Board of Education Safety and Security Meeting

so Gary we're gonna we gotta adopt the
agenda I moved at the Board of Education
adopt the agenda as posted
second it's been moved and seconded all
in favor
aye any opposed okay motion passes
and
is Carter giving an update today
all right so I'm going to turn over to
Dr Patel
good evening
good evening everyone thank you for
being here um before we get started I
thought it would be good to just do some
introductions you obviously know the
board members but um our panel here so
I'm going to start with Doug if you
don't mind just stating your name in
your position sure hi I'm Doug weiner
acting principal of white on Middle
School
good evening I'm Mark Smith chief of
police for the Clayton police department
my name is Jack Boger I'm a Clayton
police officer assigned as the school
resource officer for the for the
district
I am Jim Brunell I'm the director of
facility services for the district
I am Sheila Powell Walker and I am one
of two District social workers I am
assigned to wydown middle school and
Clayton High School
and I'm Robin Wiens I'm the assistant
superintendent of student services
thank you everyone for being here much
appreciated
um so I think what we want to start off
with just to kind of talk to you a
little bit about the purpose of tonight
which is obviously to engage our
community in a dialogue about something
very important which is Safety and
Security in our on our campuses and our
buildings and we can also um address
what happened at wydown Middle School a
couple of weeks ago but before we do
that I thought I would just give you
like an overview of recent Safety and
Security updates and enhancements that
we've done in our district starting I
will go back to April of 2019 so that's
before the pandemic so April of 2019 the
school district of Clayton went to the
community and asked to approve prop e
part of that when it was approved part
of that investment was going to be in
Safety and Security of our school system
so basically any kind of physical
enhancements reviewing the safety
protocols and anything else that we
decided we needed to do to improve the
overall Security in our buildings
so that happened in April in October of
2019 we ended up Contracting with tier
one tactical Solutions and bond
Architects to really look and do a
safety audit and so basically their
purpose was to look at all of our
campuses look to see where our areas of
growth and what are things that we're
really doing well so even looking at our
policies our procedures and our
practices so they started all that work
then the following spring they came up
came to the board and made their
recommendations on things that we can do
better right and part of that could have
been improving safety security like the
front entrances of buildings part of
that was even the addition of gender
neutral bathrooms part of that could
have been camera systems Etc So based on
those recommendations we then divided it
up into two phases
the first phase was summer of 2021 which
included if you've noticed some of the
secure vestibules that were built in
front of the schools so it was phase one
included Glen Ridge it included Captain
it included y down and it included the
high school and that was the summer of
2021. and last summer we ended up doing
the enhancements the front entrances for
Merrimack which was still left the
family center the admin building and
Facilities
in addition phase two included something
for all the campuses which was the
camera system we already had cameras
throughout our buildings but we wanted
to enhance that and provide more
so that was something that we started
working on for all the buildings another
thing that also was part of phase part
of the end of phase one and phase two
was the badge system like our visitor
management system so if you notice
sometimes when you come into the
buildings now sometimes you always
should be when you come into the
buildings you you get you give your ID
and we put it through the badge pass
system and you get a sticker so that was
part of phase one and phase two
and then also the last part was the
Intruder Panic buttons that you can see
actually there's one over there as well
um that were placed throughout the
buildings in all the buildings
so the Panic buttons they usually do
three things they alert the recording
goes off and the alert comes up contacts
9-1-1 and the fire doors closed so that
would be fully operational obviously
when the incident happened at y down
Middle School a couple of weeks ago we
were trying to get it fully programmed
so things that we didn't do right and
I've mentioned that in the email we
shouldn't have done it during the school
day because that's what triggered it
also we should have made sure that we
knew who was entering the building when
and that was another point that we that
was a mishap and we need to get better
at it so since then we've done we've had
a lot of conversations obviously that
was a traumatic event for so many of our
students and our staff and our parents
and from every experience we try to
learn from it and be better from it we
did a lot of conversations with our
students we had a lot of conversation
with the police department
with that event the things that did go
right is basically everything that was
We were supposed to do is what happened
all the training that we have in terms
of options Based training if there is an
intruder in the building what do you do
are students and staff did that the
police department was here within two
minutes so those are the things that
went right but we also found things that
were holes right and that was probably
the best scenario we could have had in
terms of finding areas that we need to
get better in
but unfortunately it shouldn't have
happened to begin with so we're trying
to learn from it since then um I've met
with officer and chief Mike Mark Smith
we've met we've talked about adding an
additional SRO how do we enhance the
security in that portion of it I know
the board is very supportive of that as
well and once that to happen
we've contracted with tier one tacticals
again to do another safety audit which
they're going to start with in a week
which means interviewing 10 of our
entire staff looking at what we have in
place how can we improve with that and
we went with them because they're the
ones who did the original
recommendations so it makes sense
they're familiar with our campuses they
can come back and say here are the
recommendations we made where are you
guys at
so we've done that we've already
contracted to start putting like
additional security enhancements in
different buildings as well so I'm not
I'm going to not continue talking
because I know that there may be
questions and dialogue where we can
continue to answer some questions but I
do want to say if there's specific
questions you ask we may not be able to
give you specific details in accordance
to law just for safety security reasons
because this this meeting is being
recorded and we may not be able to give
you too many details on certain things I
think we can all understand the why
behind that
so at this point
um
let's talk if anybody has any questions
thoughts just wants to share their
Viewpoint I think we have two mics set
up here and just feel free to come up
or if any of the board members even have
to want to say anything
there we go
uh I said three minutes no you can go go
for it we've put it at three minutes but
we'll
yeah all right well I'd like to thank
all the members of the board tonight for
inviting me to speak at such a wonderful
opportunity and I'd also like to thank
everyone else for coming to this meeting
as uh for showing your support for
school safety so I know that tonight's
meeting is very special and very
important over the past few weeks at
Clayton High School we've seen two
incidents that happened back to back
that put our school safety in the
question
and immediately after these two
incidents occurred I immediately went to
a school counselor and I addressed these
incidents and I'll keep their identity
private we had a very long discussion
about these two incidents and one of the
things that I brought up to the
counselor was an interesting observation
that both of these incidents involved
objects that were designed to look like
Firearms the first incident had a
plastic had a person carry in to the
school a a fake toy plastic gun and the
second incident involved an airsoft
weapon both were fake but they were
designed to look like real weapons so I
asked their counselor
how do we know if people are carrying
concealed weapons into our school like
it's so easy to put a gun into a
backpack or a knife into a pocket or a
lighter into a pocket how do we know if
people are bringing concealed firearms
into our school and he said we don't we
don't really know because we don't have
metal detectors we don't have I believe
we don't have like x-rays we don't have
these systems in place that that can
detect and we don't search people's
backpacks either so we don't know like
whether or not people actually bring
concealed firearms into a school
and so the main strategy that our
district uses in order to detect
concealed weapons is by relying on our
students we want that we want our
students to be vigilant and we want our
students to be observant of their
surroundings and use their eyes to
determine whether another person is
carrying a carrying a concealed firearm
but a question I have for this board is
that since we don't really have I don't
believe we have metal detectors since we
don't have x-rayations we don't search
people's backpacks
what are we going to do when someone
carries a concealed weapon into a school
and nobody else sees it what are we
going to do in that instance
and another question I want to ask is
instead of relying on our students
instead of relying on the eyes of our
students what methods and what
strategies can we Implement into our
school systems like more Technologies
more strategies and more methods to
better detect whether someone is
bringing a concealed weapon into a
school or not whether they have a gun in
their packback or a secret knife hidden
in their pocket how can we know that how
can we what can we do the better know if
people are doing this or not and it's a
debt and these are questions that we
definitely have to consider because
school violence
something that it can happen to it can
it doesn't matter whether your community
is wealthy whether your school is safe
or whether you have a wealthy school or
not but School violence it can happen at
any moment any time in any place and
these are questions that I hope the
board can consider tonight as they're
very important for our school safety
thank you
thank you tell me your name again
I'm Wayne Wayne okay yeah that was great
thank you Wayne so can I just ask you a
clarifying question so when you're
talking about the con is your concern
that students might be bringing in
weapons yeah mostly students because the
past incidents at claim high school they
were I think they were involved they
were students who were doing that yeah
we worry about that too so I'll let the
experts address that
you know I think one of the big things
is uh is education of the students of
talking to the kids on what they are
allowed to not bring in and expressing
to them the
um the penalties that might come along
with it
um I believe at the beginning of the
school year they do have a um a speech
uh directed at the students to let them
know hey you know what is allowed and
not allowed
um but again uh you know I think
education would be a big part of that
just letting them know as far as metal
detectors scanners
um
that's probably going to be an issue
that the school district's going to make
on their own
um you know
yeah and I would leave that up to them
to to maybe discuss that issue uh say
with metal detector support right now we
have court going on in Clayton and uh it
creates a big delay in getting people
through there it would it would take a
long time if you ever been to the county
courthouse uh in Clayton you'll see it
every day there's lawyers backed up
trying to get in there because they're
all going through the metal detector so
it it would
um be quite a task to pull that off but
uh you're right we do rely on
information from students uh but we also
rely on information from parents
teachers our school resource officers uh
we are we do take part in a program
throughout the metro area with other
school resource officers it's actually
led by federal law enforcement where we
uh assess threats where those threats
are are through social media you know so
uh you know alarming social media posts
um information gained from parents we
take a look at that and and intervene
when necessary so a lot of a lot of
information does come I mean not to make
light it does but a lot we we find out
about parties going on in Clayton
through social media and parents tell us
the same goes with threats we hear about
it from the parents and that we we
intervene and um but a lot of that comes
from information coming from the school
district itself
I think in addition to that one of the
top protective factors is trusting
relationships with adults and so I know
we have quite a few students here do you
mind raising your hand if you are a
student at Clayton High School
great I'm so glad that you are here so
you probably recall that during this
school year at some point in time you've
been asked either in the Panorama survey
or directly from your teachers about
um telling us like the names of the
adults that you would feel comfortable
contacting if there was an issue that
either you were personally experiencing
or a concern that you had around safety
or anything related to your teaching and
learning experience in our buildings and
we know that is one of the biggest
protective factors in keeping our
communities safe because even before a
student is found with a weapon we need
to figure out what's the function of
bringing the weapon to school and how do
we do more preemptive work to prevent
that from happening I think the other
thing too is that all of our community
members are empowered and able to use
many of the different reporting
functions we have so in addition to
obviously going to a trusted adult all
of us have access to the quick tip line
that's available through the website as
well as the Missouri based courage to
report and all of those
um messages that get received are
immediately pushed out to whichever
building has been tagged or if it comes
through courage to report they contact
the school district directly related to
students who may be in direct threat of
safety to themselves or to others or you
know a variety of other concerns that
adults and community members and
students can share so those are other
options if students don't feel
comfortable telling an adult in the
building that we have a variety of ways
for people to share important
information
okay so that I think that's great um
I'll also
add that as a board
one of our probably our top priority
right now is social emotional Wellness
of our students
and we are in the process of
really doing a
I don't want to say revamping but
there's going to be some um
some new a lot I don't know how much I
can say yeah reimagining
of what that looks like and I think that
it includes having social workers or
psychologists on staff that you know
maybe be might be able to identify
high-risk students
um
and uh making sure that we're taking
care of our kids from a social emotional
standpoint as well and I don't know I'm
sure Sheila might have more on on that
as well
and I think Wayne um you mentioned the
idea of metal detectors at the high
school a few parents have actually
reached out and also brought that up but
at the same time we also have parents
who worry about speaking of mental
Wellness right the idea of having that
in a school
um in terms of social emotional
I think that's also something that we
need to consider
it sounds like why wouldn't we just put
metal detectors but I think there's a
larger impact that happens there as well
that we need to consider
thank you for your question great
questions
hi I'm Marisa Johnson I have students at
White Island and Glen Ridge and I
actually have three questions
in no particular order but first Dr
Patel I wanted to thank you for your the
email that you had sent out the night
after the incident at white out it was
clear and specific it was actionable it
took accountability it was
as a parent the first communication that
I'd received that
conveyed any sort of confidence and I'm
wondering what is the communication plan
when
an incident like this happens like what
do families expect
my second question is
um
will there be implementation of intruder
drills so that students know what
they're supposed to do no matter where
they are in the building
and then my final question is you had
said at the top that all of the students
and the faculty did exactly what they
were supposed to do during the Intruder
drill
alarm but my student did not report that
to me I've heard from other students and
families that that was not their
experience either and so can you explain
what follow-up there is with the staff
and also
what kind of continued training and
accountability that they have for
any future incidents that might arise
thank you you bet
um so yeah I'm glad you said that about
what I said that all the students and
staff did exactly what they were
supposed to
I have heard that not everyone did
um so one of the things that did come up
from this incident was specifically our
subs right in terms of the training that
we provide and so our HR department
action steps what we learn is every year
our subs that we hire go through a
specific training part of that is in the
Intruder drill training so what we've
done is our HR department is now going
to regroup all the subs have in-person
training again before the end of the
school year and also implement it the
following year in a more systematic way
and more frequent way in addition on
Friday we all the buildings had like
faculty meetings where we reviewed the
processes and the procedures if there is
an intruder drill what do you do Etc
another Gap that we found was in terms
of large spaces do we practice that
enough
and the answer to that is right now we
have not so that's something that we
want to already start to implement in
terms of it needs to be developmental as
well right just the trauma from going
through a drill like that can be hard at
the elementary level so what does that
look like could it look differently in
the classroom where you're sitting with
a teacher and you talk through hey if
you're outside on the playground or if
you're in the cafeteria these are the
things you do so it depends on the level
I think as well but those are action
steps we've already started to take and
like how do we continue to have these
drills that are effective and that they
help our students and staff
so the answer to your question is we've
done a few things already and then we're
going to continue to do it better for
the next school year your question in
terms of what was the other one oh
communication yes so when an incident
like this happens
typically I will be the first one to get
a call
I then send out a text or a phone call
to our central office team like hey this
is happening in this situation the
principle is usually the one that calls
me we're trying to manage everything
that's happening at the building level
at the same time trying to send out
communication as quickly as we can the
why down incident um I know Doug sent
out a phone call as well we tried to
send a text and an email as well it's
there's just a lot of different things
that are happening at that time but what
we try to do is get information out as
quickly as we can especially to the
parents and then after the fact try to
give you follow-up like this is what
happened this is what we did which is
more detailed one of the things that
we've also recognized is our staff and
even their families
because we had families even the staff
members saying we didn't know if they
were okay that's something we hadn't
considered so now we've put up like a
email like messenger chain that we're
gonna try and hopefully get even our
staff members emergency contact numbers
out some of the things we also found out
that not all the parents got the text or
not all of them got a phone call
um and that goes back to our system and
how we enter the emergency contact
number so is everything perfect no
absolutely not but we will try and get
there for sure
the only other thing that I would add is
I have a son at the middle school and
two children in the high school
um
the Intruder alarm system obviously was
not fully operational which is a huge
gap
um but what they did find when it was
improperly triggered is that it wasn't
audible in all parts of the middle
school and I think that's another reason
why in some parts of the Middle School
the training was followed to a T and in
other parts of the middle school if you
couldn't hear it or if you were in a
bathroom and you couldn't hear it there
was no awareness and anything was
happening until it was all over since
the clay Police Department showed up
within two minutes
so I would say that's that's another
reason for
um you know why there was a mixed
response to the uh to the alarm going
off
and so since then on Saturday right Jim
we have fully tested all of our
buildings and we made sure that
everything is working the way it should
be
yes we tested every building Saturday to
uh identify gaps
similar to what we found here if there
were any at all buildings and similarly
we noticed bathrooms aren't typical
places for speakers so that will allow
us to
figure out how we get the message in
there and also supplement our training
for those type of scenarios the positive
is we didn't find anything unexpected
based on what happened here at y down so
you know while there are uniform gaps
there was nothing unexpected and all
things that we can work to fix
yeah good evening everybody I'm Doug
weiner acting principal of wideout and I
appreciate this comment because I wanted
to make sure one of the things I got so
much feedback within that 72 hours
number one thank you so much because
what it did is it helped us see the
whole picture of everything because to
Kim's point one thing I want to make
sure everybody knows is the the picture
of what that day looked like so like
when it happened and I'm forgetting the
exact time sequence sixth grade lunch
was going on so we had about 206th
graders in the cafeteria in Main Street
so at that time the administrators and
counselors were in there with the kids
right so it's very loud because it's
Main Street so at the time everybody
tells their own experience right in this
so I was
in the cafeteria and all of a sudden we
heard this this sound and we were like
it didn't sound familiar but we didn't
know what it said either so it came once
and I was kind of like this and then it
came twice and then the kids thought I'd
say hey Dr Wayne what was what was that
and it almost sounded like a um like a
tornado drill you know like if somebody
if a tornado happens and somebody says
you know please take cover please but we
couldn't hear it
so it happened twice and so at that
point we said okay sixth grade sixth
grade was great we got quiet real fast
because we were like let's get quiet so
we can hear what it said what happened
though the rest of the building
depending upon where they were heard it
in its entirety right so it basically
said that there was Intruder in the
building
and that it was not uh it was not a
drill okay so you had half the building
who started to act so we had a lot of
our teachers who decided at that moment
to whether or not to to Bunker down
right and shut the door and block the
door and keep the kids away or to leave
so we did have a couple teachers who
opted to take their kids and actually
left the building
but it did depend upon where you were in
the building so um I would say from that
from the outside point of view it would
look chaotic and people's experience was
very different and um just to let
everybody know sort of the sequence that
that I experienced was so we were in the
the um we were in Main Street
the we couldn't figure out what it was
we quickly had walkie-talkies so I
walkie-talkie the other admin officer
Boger and I we're immediately like is
somebody testing the um the speaker
system because that was our first
instinct because we hadn't heard it it
was a weird sound
and so we're waiting kids are dead quiet
at that time we started to we started
moving the doors you could hear the
doors upstairs close right so you could
hear because automatically when the when
like Dr Patel said it when that is
working properly keep in mind at this
point it wasn't but they were getting
there those doors shut so we heard the
door shut at that part I started to move
down we did get confirmation that there
was someone working in the building so a
company called Tech Electronics was
working
so at that point
I had started to walk towards the the
main office
to let the staff know right but keep in
mind this at this point we still didn't
know what was said so we're walking
towards walking towards the the front
door but then by then I had caught we
had caught wind from the office staff
that other people had heard other things
so at that moment that I was walking to
give staff Comfort to say everyone's
safe there's someone here that was the
the police were already there they were
so quick and they were entering the
building at the time so I just wanted to
tell everybody that because the sequence
all of this happened in about two
minutes so there was a lot of quick
decision making that was done what we
did immediately after it happened was we
we circled back with staff immediately
that afternoon and then we found out
what the staff needed to feel safe what
they felt the kids needed to feel safe
and then what immediate steps we needed
to take and then the next day we when we
came back we circled the kids up first
thing in the morning and what we did at
that point was make sure checked in with
each kid individually we had the
counselors from all the different
schools in Clayton over their to help as
well to identify children who were in a
place that they weren't comfortable but
they also the teachers went through with
the kids and sort of got a holistic
picture of what happened so by the time
I think it was on a Wednesday that it
happened by the end of the day Thursday
we had a really good picture and we
still have all this data that the kids
had compiled and the kids were wonderful
you know how kids are they're so great
so they basically said to this point
here what are we going to do about the
hallways what if we're in the hallway
when it happens what if we're in the
lunchroom what if we're in the bathroom
right so the kids told us all the places
in the building by which we need to
think collectively as a staff and this
is this is what we've done
where that we need to do it kids are now
mentioning you know we're in discussion
about how we're going to roll out
exactly where every kid goes we've been
asking the kids what they think about
next steps some kids have suggested that
we take this is just an example they
said hey Dr Wayne take a whole day and
then during the day just take five
minutes of each class and say if the
alarm were to go off during this class
this is what we would do okay so kids
are giving us different ideas about how
to how to rethink this in terms of the
general areas like the cafeteria the the
the adults we already know now one of
the benefits of this was really to think
about the main areas which we have now
done
um the one big Epiphany that we had was
this note this notion of the door
shutting right by the by the thing it
limits the flow of children not just in
the main areas but also in the in the
floor areas as well so um you know you
hate to say that there's such a thing as
a silver lining and something that was
as traumatic as this
that being said did allow us the
opportunity to take a look at all the
different scenarios and so we do have a
pretty good data set that we're working
off of and um yeah so I but I did want
everybody to know sort of what it looked
like on the ground and I also wanted to
thank all the parents one who got in
touch with me right away and told me
exactly what their childhood reported
that help us that helped us recreate
everything correctly and also all of the
notes of support that you all sent to
staff staff really struggled and still
is struggling in many ways as our our
parents because as you well know this is
like everyone's I mean this is kind of
everyone's worst nightmare right some of
you got texts from your children that
you never imagined you would ever get
right and teachers were put in positions
where that for two minutes they really
did believe that there was something
going on in school so um I just want to
say give yourself Grace in the healing
process and I just want to thank you all
to those parents too that reached out to
either me or to the teachers and were so
kind to say thank you we know how hard
it was and I just want you to know that
on behalf of the white on staff we too
know parents how hard it has been on you
as well
thank you
good evening so
um I want to start off I know that a lot
of us have said thank you but I have no
idea my husband and I have been
discussing if there were shots right now
we would run and so without
um ignoring in any way what we know are
systemic issues and the problems that we
sometimes have in our nation I want to
thank the officers that ran in
uh on behalf of my kids right
so thank you for that
um that said and it's so good that we're
taking all this time to really look
through the lens of everything that
happened and learn from it but I do have
a question as to my understanding is
there was a a false alarm a very similar
situation at the high school the week
before with a vendor who was testing
um the situation and I I do wish that
that we had learned from that experience
and avoided my kids being in the
lunchroom when when officers arrive with
with weapons drawn right so if the board
could speak to that and the second thing
is um I've thought this for some time
and researched it there are um and
perhaps the officers could speak to this
and chief there are people who
might be concerned about teaching
children to sit still when and behind a
desk or that's not going to stop any
kind of AK-47 bullet or any other type
of caliber
except for like maybe a teeny tiny right
and
um so there are training companies that
are actually training students and
teachers to fight back
and I just want to say that if my kid
were in that situation I would rather
them not be sitting behind a like
plywood desk or something that's not
going to stop anything and if they could
be taught to actually effectively or the
teachers the adults and I know this is a
huge topic
um
so that's the the first thing is why
didn't we learn from The False Alarm the
previous week the second thing what
about like actually training our kids if
this is the reality that we are living
with in this country and the third thing
is about the gun detectors my
understanding is Stoneman Douglas Sandy
Hook all of them had secure
um security measures at the front door
and what we know is that resources are
better spent on the social emotional so
that's like prevent prevent the need
that any child might have
um so as a parent I would vote for more
Liz Tuckers is she here tonight was can
we can we have like 17
Liz Tucker is please
um and less gun detectors thanks so much
thank you Jim do you want to talk about
the incident that happened at the high
school because there's misinformation
from that it wasn't actually a company
that triggered that
yeah sure
um so the incident the high school was a
student
by some means you know touch the button
and depressed it and the action from
that was for the doors to close
uh no message no anything because you
know the system
was further from operational than when
we were here
um
the officers Officer Whitaker knowing
what he knew about the system recognized
that okay this is what happened allowed
us to then go to our notification panel
for the fire system see what happened
review footage we did determine that it
was a student that pressed it and you
know that was the situation we reset it
um very different from here where it was
you know a mishap and uploading the
message
so we weren't even working on the system
at the high school
but the connection to that was that what
happened at the high school is what
triggered us to then go and immediately
check all the systems and all the rest
of the buildings and in doing that in a
way to get it done quickly we did it
during the school day which we should
not have tested it so that that's the
connection there for sure
um your second question what was that
oh
um do you want to take that walk
first of all thanks for acknowledging
our officers quick response um you know
that validated our training last year
when we did the training at Clayton High
School last summer our objective was to
reinforce into our officers heads that
you need to go in there right away we
need a rapid response whether that's a
solo response an officer by themselves
or a team of response and that was all
based off of what happened in Uvaldi
taxes when you had those officers wait
in the hallway and they didn't respond
they waited for an hour and 15 minutes
there were some reasons for that I think
it was just poor leadership they were
stopped from going in there but we
wanted to make sure our officers knew
the expectation was to go in there so we
we trained for that last summer and so
we were glad to hear their officers
responded in a quick manner because we
you know we have a multi-layer approach
and you know the first the first layer
is a quick response for our officers to
end a threat the second layer is working
with the school to train the staff on
how to respond to these incidents and
the school district and in fact there
was a state statute passed in 2013 I
think went into effect 2014 correct
uh where schools are mandated to train
their staff on how to respond to this so
uh We've partnered with the Clayton
School District since 2014 on providing
that training in fact our officers in
fact I was one of the first ones to go
through the tier one tactical uh
instructor course so we could train the
officers SRO Bulger has been through
there as well as officer Whitaker and
several other response officers so we
provide that training to the staff and
part of that training is to and you may
have seen the video from Homeland
Security called run height fight it's
essentially the same thing in in with
tier one tactical they're teaching our
officer our staff to First evade hide if
they can and that that includes
barricading the doors and we know that
we had uh teachers do that during this
this false alarm a couple weeks ago
um another good option is to escape to
run if you can if the if it's clear you
can run and we had we had classes do
that they they went to the rally points
like they were supposed to
um and of course there is the option to
fight back that's the last option but
that may be your only option if the
threat's already in the classroom and so
part of that is is for the teacher to
have a response in ahead of time
um figure out how they're going to
Corral those students and uh where to
put them when they're when they're
barricading the room how to get them out
of the out of the classroom so you want
to have this uh your options already
pre-planned because if you don't you're
going to freeze in place and probably do
nothing and that's how people get hurt
so that that training is taking place
and we've been doing it every year since
2014 we'll continue to do it and uh
actually I was talking to our training
coordinator uh today we're planning on
doing training for our officers here at
White on Middle School in the summertime
so we're going to respond that we're
gonna have this similar type training as
we did last year at Clayton High School
but we're going to
um make it more Dynamic we're going to
have the Clayton fire department
involved and and part of it is not just
ending the threat we talk about
stopping the killing we also want to
stop the dying so when you have people
who are wounded we want to be able to
provide medical Aid to them our officers
are trained to do that we got we just
completed some training in that but
we're going to do it in a dynamic
situation in a real life scenario with
the fire department uh this summer
go ahead so um I just wanted to follow
up on
um one of your your questions which um
and a couple points there one thing the
question that you had about the incident
at the high school
um and then why we didn't learn from
that or what the connection was I just
want you to know that those are
questions that we have asked as well and
that we have been really digging into
with the staff and the administration so
um it's a it's something that we
appreciate your focus on that and that
that's something that we are really
paying attention to when we want to
learn more about on on that note I do
have a question about what Jim said
because and I do think there's some
misunderstanding or maybe different
um different accounts of that because
there not being any announcement
anywhere in the high school do we have
is is that confirmed because that that
is not consistent with some of the
stories that we have heard when when the
I'm talking about when the button was
pushed inadvertently or by a student
um the the auditory part of that yeah so
at the high school when the button was
pushed the actual recording of there is
an intruder in the building please
follow procedures was not the recording
that played it was a backup that they
had about your call is important to us
please stay on the line your call is
important to us please stay on the line
so in some places that was heard in the
high school it may not have been
everywhere okay thank you
hi I'm Jenna Schomburg I was at the high
school's PTO meeting last night or two
nights ago and I just wanted to share
some of the things that the parents
shared there for context personally we
have a second grader at Captain a sixth
and eighth grader at y down and a 10th
grader at the high school
something that someone shared at that
meeting that they wanted to make sure
was put before you was asking about what
measures are taken or will continue to
be taken to ensure confidentiality of a
student who sees something and says
something wanting to protect those
relationships and not have that be a
concern of a student who's worried the
second is that we would have liked to
see a district-wide discussion about
this with the students particularly
since so many of us have students who
are in different buildings the other
incidents that happened with the fake
guns at the high school thankfully I
thought to mention that to my second
grade her so that she had the context
that it was fake you know you hear
things on the playground you hear things
from older siblings and there are a
variety of reasons why that story
wouldn't be an intact Story by the time
a young kid who maybe doesn't have a
framework so I would like to see in the
future if there are these incidences
understanding of course that I'm not
trying to traumatize it in elementary
school that doesn't need to know but we
are a smaller district and we are a kind
of a mesh District so I do think it's
important for them to hear the right
story from the right sources so just to
think of a way to contextualize that so
they know for real what happened and
whether they should be worried about an
older sibling or a younger sibling and
then the last thing is if somebody could
speak about the restorative nature for
students who do the wrong thing I think
of course I do not mean to imply that we
should go lightly on that I think it's
the right approach to treat a fake
weapon as a real weapon not only in the
response but also in the follow-up
however I do not want for any student to
be worried about making the wrong call
and to see something happen to appear
that feels non-restorative so I think
the language we use when we're trying to
protect our kids from sexual predators
could maybe be a good
starting point which is that if
something happens to you we want to help
that person we want to get that person
help and we understand as adults what
that looks like if a crime is committed
however I do think that really over
communicating the restorative nature of
a response so that a child isn't trying
to figure out I know that person I know
they wouldn't do anything but I still
see this am I going to be who ruins
their life you know and that's a heavy
decision to make it's heavy as adults
and I imagine it would be heavier as a
teenager so if you could just talk about
sort of the framework that we could use
to discuss the measures that are taken
if someone is held responsible for
something they've done
thank you um
so in terms of the measures with
confidentiality that is something we
take very seriously even if it's a minor
infraction that happens at the high
school middle school elementary school
we only share information
um that impacts that family and that
student and I know a lot of times
parents do get frustrated that we do
that but I think that's the obviously
the thing that we have to do so I want
to assure you that confidentiality is
always at the front of every decision we
make and I appreciate your comment about
the district-wide communication you're
right even in this situation there's
different versions of what happened and
that's something that we always when
we're about to hit send on an email
communication that impacted one building
we always considered is this something
that needs to go to the entire district
is it not but I do understand from your
perspective in situations like that I
think we can get better absolutely and
maybe now that I look back with the high
school gun incident we probably could
have sent that to all the parents and
even if it's just an FYI for the parents
and the staff as well so I do appreciate
that comment
um Robin or Sheila you want to take the
restorative one
I think with any disciplinary incident
we have to individually evaluate this
situation because every student's
experience is unique the relationships
they have with the adults who are most
directly responsible for supporting
their success as well as the peers that
are involved
um so it's there's not really a cookie
cutter approach because we you know part
of the restorative practices is one
there has to be relationships previously
in place to be restored and also
thinking about what are the leadership
moves in student moves that will
actually restore the harm that has been
committed and so
um I think that yeah every situation has
to be treated a little bit differently
thinking about what are the unique needs
of that student and then also what is
the nature of the relationships uh to
the people most directly around them and
who uh relationship to the people who
were most directly impacted by their
decision and that can look like a
variety of things from Individual
conversations to adult support to to you
know we've explored a lot of different
things and so I think the most important
thing to think about is just what did
the ripple effect look like for that
particular student
and if there's anything else oh
um and I'm Sheila I'm the social worker
so I think something I would probably
add is
sometimes when there is a disciplinary
action where the student Robin was just
talking about the plans that get put in
place sometimes I'm a part of the plan
so I might be a part of that adult
support I might be a part of providing
some individual counseling to the
student my orientation to working with
students tends to be to try to get at
the root cause behind the behavior
what's the reason that this is happening
so even if the child did something that
they weren't supposed to do where's this
coming from and so I find that trying to
do that with students allows us to get
into the prevention part of our work
what can we do to create an opportunity
for this not to happen again what can we
do to keep the students safe what can we
do to make sure they understand the harm
that was caused but to also make sure
that they know that they are a part of
the school community that they're not
going to be cast out and that we still
want to make sure you're gonna you know
that you're going to be okay and you're
going to come through this just fine so
I see it as an opportunity to teach a
lesson and to make sure students can
make better choices going forward
can I just clarify I don't I'm not
positive if your last question was
answered and maybe you could speak maybe
it was but I think one of the things
that she was saying is that if we can
have our students know that even if they
report somebody else having a bad
behavior that is they they know they're
going to have some disciplinary action
because of this Behavior how can we make
sure that these students still feel
comfortable doing that you know and that
she was I think you were mentioning
making sure that those two that students
know that there will be restorative
actions that happen for that student
that their life won't end you know you
know everything will change because
they've spoken up I think that's
something that wasn't addressed that
maybe we could I can't speak to that but
maybe someone else could
thank you for that one one thought that
I can just put out there is
I think that one move that could
potentially be made is making sure
students understand what would happen as
a result of something like that so that
you just kind of walk students all the
way through from the incident to the
intervention that was provided uh
because at the end of the day the
restorative work is around embracing
everybody you know you have an
opportunity to repair harm how are you
going to repair the harm that was caused
making sure you understand how other
people were impacted by the harm that
you caused but that there's also room
for Grace there's also room for uh for
growth for you to make a different
choice in the future so I think some of
it could be around providing education
to students around what discipline could
look like in in the school when
something does happen here's what that
looks like
I don't want to speak again but I would
be interested in knowing what the
discipline process is like as a parent
hi um so I'm at the high school and so I
we talked a little bit about the thing
with the lockdown alarm going off and so
like we said it didn't go to the
Intruder alarm thing it went to a hold
thing and so me and my friends in my
French class thought it was a senior
prank and we didn't even know that this
had anything to do with the lockdown
alarms until like after the event had
already happened and I can't help but
Wonder like at least as a student I'm
sure others are feeling this way that
like
why didn't we know that like our
security system wasn't fully functioning
and so my questions are um how are we
going to make sure students are informed
about what's going on with safety in
their schools and how do we make sure
that they feel like they're not being
left out of the loop
I think that the question of why didn't
we know they were fully operational is
where we should have known
but you know we should have known we
should have tested
and so that's why that recording that
you heard was on it wasn't fully
operational and we didn't realize that
it was partially operational so that was
a misstep on our end and that's
something that we need to stay on top of
in Terms of student voice and getting
them to understand when things happen I
know Carter is here as well and always
has ideas on how we can continue to be
better in involving our students when
situations like this happen as we did in
wind down and really getting their voice
in this um in terms of the impact it had
on them as well as here's things that
you could do better from a student
perspective and really amplifying the
student voice partner did you have any
other other thoughts on that yeah I
would definitely Echo that it's super
important coming out of all of these
situations that we always focus on you
know how were students impacted what do
they think needs to be done moving
forward because really we're we're all
just here to make sure that they have a
safe place where they're comfortable
learning so I think moving forward as
always it's really important to bring
students into the loop
well I'll just just add
um that in response to your question
that is something we are all taking
responsibility for getting to the
answers as to why uh the situation was
the way it was and
how we can improve it this is not
something that we're putting on any one
person I think we all are taking this
very seriously and
um
we're going to get answers to this and
we're going to have improvements I think
we all would say that so
I just want to reassure every one of
that
yeah I mean the only other thing I would
add is as Gary said the board has been
asking the administration these
questions for the last couple weeks and
asking for accountability measures to be
taken and that's really all that we
could say about that
um and what I'm hearing loud and clear
and I totally agree with as a parent
with kids in multiple schools uh School
levels is that there needs to be
district-wide communication about this
so that you know there's not students or
families or anybody really trying to
fill in the blanks of
um because they don't have the details
because the communication only went to
the middle school and the first
communication was inadequate second
communication is better the third
communication is even better than that
some of that's just the way that these
incidents play out is you learn more
information which is explainable but I
mean what I'm hearing is that you know
we we have to have better district-wide
communication
hey I'm Jason
excuse me the uh I couldn't speak as
well as Wayne but the um
I had this played out all in my head
before I came here how this meeting was
going to go and I was angry and like
ready to scream and stuff I couldn't
have been more wrong I've been so
pleased with the way you guys have
answered the questions and all the
questions from the audience so thank you
I appreciate your service and the uh I
was you talked about additional sros
it's my understanding there's only
one between the Middle School and the
high school will there be sros at each
of the schools moving forward including
the elementary schools so that's
something that we had a conversation
with our chief about so at this point we
have two full-time sros so one at the
high school who also goes to the family
center in Merrimack and then we have one
at wydown who also goes to the
elementary school so at this point we
are going to move forward with an
additional one so that would be three
total and our conversation has been can
we get more
um and that's something that the board
obviously would be a board level
conversation as well in the investment
of that
I don't know if you wanted to add
anything sure
um so we are planning to add a third uh
SRO as well that would handle the
elementary schools
um and as you noted there's three
elementary schools the um we are looking
though if we're going to add
additionally in the future maybe do it
in a um just timing out better because
uh right now you may be familiar see on
the news there's a there's a nationwide
labor origin policing right now we're
very fortunate that we're only down two
officers in Clayton many other
departments are down 10 20 percent
um in fact we're down two officers we
have two officers we're actually doing
background investigations on two
candidates right now and they should be
uh sworn in in the next month and
that'll be get us fully staffed but it
most police departments around the
country as soon as you get fully staffed
you're losing officers so it'd be
difficult to provide additional sros
without decimating the experience on our
on our streets and for the community so
uh but it's something that we're gonna
uh definitely look into and hopefully is
the labor condition get better is
something we could we could provide in
the future
it might help to explain
um just to make sure everyone knows like
how
what sros are like how they're staffed
like who who pays for it like how this
it's a sort of a
bit of a joint situation sure so the
school district uh pays for 75 of the
sro's salary and benefits the city of
Clayton pays for 25 percent
and um so we the the selection process
typically we like to have an experienced
officer who can relate well with uh
parents students and the staff but
somebody who's capable of providing
safety either we have two of the best
sros we've ever had in officer Bogue or
an officer Whitaker they do a great job
of building trust and that's an
important thing we talked about you know
there was a question about
confidentiality our sros are also here
building relationships and they're
available and provide information I know
they've intervened quite a few times
with students just giving confidential
information they're able to act on it
and uh prevent prevent things from
happening so um yeah it's a very
important uh role for our for our
department and in the selection process
we look for people just like officer
Boger or officer Whitaker and we would
interview them then we would actually
send them over to the school district
and let them meet them as well and get
the approval from the school district
oh and I'll just add on to that that far
from the board's perspective this board
as it exists today we certainly support
the addition of any and all SRO officers
yeah and I just also want to Echo that I
agree uh captain that the current SOS
that you have assigned newer schools are
fantastic and they're not only there
during the school day I've seen sros and
not dressed in uniform that go to away
games for the high school basketball
teams when they're you know concerned
that there could be potentially in the
in the you know very uh minor potential
but something could happen so that they
can escort our teams back out you know
to the bus or to their cars I mean they
they go above and beyond just the normal
school day so you guys are great they
also attend very late board meetings
they do yes they do
I also want to add our on patrol one of
our priorities is to have our officers
uh visible around the elementary schools
especially during the the drop-off
morning hours and the pickup in the
afternoon you'll see our officers either
driving around near the stop signs we
get a lot of complaints and the stop
signs on Davis Drive near near Merrimack
school so you might see them watching
those stop signs as we have students
walking to school but they're also out
doing foot patrols and we track that and
that's a an expectation for officers to
be out there to be visible during those
times you might see them so that's one
additional thing we've been doing
I also want to add that officer Whitaker
and officer Boger are incredible
Partners in our daily work it's not just
about emergencies but so much of it is
about prevention and they are great
Partners
um even on the SEL side last summer they
joined us for Behavioral risk assessment
training which is an important component
of school safety same thing with it goes
alongside with suicide risk assessment
but they joined us for that training as
well and so they can be another teammate
with a different vantage point on the
different ways our students are
experiencing the teaching and learning
environment so I just want to thank both
of them for all of the ways they've
supported me and the way we've been able
to have a very productive and
Cooperative relationship and I've worked
in a lot of other school districts not
just in Missouri but outside of Missouri
and the relationship we have here with
the Clayton police department is truly
remarkable
thank you for being here it shows that
you take this seriously thank you
and and I'm sorry if I miss about this
learning but
we do know that the Wi-Fi coverage here
in ydon is really poor
I was hoping here that day and my phone
went to SOS 0 signal and some others
said the same
I don't know about technology
but what is the plan to solve it
great question because that came up a
lot from our um our staff and and our
students and our families in terms of
just the cell service in the building
and really it maybe even I know even
Captain has some of the similar issues
and it depends where you are in the
building so what we have already done is
Jeff Pauls who's oversees all the
technology and John Brazil our CFO have
already tried to figure out what is the
right Next Step and really the next step
is to get like a basically a company to
come in and they're already working in
conversation with that to really test
out where it is where the pockets are
and then they would then come in and
adjust what is needed to be adjusted
obviously it can't be done overnight
because it's such a intricate process
but we've already started to work on
that to test out all the systems and
areas in the space Jeff did I miss
anything
okay good
thank you
please come back and substitute for
short and substitute teachers
hi I'm Shannon Carroll I have two kids
at y down one of which is in sixth grade
and
got told to sit tight in the cafeteria
watch the they thought it was the SWAT
team after it was all over thought it
was pretty cool but a little scary at
the time
um I have two questions so can you put
some in probably not today but deadlines
around when there will be solutions for
Open Spaces cafeterias transition times
things like that at all the schools and
deadlines around
when you'll know when these systems are
fully operational
and then kind of part two was can you
help can you help me understand why or
help us understand why the
administration at wydown didn't know
Tech Electronics was working on the
system
because if if you don't know they're in
there who else is in the building
thank you
you're welcome
um so a couple of questions so your
deadlines yes we will try and get that
done as soon as we can part of that is
the work that we're doing with Tier 1
tacticals that we are going to be
partnering with and want to make sure
that they are looking at our processes
and our procedures and making sure that
from their lens it's the right way to do
it and the right timeline and I know
we'll also rely with amazing thank you
so much for being here tonight but with
our Clayton police department and get
their thoughts as well and then we our
hope is to at least do some sort of talk
through review of this situation we may
not obviously with Y down and that idea
that it just happened and the trauma
that's still there and we may not do
like a full simulated drill but we could
at least start talking through it with
all the buildings with some of the
students
um and then in terms of just the admin
and yeah Jim if you want to go ahead and
because that's that's a failure point on
our end about not knowing that someone
was here I guess the original statement
was unclear Tech Electronics was asked
ordered into the building the front
office staff wasn't aware that they were
working because
we did not check in at the office they
may have come through the front but we
bring contractors in a lot of times
during the day as facility staff and
escort them so they're never alone uh
yo my people took them downstairs in the
basement uh that's one of the things
that we have since reviewed is
regardless of what you're there doing
we need to let the office know uh
whomever may be in there so that they
can spread the word that someone is in
the building because as Doug's first
instinct was correct
is there somebody working on something
if they know a contractor is in the
building
that's where your mind goes and you
check that out and you're able to
eliminate very quickly the possibility
of something else so you know moving
forward the protocol has changed anytime
even an escorted person is in the
building they will go through the front
office and check in there so uh we avoid
these incidents in the future
yeah so
that particular Tech Electronics wide on
was the last of our buildings so we had
been through every other building and
they get a sticker If it's a contractor
they typically come to the facilities
office and they will check in there so
they have a sticker that says you're
okay to be here then they're also with
one of our staff
and so since then we have reiterated the
fact that our one point of entry is the
front entrance if you're a district
employee you can use the site entrance
but you still if you're traveling for
example now let's make it a habit you go
to the front office and say hey I'm here
when you leave hey I'm going away if
you're a non-district employee you have
to come through the front and so the
conversation even happened you know well
what about when we have some class
parties at the elementary level or any
kind of events will be coming through
the front
and we'll have the badge and so
sometimes you know it's inconvenient but
it's the right thing to do
yeah
um Shannon so I just wanted to thank you
for that question was also as a board
one of our first questions and most
important questions and I just want to
reassure you that in addition to moving
forward what the plan is only using the
front door that there that there has
been disciplinary action taken so it's
not something that the district is just
saying okay from now on we're using the
front door but it was taken very
seriously and action was taken in
response to that that was something on
all of our minds as well so yeah I think
I I think it's important that everybody
here knows and and should spread the
word that the board recognizes as does
Nisha that this is a totally preventable
incident and and that's really you know
horrible in hindsight right after you we
talk about all the trauma the kids and
the teachers and the families and and
everybody else has gone through I think
we recognized that it was totally
preventable
so let's make sure it doesn't ever
happen again
hi my name is Angela flockin I have kids
at three schools Merrimack lie down in
the high school and I have to say that
while what happened at the middle school
was traumatic and awful I am glad it
happened because it had it been a real
incident the consequences would have
been far far worse
I have heard some amazing things tonight
and I'm so grateful for all of you but
it hasn't been clear to me what the
actual timeline is for students staff
every administrators everyone in our
building to know what to do should that
same
God forbid scenario happen tomorrow and
to me it's unacceptable that there are
students and staff in our buildings that
don't know what to do the Safety and
Security of our our people is more
important than anything that goes on in
our schools and it's something that in
my opinion needs to be addressed
immediately so I really want to be clear
on what the timeline is the mass
shooting has happened I believe the
stats like every single day more days
than we've had in our year and who's to
say it's not going to walk through our
door tomorrow
um
unfortunately I have very detailed
accounts of what happened in Nashville
because some of my dear friends
but well we I know people impacted and I
know that so many lives were saved
because of the training that was done in
those schools and if you watch those
cameras of those police officers coming
through you couldn't see a student you
couldn't see a staff member it was
unbelievable and I just want to make
sure that that same training is given to
to our people
can you please be more specific yes
thank you so we have done and I
apologize if I wasn't clear we have done
every building has done two Intruder
drill trainings this school year and we
schedule that out and they act and why
down actually had it the week before
so they actually had the drill what we
haven't done and done a good enough job
is an actual scenario like hallways
large spaces in the cafeteria what
happens so our goal is by the end of the
year so in the next four weeks at least
have a talk through type of scenario
obviously we wouldn't want to put the
kids through it at y down specifically
through that again it's too close it's
too near but at least have a
conversation about if you're here this
is what you do so all of our staff has
been trained twice a year at least this
Friday we went we reviewed the processes
again and then starting next school year
we'll continue the same thing at least
twice a year but adding in the whole
idea from the student's perspective of
if you're in art class what do you do if
you're in this theater what do you do
all the different scenarios so we'll
have that plan solidified over the
summer to implement next year but to get
us through the next four weeks it will
be more of a this is what you do if this
happens type of scenarios and so I do
want I apologize if I wasn't too clear
on that one I didn't know if were you
going to say so
I would like to think that if this was a
real event the staff would react the way
they were trained I think there's a lot
of confusion around the fact that this
this alarm uh they weren't ready to hear
this alarm and they didn't know what was
going on but the from what I understand
you know I was part of the training for
several years and I know the sros do it
now uh we train the staff on how to run
height fight essentially and some of the
staff did that because they they didn't
know it was a false alarm so I'd like to
think if this if the circumstances were
different they would react in the proper
way
uh my name is Emily balestra and I have
a student at both the middle school and
the high school
um my question I guess relates more to
high school
um I I'm a clinical mental health
therapist and So speaking to the
restorative piece
um with the incident that happened or
incidents that happened at the high
school with the guns
um I am certainly all for pretty strict
disciplinary policies and I know that's
all on an individual basis understood
um my son came home and we both sort of
said okay so you know most of these
incidents come out of retaliation
So speaking to the restorative piece on
the
with respect to the perpetrator
um is that being followed and how do we
deal with any kind of aftermath
resulting from disciplinary action with
that
I just had a clarifying question were
you referring to the students who report
or the students who make choices that
lead to the disciplinary the choices
okay
um so I will do my best to answer the
question I just really want to be
thoughtful about the obligations around
privacy and because these situations
were so high profile and involve such a
small number of students I'm going to
have to purposely speak in very general
terms so I just want everyone to
understand why I am talking in that way
um you know bringing a weapon onto
campus or even a replica weapon is
considered a level three misconduct and
it would be
um eligible for anywhere between
suspension of one to up to 180 days and
similar to what I said earlier in
general terms we were going to look at
the relationships that that student had
to the people who were most directly
impacted that's going to include
students who may have been witnesses to
said situation
um and if there's something that could
can be possibly restored there I think
the other piece is thinking about the
adults who are impacted particularly the
adults who have to do the investigation
and who have to engage with a student
first because they don't know what
they're walking into and just like you
know our law enforcement and our
teachers and our administrators
um you know it those are really
complex and difficult situations to be
walking into and we do our best to be
student centered and to then to figure
out based on those relationships and
having to go through the investigation
and go through the interviews of what
are the opportunities for the individual
conversations between a student and
those adults and those students
um what can happen some happen
organically and then some need to be
facilitated at a later time because
people need time to heal need time to
process and so again I it's very
difficult to approach each one with kind
of a blanket
um and
um the decisions that go into what the
next steps look like are very very
difficult and we do our best to maintain
Dignity of everyone who's involved
clarify I guess what part of what I'm
asking
from a mental health standpoint and for
the safety of the of the
students at the school because the
concern would be that
as a result of disciplinary action the
student would then see Revenge which is
what often is the case
in these scenarios where somebody does
bring
a
someone or something that has happened
so my question is is there follow
through on that end to make sure
you know somehow not to that you can
make sure of anything but to try and
reassure or
do some
therapy work related to the preventing a
student coming back and seeking Revenge
yes we have employed other adult support
measures some of it Sheila spoke to
where we have scheduled time or if the
family needs assistance in getting an
outside referral doing that we also
would employ a behavioral risk
assessment if we felt like in the
investigation it revealed additional
information that we didn't know in the
initial piece to follow through with
that as well
um
I am very grateful that we have been
able to build our capacity in that area
as a way to better understand the
function of certain students behaviors
and how can we support their family and
how can we work with law enforcement to
ensure the home is safe the kids are
safe and that we have a good plan to put
in place for that student in terms of
their own safety at school
in additional add-on we also do like
when the student does return if they
return we do intake meetings and we do a
thorough make sure the counselors their
administrators there and also follow up
with that as well
I was gonna I was just gonna add to that
I think another opportunity that we may
have and I mentioned it just because I
want to be transparent and say that is
that this isn't something that I have
done yet but it's something that I've
been thinking about when we had the
incidents at the high school
um getting the names of the students who
were the ones who brought the weapons
and looking at what other data we might
have that helps us understand where that
child is socially and emotionally so for
example uh the Panorama survey has been
mentioned are there some connections
between the behavior that we're seeing
the child exhibit and what their ratings
are on Panorama if that makes sense
because I think that helps us build a
profile that may better help us
understand the child and what their
needs may be so I think uh along with
the other pieces the risk assessment in
any sort of uh therapy that may be done
with the child to kind of probe and
understand better I think
that we could utilize Panorama to help
us better understand the child and
sometimes there is observational data
sometimes we might have a student where
one of the English language arts
teachers has reported or maybe a social
studies teacher that through a writing
assignment there's some concerning
things that have been written and so
when all those pieces get put together
it may let us know that a student is in
need of some additional intervention and
so I think I think there's more work
that we are doing around that but I
think we're still trying to build
capacity in that area
uh hello my name is Charlie I am a
sophomore at Clayton High School and I
have two questions I have um they're
both regarding just logistical
information on these kinds of instances
um my first more general question is I
mean just to consider you know the
political climate in which I think we
all know we live in in our state is
there have been discussions regarding
you know teachers carrying weapons in
school learning how to being trained to
carry a weapon in an instance to fight
back or maybe keeping us safe in their
classroom to keep a firearm or a weapon
and I can speak on behalf of myself that
I do not support that kind of you know
intervention of using that kind of
Weaponry in an instance to fight back I
can infer that the district probably
doesn't support things like that and so
just looking at the kind so my first
question is you know looking at the ways
that staff and teachers specifically are
trained in these kinds of situations in
which a student may have a weapon or a
firearm I'm just curious as to what goes
into that my dad's a teacher in the
district I know that he goes through
medical training to know like you know
if a kid has an allergy reaction how to
use an EpiPen you know things like that
and so I'm curious as to what the
training looks like for teachers
specifically and then my more specific
logistical question my second question
we were talking earlier more about the
doors that you know automatically lock
and when you press a button they trigger
and I'm just curious as to all of your
consideration to the logistics behind
that considering that there are you know
unfortunately in a hypothetical
situation that could be very real that
there could be students that are trapped
in the building with the Intruder or
with the person that carries that weapon
and so I'm curious as to your thought
processes behind that so yeah thank you
foreign
I'll have you talked about the locks
area but I can start with the um the
training that goes with for the staff so
the staff undergoes the same level of
training in terms of what the students
have so it's the 4E training that our
chief talked a little bit about as well
so the 4E standing one is educate you
know know the drills know the processes
know how to do things when certain
situations occur the second would be
Escape if you can third would be evade
and then fourth one would be to engage
in it so those are it's called options
Based training and that's what we use in
terms of staff and students as well so
that's the drills that we do twice a
year and we're going to continue to do
more but in different scenarios
throughout the day
and then as far as the locks closing
yeah so uh
one of the things that tier one tactical
recommended and you know I think our our
sros and the police department supported
is
to put as many barriers as we can
between a potential Intruder and our
students so uh the doors that operate in
that manner are stairwells the Main
Street doors here so it's to segment off
large areas of the building and try to
isolate that individual from as many
people as possible so once you get into
the stairwell you're stuck in the
stairwell and the only way is to go out
of the building so it creates barriers
confusion and buys everybody in in the
building time and that was the The
Genesis of what we did based on their
recommendation
can I ask a follow-up question so do the
doors in the bathrooms lock is there a
way to lock those doors oh so presently
it's anything that is a fire door so
stairwells you know uh your main
corridors through the building because
that's the most protected area of the
building in any type of situation
um so they have magnets like if you look
when you go through the building you'll
see a magnet on the wall and in any type
of incident those magnets release and it
shuts the door
um so it's just those doors and they're
propped open they don't physically lock
they're propped open in the locked
position so if they close there's no
additional action there's no electronics
that can malfunction it's just the doors
locked open all the time and they're
allowed to close if something goes on
foreign
I actually have a daughter at the family
center so not any of the other schools
but um so I I did when I asked about the
communications because so I get
obviously just Communications from her
school and then I get Communications for
the district so I appreciate some of the
conversations about more district-wide
Communications because when I got the
second communication from the district
it referenced earlier Communications to
the high school which I didn't receive
so I found that somewhat confusing so
there's been several conversations
around incidents at the high school that
I'm not fully aware of so if there could
be some explanation I've heard about a
student either accidentally or purposely
I don't know which you know touching the
uh the alarm and then perhaps weapons
brought or fake weapons or things that
appeared to be weapons and since I
didn't receive those Communications I
was wondering if there could be some
clarification around that because they
were referenced in previous emails that
did go to the district and then you had
mentioned a risk assessment that's why
my second question was it just around
Intruder risk assessment or did you do
risk assessments around things like if
there's a gas leak or a tornado or other
types of things that could happen around
the safety of students that don't
necessarily imply an intruder in the
building
so
um in terms of the situations that
happen at the high school I do recognize
we only sent that email to parents of
the high school students when the
Intruder button was accidentally hit by
a student so that's why there there was
confusion in terms of that prior to that
um we had an incident two incidences
where students brought in replicas of
real guns and so we addressed that and
we sent out email again for one of the
incidences to the only High School
parents and so hindsight we probably
should have sent it to the entire
District so that everybody knew what was
happening
so that's something we will definitely
get better at and work on
um and then this remind me again that
the risk assessment okay yeah so when we
do the study when we've hired tier one
technicals they're going to look at all
of the assessments so if there happens
to be a tornado what do we do if there
happens an earthquake what do we do so
it includes everything not just the
Intruder drills or the intruder alert
system
thank you for asking that
and just to clarify for fact pattern
that button at the high school was
pushed on the same day later that day
when the fake firearm was found and then
it was a week later that there was
another incident with fake Firearms
around the periphery parking lot area of
the high school
so those those are the three I guess if
you the alarm and then the two fake gun
incidents that happen after the alarm
what a day
um my name is Megan Cerrito I have a son
at uh White on and one at Merrimack
um first I just want to agree with
Charlie
that uh I uh I don't think more guns
make our students safer and I am
heartened to hear how much discussion
there is around uh restorative justice
and social and emotional
learning and skills for students and
staff and I think parents can also be a
part of that as well
um
I
wanted to say that um
if there's a school district that is out
there right now in the U.S that is kind
of leading the way and if if Clayton is
you know reaching out to
um other school districts to develop
some best practices I know that we're
very data driven here and I certainly
appreciate that
um and this is certainly a chance also
for Clayton to lead if there is not a
district that is a leader in best
practices and the third thing is just I
wanted to flag that you know the after
school programs actually I've been able
to just walk into Merrimack through the
after-school area so I know we're talk
thinking in terms of the school day but
I think there needs to be some
consideration of the after school
program because I know parents don't go
through that vestibule those doors are
open at Merrimack in any case so that
should be something to consider I think
thank you for that
um we have had conversations actually
about the after school programming and
as of right now we are doing you know
the visitor management system during the
school hours
when you think about after school hours
the number of events and activities that
happen right you could be a football
game it could be a um Sports banquet
that happens at the high school this
event right here so those are things
that we're trying to figure out how to
make it more safe and secure without
having someone at the front door having
to go through the entrance
um so I don't have a complete answer for
you on that but that's something we're
looking at because it's just so fast now
we could start with our kids zone
programming for after school that
happens in each of the buildings and how
do we make that more secure and what
would be their main point of one entry
point for them so that's something that
we're starting to talk about as well
um
your other one
oh yeah modeling for looking at other
districts so one thing that we do
obviously Safety and Security is
Paramount when we're talking about it so
all the superintendents in the St Louis
County region in Missouri State were
always it's at the Forefront we go to
conferences everyone highlights their
best practices so we share and we
collaborate with that I wouldn't say
that there's a school district that's
leading the charge that you know
everyone uses different options Based
training they use different mechanisms
they have different relationships with
the local police department and I think
that's the key having been in two
different districts large districts one
with 11 000 students and one with 21 000
students I can tell you that the
relationship that we have with our
Police Department is by far one it's
Superior and so I think that's for us
that's what really helps us in our
district and that's something that I
talk to our superintendents about
in terms of how do you continue to
Foster that relationship because that's
what's crucial in a lot of ways
I was gonna add you know training the
staff is just one aspect of security but
in regard to training staff though with
tier one tactical they provided a
training for a lot of the school
districts in in our metro area in fact
when I was trained by them I went out to
Parkway they Parkway School District
hosted and I believe they they also uh
provide training for Rockwood and a lot
of the other big bigger school districts
in the metro area so that type of
training for the staff is standardized
around here for the most part
I'll just I'll just also going to add
that we um
I don't know if people know this but we
also to the extent that like after
school event prom homecoming I mean we
there are the police officers are there
more than one and
um
I don't know if that is if that's a I
don't think that's a new thing I've
never been to prom but
um I know that they that they are there
I just want to add in response to you
asking about looking at other districts
um there are many times when we look
Beyond St Louis County and Missouri for
examples I think you bring up a really
good point that we could be looking Way
Beyond locally for examples on Safety
and Security
we have for example we mentioned earlier
when we talk about students mental
health that Amy mentioned that we're
reimagining how we handle Wellness at
least starting at the high school we
have hired a consultant out of
California in San Francisco and she has
brought us examples of what she's done
with some schools out there so we are
open to and always trying to look even
you know Beyond St Louis County and
Missouri for examples and I think you
bring up a good point that for Safety
and Security that's a good
a good opportunity to do that as well
and I forgot to mention that I also am
part of a superintendent's group with
superintendents from the East Coast as
well and you know other areas where we
talk about that as well so
thank you for reminding me that
so just to piggyback on that thought my
anxiety goes right to the captain
blacktop because I feel like we're
spending so much time and effort
thinking about the inside of our
buildings and then they kind of just go
outside and I wonder what the protocol
or training is for that
um and Dr Wayne or you had mentioned
earlier that we never thought we were
going to get that text from our kids but
I worry about that every single day and
when they come home I'm so grateful that
today wasn't the day and I was almost
like oh today is the day it's happening
so it's a sad way of thinking and I
think our kids are trying to think that
too and it's I look forward to the day
and we don't have to worry about it
anymore thank you
and that is part of the training that
we're also looking at like what do we do
in situations when the students are
Outdoors whether it's in the playground
and even just the idea of egress if
something happens out outside what's the
process of coming into the buildings so
that's part of the training as well
hi uh Eric Wilson for those that don't
know me
um you know I've been in 20 different
districts around St Louis County looking
at Safety and Security
Clayton is probably a leader in a lot of
aspects of
um that the safety but I do have a
couple questions
um so I have four kids in the district
um they the communication District ride
would be good because they do talk to
each other even though they fight a lot
um
the question I have is as an adult who
frequents many of the buildings I've
been in three different buildings this
week for different activities
um when we see something that is a
safety concern
who do we contact who do we tell that to
because I feel like in the past I've
mentioned things to a board member or to
someone in the admin building and I
don't always see follow-up on it and I
wonder how
people that don't have direct contact
with some of you guys how do we how do
we do that
second thing is SRO officers at each
building would be great I know Clayton
has a super fast response time compared
to other districts but I think it's
probably one of the top things we could
do
something in the buildings I would say
your first point of contact would be the
building principle
you know because they are the ones who
are in the building they would know how
to actually address it and then they
would know where what level to take it
next to so it could be something that
they talked to the SRO with it could be
someone that something that they bring
it up to the facilities it could be
something that they bring up to me but
your first point of contact would be the
building principle because they know the
building the best
um and they also know who to contact for
what so that would be the best approach
um and then the sros yes we agree with
you we are definitely looking at that
and we've already started the
conversations for that so thank you
can I ask Nisha can parents use the
another
that just made me think if if a parent
didn't feel comfortable saying something
is there that I think right now it's
only for for the students but I'm sure
we could oh like a quick tip can also
accept
um on submissions from community members
that's actually how we found out about
some of the things that were happening
on the turf in a couple different places
and some of the things that were
happening on the weekends on different
properties
um or community members
sharing information and I've encouraged
to report is also an option but again to
Dr Patel's Point while he's starting
with the building principle but yes
those are resources to report things as
well
I will just make the comment that I
think
um maybe something that we need to take
up is making sure that people do know
um
who on a district-wide level is the
person that if you have a question about
security if you have a comment if you
have like that I 100 agree the principal
at any school is a great first Contact
but we should we should make it better
known who's in charge of Safety and
Security on a district-wide basis in
case people need to know that I just
think that's
mm-hmm I think that's something that we
need to we need to talk more about
what no we're not saying that at all we
do we do have someone in charge
um and we're working on making sure that
that person is you know
I'm not I cannot
expand on it but we do have we do have
someone in charge of it
well I I mean I will say one thing that
you said to us and it'd be right now the
person in charge of Safety and Security
100 is Dr Nisha Patel so that would be
one person that you can always assume
that but in terms of specific roles
across the district we we needed we need
to talk about that we need to
communicate it
I would say for right now it is me Nisha
Patel
I am in charge of Safety and Security
for our district
and as soon as the role is if if it's
someone else we will absolutely be
communicating that out
hello uh I'm still applying and I attend
Clayton High School and I have several
topics so I'm sorry if I'm being
sporadic
so first in regards to what Charlie said
I would agree that we need to be careful
with the thought of
introducing training of like teachers
with statistically introducing more
Weaponry into schools
causes more violent accidents in schools
and additionally um
my dad taught at a high school for
around 20 years he recently resigned and
anytime he would have training in
regards to if there was a school
shooting he would be greatly emotionally
impacted and so I'm not saying we
shouldn't train teachers obviously we
need to train teachers but we need to
think
about how we go about it
and then also when
in the high school we had the basically
hold line repeating my English teacher
thought it one of us was playing a prank
she had no idea what it was and I would
like to know if the teachers were
informed that if you hear this whole
line it's because we're working on this
or if they're informed before beforehand
that uh
you were working on the line
and then also when you were saying and
why down there are places where it's
hard to hear the alarm
you can uh why down in the band room
they couldn't hear the alarm they
thought it was a clarinet and similarly
whenever there's an announcement and
we're playing in band we can't hear
anything and we're not necessarily
stopping what we're playing to hear
because we're just assuming it's some
normal thing and then
two more things one I would say one note
is one thing I've noticed the transition
from middle school to high school is
sort of high school is view counselors
as more of a resource for colleges and
classes uh rather than an emotional
support and I was wondering how we can
create a better relationship with that
and then finally I would say my main
concern is how we have an open campus
during lunch so let's say we had an
incident during lunch
how do we know that students are missing
versus just left campus
thank you for those questions
um so the first question
um was Clayton High School and did the
teachers know what that alarm was when
the music was started and it said your
call is important to us the teachers at
the high school did not know that
because they didn't even know that the
system was fully operational or
partially operational they'd never heard
that before so they they were not aware
of it but after the fact they found out
what it was your second question about
the band rooms that did come up and that
goes back to a lot of different areas
where they couldn't hear it something
that we've already in we're in
conversation already with tech
electronics and um Jim correct me if I'm
wrong but in terms of the idea of having
like some sort of flashing light in the
classroom and we just need to work out
the wiring of that and all the
intricacies that go with that so that's
something we're already looking at
um and then middle school high school
counselors relationship that comes up
quite a bit and we hear that from all of
our students and Carter has brought that
up quite a bit at the board table as
well being our student rep and how do we
strengthen that relationship with the
counselors at the high school and I know
that there's a lot of um conversations
that happen between the students and the
counselors and it depends on the
relationships you have but we can always
continue to be better at that and one of
the things that we're looking at is I
think we talked a little bit about it is
the mental wellness and the idea of
develop building a mental Wellness
Center at the high school and possibly
having someone there that's solely just
for mental health and so because
students do sometimes think oh I can't
go to my counselor they're going to fill
out my college application they may not
feel that they can go and be vulnerable
with that individual so we're trying to
look at opening a Wellness Center that's
staffed by someone that could help with
that and then
lastly open campus and the lunch idea
that's something that
is definitely come up even with a fire
drill so we love the idea of open campus
that's who we are we take pride in that
but with that comes the idea of at any
given moment you may not know who's in
the building so one of the things that
we've already discussed is how do you
tighten up that single point of entry
and exit
so maybe when you exit you have to
actually sign out so we have a running
record of who left the building at what
time but that would be extremely
um challenging not that it can't be done
but our students have to actually be
um
really wanting to do that and make sure
that they're going through the front and
then if they don't we'd have protocols
to if we see someone using the side door
when they leave or coming in through the
side door that that would not be okay
when we had the incident and write down
my brother was on like the 7-h trip and
board there and in the abandonment
that's part of the communication that we
did not have so yes they should
because we did that came up too that
there were teachers even if they weren't
in the building they didn't know they
came here and they're like what what's
happening
I just wanted to to add when you were
talking about the counselors at the high
school so along with being a social
worker I'm certified as school as a
school counselor as well
and the training that you receive is the
same so the counselors at the high
school do have the same background to
address social emotional needs as an
elementary and middle school counselor
so maybe some of the work is around
marketing and maybe making sure that
kids understand that these are reasons
that you can go see your school
counselor that it is not just for
scheduling or schedule changes that
making sure that students understand
that the counselors are there for them
in that role I know the school
counselors at the high school and I
can't imagine that any of them wouldn't
be responsive to a student who came to
them with a need so some of that may
just be about marketing and then the
other thing I would add I know there's
been some conversation about the
prevention work and I also recognize
that in our nation there's these
conversations about school resource
officers being in the school some people
feel really good about it some people
don't I absolutely love our school
resource officers and they support my
work as a social worker when I have to
go do home visits they do that stuff
with me and I really appreciate them but
I want to mention that on the prevention
side I really feel like the wellness
center uh that Dr Patel has mentioned uh
is a big part of that prevention work
that will give us an opportunity to
connect with students uh you know how
sometimes you want to do the early
identification you know it'll be a space
where kids can come in there will be a
record that kids have been in the space
and I think it will allow more
prevention work to be done which could
deter some of the other behaviors that
we are concerned about things that have
happened like people bringing weapons
and trying to get at the root cause of
why they're doing this or engaging in
some other uh inappropriate behavior I
just wanted to mention that
Stella I just want to thank you those
were great questions and um
I think that
there maybe could be some I don't know
if tier one is looking into such
um
things such as this but
there we maybe could think of a way for
students like I know universities for
example have a mass notify system if
there's an emergency on campus that I
wonder if students could be included in
that so even if they aren't on campus
they're aware of what's going on
um I have a couple kids a kid in college
and it just made me think of that
um that I think that's something we
should look into and talk to as well and
maybe
swiping an ID if they leave campus at
the high school just so we can keep
track of who's there and who's not so
thank you very much for those
hi my name is Lucia Zamora and I'm also
a high school student
um so oh sorry so um this circles back
to what somebody mentioned earlier but
it this someone on the board stated that
one of the main ways that people come
like it's brought to the attention of
the board or the school that there is an
intruder or a weapon at the school even
though it might not necessarily be true
just like the suspicion of a weapon
um I was wondering how exactly the
school would react in the event that a
student doesn't come forward let's say a
student doesn't see it or there's no
like real threat that anyone's seen but
it's just like a speculation what if
that student doesn't come forward for
whatever fear or just doesn't they don't
think it's real how does the school
react because now there's a weapon out
and just out in the school that nobody
really knows about and that's a threat
to everybody's safety so I'm wondering
how exactly
can the board or just the school in
general expect children because at the
end of the day high school students are
majority just children how is it that we
can expect children to come forward and
have that bravery to come and save in a
way the entire school from a huge
shooting or something thank you
so I think
um to answer that I'm going to start off
with the positive in terms of
in the incidences that we've had it's
always the students that come up and say
something so we teach them right if you
see something say something see
something say something
um so the majority of the reports that
we get are from students and I think
it's because we create this environment
of like trust in that there's not going
to be retaliation don't worry about you
know someone saying that you told on me
Etc but if that's not the case then
that's why we have adults as well same
philosophy same idea is with the adults
if you see something say something and
typically I would say at the building
level we have all our teachers we have
campus supervisors SRO who's always
social workers counselors who are always
on
on guard to make sure that if something
happens or if they see something we are
alerted right away
hello my name is Rayna Everett and I
just have a couple questions and
suggestions regarding
um if there were to be a intruder in the
building
um the first thing is when we're talking
about
um
what to do I feel like our teachers
don't go into enough detail
for example when we're talking about
engaging with the shooter
we don't know exactly
I don't really like I wasn't really
um it wasn't really communicated with me
what to what what like am I doing to
engage except maybe like throwing stuff
and a lot of times when in a situation
where there's a lot of anxiety people
tend to freeze up you know if like
forget the things that they're told so
if we go into an as much detail as
possible for example suggesting specific
things that should be thrown or
um different strategies
um that can be like
used in a variety of different
situations for example maybe using
earplugs when there's a shooter
um
to avoid the loud noises or using a
backpack as a shield and just different
strategies that can be used if you
happen to be alone in a bathroom or in
the hallway and you can't find your way
to a classroom in time
also I just wanted to clarify whether
the alarm not being heard by Dr Wayner
was part of the technological issue or
if the alarm just goes off in one
section of the building when like the
button is pressed
and also I just want to bring to the
attention that a lot of people feel that
certain
things that will that will happen as a
result for example maybe metal detectors
or searching could make students and
parents feel like it's an invasion of
privacy and that's just a really big
thing that we need to keep in mind when
making these decisions because we don't
want to induce fear and make people feel
like
um this is going to happen that's why
we're doing all this stuff is because it
is bound to happen and they're looking
through all of our stuff and they are
um
you know have cameras watching us at all
times like it can just induce a lot of
fear and make people people feel like
they're not
um trusted or you know just a lot of
things that could cause problems in the
future which are separate from you know
the Invaders itself thank you
so the um one thing I can address I
appreciate all the comments thank you
um as far as the why down incident and
Dr Weiner like in terms of hearing part
of it that's because it was not fully
operational at that point so that's the
reason it's not because he it was one
part that was only working
um and yes in terms of the drills and
teachers giving more detail that would
be part of the training that we need to
do and get better at
does anybody have any further questions
but we we appreciate everybody coming
out tonight
um
hard topic it's been a rough
a rough month I can assure you that
things are going to as a result of this
things are going to
um
be a whole lot better
and we will we will not be um
see any incidents like this in the
future
and before we adjourn I think I
I want to clarify something someone
asked me a direct question and I always
want to feel I always want to be
confident in the answers that I give and
so the question was asked who's in
charge of Safety and Security and I feel
like there was some sort of panic that
no one is in charge
what I will tell you is the individual
that had that responsibility no longer
has that responsibility and hence I have
that responsibility once we determine
who the individual will be that will
oversee Safety and Security I will be
sure to communicate that out
go ahead
just one more thing that
well this this is the reality we live in
this country
some of us are not from this country but
I understand this and there is one
student that I have from another school
that told me well at home
we do drills with my mom and my dad for
tornado uh
Intruder drill at home so I just want to
say something that I don't want to think
but
the family responsibility is also
another thing because I understand you
are responsible for our kids but this is
a community so I don't want to take any
responsibility from you and I really
want to the dates
but I see that as a community as a
family I have my own responsibilities I
want to
to make everybody understand that
um I I know we're about to adjourn but I
just want to tell you guys that
um we picked our kids up we offered them
we said you want to stay they wanted to
leave that day we had a family debrief
and we've had other conversations with
our kids two middle schoolers and they
were in the lunchroom
in Main Street and we offered them to
homeschool again which we did for the
pandemic we offered them Crossroads
which is where we would probably go if
we left here and we offered them to
leave the country
um and our kids chose to stay at wydown
both of them so
this was a bad situation but I just
thought you guys should know that
thank you for your service
okay
um if nobody has any further comments
then I'm gonna
um
[Applause]
get it Ask Gary to read us a motion to
adjourn
Board of Education adjourned
second all in favor
bye
right