School Saftey Today
Jonelle Matthews didn’t get to celebrate Christmas with her family in 1984, or any year after that. On December 20, 1984, Matthews, a 7th grader, went missing from her home in Greeley.
None of her classmates at Franklin Middle School would have expected that the last place they would see her would be an honor choir concert held at a local bank.
“If you talk to anybody that’s been around Greeley a long time and mention Jonelle Matthews, they remember that,” John Gates, the Mayor of Greeley and Chief of Safety and Security for Greeley-Evans School District 6 said.
Schools have changed exponentially since the 1980’s. At the simplest level, how parents enroll their child in a school has changed.
Today schools in District 6 look at where the child is coming from, a birth certificate and records from previous schools before a child can enroll, according to Gates. Extra paperwork is required to make sure a child is not missing or abducted.
Missing children cases like Steven Stayner – a young boy who was abducted and enrolled in various schools under a different name – influenced these kinds of changes. Schools want their students safe and accounted for.
“[The documents] is our safeguard, so the parents know ‘look we really need to know that that’s your child,’” Gates said.
In order to register a child in close by Poudre School District “a verification of a child’s birth date, emergency contact information, immunization records or a signed State of Colorado Exemption Certificate, copy of student’s academic history, proof of residency” and several enrollment forms are required, according to their website.
Safety precautions have increased across all schools. Schools in the Poudre district have a protocol they follow that includes five steps: prevention, protection, mitigation, response and recovery. The preventative measures against these acts include visitor screenings, threat assessments and suicide assessment and intervention to name a few. Protection includes evacuations, lockdowns and “run-hide-fight” protocols.
Mitigation includes actions like setting up backup generators, early warning systems for severe weather and having a “School Resource Officer” on campus at each school. Response is acting accordingly to the specific situation, and recovery is “assisting students and staff in the healing process and restoring educational operations in schools.”
District 6 schools have similar protocols they follow summarized on their website. These protocols outline the actions taken for physical safety, psychological safety, crisis management, lockdowns and drills, visitor management, police collaboration, campus monitors and includes their “Safe2Tell” phone number – an anonymous crime reporting hotline.
“What changes school security are the adverse acts within the school. Columbine, the Parkland case, Sandy Hook, the list goes on,” said Gates. Gates is in charge of ensuring safety and security in all the schools in the District. “Safety is my only job.”
Training of employees within schools has also changed. A school social worker, who asked to remain anonymous, explained that at the beginning of the school year the mental health staff and all of the teachers are taught and review how to look for a child who could be in danger.
The teachers and mental health professionals look for warning signs such as a child coming to school in the same clothes multiple days in a row, mentioning anything about being in danger and fixating on violent actions or thoughts.
Teachers, school staff and anyone else who works in a caregiving role, are mandatory reporters in every state since November of 2013, according to the National Clearinghouse on Child Abuse and Neglect Information. A mandated reporter is someone who must report any suspicions about emotional or physical abuse and or neglect on a child to social services. This law was put in place to attempt to lower the number of child abuse cases and to give children other advocates to their safety outside of the home.
The rules and protocols in place at schools now are enforced to keep children today safe and supported. While cases like Steven Stayner and Jonelle Matthews might still occur today, there have been changes made within schools to try to combat it: mandatory reporting, more documents for registration and heightened security measures.