‘It’s not our intent to make schools fortresses’

NEWS/ SCHOOLS — A school district review of safety and security practices has made 20 recommendations after pinpointing areas of vulnerability to a human threat.

The review was launched after the school shooting at Sandy Hook elementary school in Connecticut in 2012.

“The report did find, first of all, that the autonomy that many schools enjoy …can be detrimental to safety and security,” said Michelle Marginet, district health and safety manager. “The majority of the recommendations dealt with that.”

Sixteen of the recommendations dealt with administrative and classroom procedures, and all but one of those has been adopted, Marginet told the Kamloops-Thompson school board Monday night. Many of the changes involve practices that have been made consistent across the district.

School lockdown drills and the precaution of locking all school doors except the main entrances will continue. Classroom doors can be left open, but they must be ready to be locked when closed. As of this September, all school staff will be required to wear name tags at all times.

“So there are going to be changes in process and this demonstrates best practices many other school districts already follow,” Marginet said.

A key fob system was considered but rejected as unrealistic, she added. Re-keying every lock in the district, and monitoring them with a computerized tracking system, would be a better choice, she said.

On a case-by-case basis, some schools will have security cameras installed at entrances to allow office staff to monitor comings and goings.

Another change in the works is the installation of roll shudders on school windows, which enables a total lockdown. However, it will take 15 years to install them throughout the district.

“It’s not our intent to make schools fortresses,”said superintendent Terry Sullivan. The objective is to become pervasive but not intrusive, he added.