Hollister School District officials followed the news last Friday of the Connecticut shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School closely as it was unfolding, with reports of 20 children dead, along with eight adults including shooter Adam Lanza and his mother.
“All of our sorrow over the tragedy in Connecticut – we know how difficult it is to see the lives of young children end in such a violent way,” said Gary McIntire, the Hollister School District superintendent. “It was an event that we all know and we hear all too often. We ask, ‘How can it happen in our community?’ But we know we have to expect it.”
In the days after the event, the San Benito County supervisors also expressed sorrow for the families on the East Coast.
“I went to a behavioral health training and I realized we are doing a great job providing services,” said Supervisor Margie Barrios. “But I realize how much more we can do. We need to pay attention to these folks in need. It lays heavy on all of us to prevent it from happening again.”
McIntire said the school district put out a call to all parents on Friday at 5 p.m. to let them know HSD has procedures and protocols in place to deal with an active shooter scenario as well as other emergency situations.
“It was the last day before we went on holiday recess, but didn’t want to the community have a sense that we aren’t prepared,” he said.
McIntire said he had received an email Monday from the principal of Rancho San Justo who said the school would conduct three lockdown drills this year, above the minimum of two required by the district. Calaveras School also does more drills than required each year, with an average of four.
He said he and school officials listened closely to see what procedures Sandy Hook had in place to deal with an intruder on campus.
“They invested in a secure building, but (someone) was still able to get in,” McIntire said. “It’s quite unsettling to see how determined this person was.”
Cerra Vista School used its lockdown procedure recently when local law enforcement had a confrontation in a nearby neighborhood with a suspect in a kidnapping who was assumed to be armed. Though the lockdown happened after school, one teacher on campus acted quickly to round up students from after school program who were playing outside on the playground. She got them all into her classroom and secured the door.
“The teacher did exactly what we want them to do,” he said.
He said one of the things the schools need to work on is procedures for if a student is outside of a classroom when a lockdown happens, for instance if a student has left the classroom to go to the restroom.
“If we practice it enough, they will know to go to the nearest room they can get in or to shelter in place,” McIntire said.
He said one of the challenges for California schools especially is that they often have open campuses. He acknowledged that many of the schools in the Hollister School District have multiple entry points and that the schools were constructed at a time when the worry of intruders on campus was low.
“We will in some time hopefully in the not too distance future look at modernization of a couple schools,” he said, listing R.O. Hardin and Rancho San Justo as two schools in need of improvements. “There is a process to apply for state funds, but we need matching local dollars. It really needs to be considered.”
He said the modernization efforts could include reconfiguring campuses so that people channel through one set of open doors.
“We can make the campus much less porous,” he said.
He said the issue of district radios that can run without electricity has come up in past drills, but funding has not been available for them.
“We take it seriously and we will continue to take it seriously,” McIntire said.
