,” MacDonald said. “But incidents like that create opportunities for training. Those unfortunate situations create opportunities to create improvements in our process. Every one of our principals, their number one priority every day is the safety of our kids. After incidences it is really important if your question isn’t answered, please call your principal. The principal wants to make you feel safe.”
BE PREPARED
MacDonald said being prepared is the best way to stay safe. That’s why Collier County schools have a wide variety of drills and plans. MacDonald praised Victor for being aware of his surroundings and having a plan.
“That kid is going to be safe because he thought about it,” MacDonald said. “That is the unfortunate thing. You have to think about it. Not just at school. You see it at the grocery store and on the street. The good thing is we have plans, and while it sounds sad it is a reality of our life. If you go to a parade or to school or the mall, having a plan, running here or hiding there makes you safer. Our teachers have plans, students have plans and they practice those plans, and it makes them safer when they are at school.
MacDonald also has advice for parents.
“My advice to parents is to tell their kids to listen very carefully to the instructions of their teachers,” MacDonald stressed. “Teachers will review the procedures and it is important for them to understand what the teacher is saying, and if they don’t, ask questions.”
Lucarelli says being prepared is not just for school safety.
“I talk to my children about situational awareness,” she described. “Know where you are and who is in charge wherever you are. You are sitting there and thinking where would you hide if you have to and that is not just school. It is anywhere. It could be anything. It is about being able to do whatever they need to do and stay calm. It’s very sad the times we live in and the things our kids have to deal with, but we want them to be prepared for the worst. We hope for the best and prepare for the worst.”
CCPS wants to assure parents and students of this list of safety measures:
- Law enforcement personnel are on our campuses all day, every day
- We operate single points of entry at all schools
- We installed video doorbells to allow front doors to remain locked at all schools
- Classroom doors remain locked
- Classroom door windows are covered
- We assess every single classroom in conjunction with law enforcement
- All staff have the ability to call for a lockdown
- Students at all schools have ID badges
- We have school threat assessment teams at every school
- Backpacks and large bags aren’t allowed at athletic events
- All first responders have key access to our campuses during an emergency
Read more:
How to Talk to Your Children About Gun Violence
https://neafamily.com/school-shootings-how-to-talk-to-your-children/