A Look At Local School Safety Part 2
July 28, 2016 at 4:25 p.m.
By David [email protected]
Area schools are more safe with school resource officers in place, according to Kosciusko County Sheriff’s Department Captain Aaron Rovenstine.
“But common sense would tell us they’re not 100 percent safe,” he said.
“You’d like to say with this community...that we have safe schools, but you know what? It sounds like a lot of these places (where shootings occurred) were just like that,” he continued. “So, 100 percent, no. Safer than they used to be? Yes.”
“I would say that Warsaw Schools is safe,” stated Superintendent Dr. Craig Hintz. “And I know that parents want two things when they send their children to school: They want to know that their children are safe, and they want them mastering the basic skills. And certainly, school safety is first and foremost for all of our students and staff.”
Warsaw Police Department Sgt. and School Resource Officer Dave Morales agreed.
“As anywhere across the country, whether they’ve had issues or not, schools are still one of the safest places to be,” Morales said. “Across the country, it’s unfortunate we still have those events, not only in schools but in other areas of the community. But schools are still safe.”
On how safe Valley schools are, Tippecanoe Valley Middle School Assistant Principal Scott Backus said, “I think I would say it’s as safe as any school around. Within our school security audits, we really feel like the buildings within our corporation are as safe as they can be with their physical structure and the policies we have in place.”
“We are constantly looking at them, re-evaluating,” said Jon Hutton, Tippecanoe Valley High School assistant principal. “We just finished an audit yesterday of all the buildings in the district to address with some new eyes ... any issues we found, any adjustments we feel we need to make to improve either the flow of the way things occur or the actual physical structure.”
“We went to every building. We did an exterior audit, we did a walk around each building with everyone as a group. We looked for areas of concern. Then we did an interior audit where we walked the interior of all the buildings,” said Backus.
All the administrators of all the buildings also were interviewed during the audit.
“It’s something that has to be 24 hours a day, seven days a week. It just has to be part of the culture of a school corporation. Everybody has to be thinking about safety all the time,” said Brett Boggs, Valley superintendent. “Obviously, you can’t dwell on it or it will drive you crazy, but it is something that we all have to be thinking about all of the time.”
All of Warsaw’s school principals have participated in state Safety School Specialist Training. There’s an introductory course and advanced course, and the principals have all been through that training to prepare for a potential crisis.
“They are prepared to take action to protect the students and the staff,” Hintz said.
Teachers also receiving some safety training, Chief Academics Officer David Hoffert reported.
“There are a couple different trainings actually,” Hoffert said. “Sometimes teachers do go to the school safety training. The building principals then work with their staffs and bring that back. There’s also a training that’s called CPI. CPI covers a number of different areas, including working with students, again making sure it is safe, with students even in the buildings. It is a factor that goes into the school safety.”
Hoffert said there also are student safety drills. There is about one lockdown drill per semester. Principal have a chance to talk to both students and staff during those drills. It’s also a reflective process, he said.
Every building at Tippecanoe Valley has a lockdown procedure in place, and it’s practiced just like a tornado, fire or other drill. Students are trained on what to do and expectations.
“We have a plan in place to put kids in the safest place possible,” said Hutton.
“Probably one of the biggest things that came out of the Newtown, Conn., (shooting) is just the opportunity to reflect and refine a lot of our process. Our elementary and secondary principals both had meetings here in the last few weeks to discuss what are their needs, what are some of the areas that can be improved inside of their building. What are some ideas that we want to look at as an entire district to make sure it’s the same inside every single building,” Hoffert stated.
All of Warsaw’s schools have security cameras, according to Chief Technology Officer Brad Hagg.
“We’re constantly analyzing areas that we can strengthen video coverage in, and continually as we budget funds each year, that is a category where we look at, constantly making sure we’re improving the system,” Hagg said.
WCS has a district safety committee with representation from the county and city in the event of a crisis to help manage it, Hintz said.
“We believe we are well prepared if such an incident should occur. In this business, you never know. And we always have to be on point to make certain that all of our students are safe,” Hintz continued.
“The safest we could be, and I don’t know who wants to live in that environment, is to actually put a school in a jail situation. ... But is that what we really want our society to have, to have our kids go to ‘jail’ to learn? Other than that, I think a combination of being aware, being able to call, and doing the safety things we do for the schools, putting the school resource officers in when we can,” Rovenstine said.
“The government just can’t protect you from every situation,” he said. “Other than spending money we don’t have and locking things down like a prison, I don’t know where you can get a totally secure environment. It’s a sad state of affairs to think of it like that.”[[In-content Ad]]
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Area schools are more safe with school resource officers in place, according to Kosciusko County Sheriff’s Department Captain Aaron Rovenstine.
“But common sense would tell us they’re not 100 percent safe,” he said.
“You’d like to say with this community...that we have safe schools, but you know what? It sounds like a lot of these places (where shootings occurred) were just like that,” he continued. “So, 100 percent, no. Safer than they used to be? Yes.”
“I would say that Warsaw Schools is safe,” stated Superintendent Dr. Craig Hintz. “And I know that parents want two things when they send their children to school: They want to know that their children are safe, and they want them mastering the basic skills. And certainly, school safety is first and foremost for all of our students and staff.”
Warsaw Police Department Sgt. and School Resource Officer Dave Morales agreed.
“As anywhere across the country, whether they’ve had issues or not, schools are still one of the safest places to be,” Morales said. “Across the country, it’s unfortunate we still have those events, not only in schools but in other areas of the community. But schools are still safe.”
On how safe Valley schools are, Tippecanoe Valley Middle School Assistant Principal Scott Backus said, “I think I would say it’s as safe as any school around. Within our school security audits, we really feel like the buildings within our corporation are as safe as they can be with their physical structure and the policies we have in place.”
“We are constantly looking at them, re-evaluating,” said Jon Hutton, Tippecanoe Valley High School assistant principal. “We just finished an audit yesterday of all the buildings in the district to address with some new eyes ... any issues we found, any adjustments we feel we need to make to improve either the flow of the way things occur or the actual physical structure.”
“We went to every building. We did an exterior audit, we did a walk around each building with everyone as a group. We looked for areas of concern. Then we did an interior audit where we walked the interior of all the buildings,” said Backus.
All the administrators of all the buildings also were interviewed during the audit.
“It’s something that has to be 24 hours a day, seven days a week. It just has to be part of the culture of a school corporation. Everybody has to be thinking about safety all the time,” said Brett Boggs, Valley superintendent. “Obviously, you can’t dwell on it or it will drive you crazy, but it is something that we all have to be thinking about all of the time.”
All of Warsaw’s school principals have participated in state Safety School Specialist Training. There’s an introductory course and advanced course, and the principals have all been through that training to prepare for a potential crisis.
“They are prepared to take action to protect the students and the staff,” Hintz said.
Teachers also receiving some safety training, Chief Academics Officer David Hoffert reported.
“There are a couple different trainings actually,” Hoffert said. “Sometimes teachers do go to the school safety training. The building principals then work with their staffs and bring that back. There’s also a training that’s called CPI. CPI covers a number of different areas, including working with students, again making sure it is safe, with students even in the buildings. It is a factor that goes into the school safety.”
Hoffert said there also are student safety drills. There is about one lockdown drill per semester. Principal have a chance to talk to both students and staff during those drills. It’s also a reflective process, he said.
Every building at Tippecanoe Valley has a lockdown procedure in place, and it’s practiced just like a tornado, fire or other drill. Students are trained on what to do and expectations.
“We have a plan in place to put kids in the safest place possible,” said Hutton.
“Probably one of the biggest things that came out of the Newtown, Conn., (shooting) is just the opportunity to reflect and refine a lot of our process. Our elementary and secondary principals both had meetings here in the last few weeks to discuss what are their needs, what are some of the areas that can be improved inside of their building. What are some ideas that we want to look at as an entire district to make sure it’s the same inside every single building,” Hoffert stated.
All of Warsaw’s schools have security cameras, according to Chief Technology Officer Brad Hagg.
“We’re constantly analyzing areas that we can strengthen video coverage in, and continually as we budget funds each year, that is a category where we look at, constantly making sure we’re improving the system,” Hagg said.
WCS has a district safety committee with representation from the county and city in the event of a crisis to help manage it, Hintz said.
“We believe we are well prepared if such an incident should occur. In this business, you never know. And we always have to be on point to make certain that all of our students are safe,” Hintz continued.
“The safest we could be, and I don’t know who wants to live in that environment, is to actually put a school in a jail situation. ... But is that what we really want our society to have, to have our kids go to ‘jail’ to learn? Other than that, I think a combination of being aware, being able to call, and doing the safety things we do for the schools, putting the school resource officers in when we can,” Rovenstine said.
“The government just can’t protect you from every situation,” he said. “Other than spending money we don’t have and locking things down like a prison, I don’t know where you can get a totally secure environment. It’s a sad state of affairs to think of it like that.”[[In-content Ad]]
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