Daniel Groeschel

by Dan White

 

On Dec. 14, 2012, the small town of Newtown, Conn. experienced a tragedy felt nationwide. Adam Lanza shot his way into Sandy Hook Elementary School and murdered twenty children and six adults, according to CNN.

 

Many school districts reacted to this devastation by tightening up their own security measures. Some school districts, like the Eau Claire Area School District (ECASD), had already taken steps to tighten security prior to the shooting.

 

At the beginning of the 2012-13 school year, each school had all side doors locked and visitors were required to sign in at the front office. The only security changes the district has made in response to the December shooting pertain to the front door at each school. Since the shooting, all doors at each school are locked during the school day and visitors are required to be buzzed in by a school employee and sign in at the front office.

 

“Most of our buildings were already equipped to handle the security change,” said Patti Iverson, administrative assistant to the superintendent. “We’ve had a crisis prevention plan in place for years and do drills regularly.”

 

The district’s crisis prevention plan is a strategy for how the faculty should handle different emergency situations. Each school has a binder that is organized by the various types of emergencies. In each section of the binder, there is a list of protocols the faculty should follow in the event of the specific emergency.

 

Iverson said the district has not heard any concerns over the heightened security.

 

“Initially there was an inconvenience attitude, but I think that people understand the fact that the long term goal is safety.”

 

“I feel our staff would be prepared because we have set procedures and practice regularly,” said Colleen Miner, principal at Lakeshore Elementary School.

 

Miner said these drills have been run for a long time and are policy because they work.

 

While Lakeshore has multiple copies of the district’s crisis prevention plan dispersed throughout the school, Miner said every classroom at her school has a “cheat sheet,” which is simply a miniature version of the plan.

 

“We often think of school safety when something tragic happens,” she said. “We (at the school level) are always thinking of school safety, we always have that in our forefront.”

 

One parent who agrees with Iverson is Jennifer Holty, the mother of a fourth grader at Flynn Elementary School and a freshman at Eau Claire Memorial High School. Holty said she feels her children are as safe as they can be when they are at school.

 

“There’s no place in the world where our kids are completely safe,” she said. “The security policies are sufficient, but you could always go for more. Nothing is more sacred than our children.”