Havre school board talks school security

Havre Public Schools administrators, after a planning meeting about upcoming budgets and project updates with the HPS Board of Trustees, laid out the district’s safety procedures in the wake of the deadly school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, this week.

“I’ve gotten a lot of questions about the horrible situation that happened in Texas and if the district is prepared and ready,” HPS Superintendent Craig Mueller said.

Mueller said the district has comprehensive response protocols that students and staff can follow to deal with emergency situations.

Havre Middle School Assistant Principal Jeremiah Nitz said emergency response protocols were updated for clarity this year and they are available in every classroom and hallway in the district.

Nitz detailed the various procedures the schools have for dealing with emergencies of all kinds.

He said “Hold-in-Place” is used to keep students and staff out of the halls if there is a loose animal, a student in crisis or some kind of medical event that makes it undesirable for bystanders to be in the halls.

He said this is more for the sake of privacy than safety, but is an important procedure all the same.

There is also “Lockout,” which is meant to make sure no one goes into or comes out of the school.

Nitz said this procedure was used a few years ago when a dangerous individual was being escorted through the area and temporarily got away from law enforcement.

Though, in truth, he said, the schools are basically in lockout for most of the day, with doors locking at 8:15 a.m. and being systematically and repeatedly checked throughout the day.

“Shelter-in-Place,” he said, would be used in the case of a major weather event or a hazardous spill of some kind.

“Lockdown,” however, is what is used in the case of a school shooter or a similar situation, Nitz said.

Highland Park Early Primary School Principal Mark Irvin said he and Nitz are both certified trainers in Alert, Lockdown, Inform, Counter, Evacuate — ALICE — a program teaching students and staff how to take a proactive approach to protecting themselves in a situation like the one seen in Texas, by effectively fighting back instead of becoming a target.

“We’re not going to be easy targets,” Nitz said. “That’s how people die.”

He said the training teaches people takedown techniques and makes sure secretarial staff are able to effectively monitor the situation in the school and keep staff informed about how the situation develops, as well as make it clear to potential assailants that law enforcement is on its way.

Mueller said school cameras can be monitored in real time through staff cellphones, so anyone can provide assistance and coordinate effectively.

Nitz said the program also makes it clear to teachers and staff that they are allowed to do what they need to do to get themselves and their students to safety, whether that means breaking windows or anything else.

Mueller also presented the group with plastic tubs that are filled with resources for emergency situations and incident command and are available in the district’s schools. He said these procedures and resources had a tremendous amount of time put into them.

Trustee Christin Hileman asked about ways to block doors in the case of a situation like the one in Texas, and Mueller and Nitz discussed a system the school installed that allows them to lock classroom doors very effectively, but can’t use properly due to legal issues.

They said the state fire marshal objected to the system at the time because it caused a fire hazard and there was no way to open in from the outside.

Nitz and Mueller said a device has since been created that allows fire fighters to disengage the locks easily and quickly, but at this point the system is still considered a fire hazard, but that situation may change if the fire marshals office were contacted by people about the matter.

They said, for now, the key to engage the system is in a secure location, but not in the classrooms, and they’d be quick to hand them out if the state’s policy changed.

Sunnyside Intermediate School Principal Pax Haslem said the events in Texas have had a serious impact on students, many of whom sought counseling Wednesday.

“I spent all day yesterday counseling, our counselors spent all day yesterday counseling,” he said.

HPS Special Services Director Karla Geda said one of the district’s own students was in Texas for a field trip at the time of the shooting, and their bus had to be rerouted, so there’s been a lot of emotions for students to deal with lately.

Mueller said the school does have some resources that might help with students who need counseling and said he’d send information to Haslem and anyone else who needs it.

See more about the planning meeting that preceded this discussion in upcoming editions of the Havre Daily News.