District and MCHS respond to safety concerns
Safety Presentation in theatre after the return from Spring Break. (Photo: Myiah Lucio, The Puma Prensa)
By Myiah Lucio, photo editor, Ella Chong, staff writer
“Value life, not violence” is the rallying cry of a movement that has spread through the student community in the Santa Rosa City Schools district. As a result of the tragic death of Montgomery student Jayden Pienta on March 1, students all over town are using their voices to demand updated school safety measures. With events like the district-wide walkouts, Courthouse Square protest, and board meeting comments on March 8, students and staff have been able to voice their needs to those responsible for keeping them safe.
Students at Maria Carrillo High School have formed a safety committee which has helped create and revise a district-wide list of safety demands for administration to reform, as well as some Carrillo-specific demands. The district-wide demands have been posted on an official website Valuelifesoco, which is a website created by student safety leaders across the district and designed by Roshni Dave. This action was done in hopes of getting the petition for their list of demands signed. As opposed to the last district board meeting on March 8 during which the main topic of public comment and board focus was school safety, the March 29 SRCS board meeting did not include how they will move forward with improved school safety policies nor a discussion of the demands made by students in the earlier weeks of March.
On our campus, Carrillo administration held assemblies on school safety for every grade level during the week of March 24. These assemblies were all composed of the same content: a slide show presented by Principal Monique Luke, Vice Principal Amy Wiese, and Assistant Principal Randy Burbank that detailed Carrillo’s procedures for what to do in situations where student safety is being threatened and that ended with a collection of slides made by an organization called Sandy Hook Promise that talked about social issues in schools as well as warning signs in children that may identify threats and danger. This presentation produced negative reactions from some students the Prensa interviewed due to what they believed to be a meager response to concrete, immediate student concerns. Students also disapproved of the overall lack of changes to current safety measures and the repetition of information students say they have already heard.
“The safety presentation was certainly a start in addressing students’ concerns,” said senior Carmen Jimenez. “[But] I believe it was not done very well.” Jimenez thought the presentation seemed ill-prepared and that a lot of the information that was presented is already known by students. “I do think the information might’ve been helpful for freshmen though,” she said.
“I feel like a lot of students, including myself, felt like the [Carrillo administration] only did [the presentation] because they felt like they had to,” said sophomore Bailey Zweifel, expressing that the presentation didn’t seem sincere. Like Jimenez, she thinks it was a step in the right direction. “Their priorities are definitely not all the way where they need to be yet,” said Zweifel.
“The intentions were good but it almost felt performative. We can have a presentation, but it's not going to change anything; we need to be more serious,” said Chloe Johnson, a junior and member of the safety committee at MCHS. Johnson said she understood that many student concerns cannot be solved overnight.
Principal Luke agreed to sit down for an interview with the Prensa and agreed with students that the assemblies were only a start. Luke called the presentations the first step, saying it was meant to remind the student body of Carrillo’s basic safety procedures. The main purpose that Luke wanted to establish is the difference between shelter in place orders and lockdown orders as well as aiding students in understanding how to notice and report threats. In the interview, Luke addressed the three main concerns on the student list of demands document. She first explained solutions for the two demands related to increased on-campus security and reformed evacuation and alarm policies. She also addressed the issue of bottlenecks at the field entrance during evacuations.
“We are ordering keys for teachers that are located at a certain area of campus that didn’t have them before so more people will have a key. For example, the teachers back by Calistoga [Road] as well as other wings of campus that seem necessary,” said Luke.
Another student demand on the document was having more adults present on campus. Luke explained that she has been working on a parent volunteer program since the beginning of the year, noting the increase in parents who are willing to go through the “SRCS Be a Mentor” online volunteer registration and screening course to get cleared to be on campus following recent events.
“What we came up with is that they could be greeter [parents in the A Building], so we could unlock the backdoors and they could be that friendly face.” She continued to say that “[if there are] parents that are comfortable coming on site and carrying a radio, I am on board with that…that frees administration up to do the more difficult things on campus.”.
Because of the number of interested parent volunteers, volunteers have been placed at administration doors periodically when requested by administration--an attempt to curb the ongoing concern of the back door of the main office building being locked.
The third student demand Luke talked about was the want for a direct line of communication between Carrillo administration and students. Luke stated that she hopes to establish a system of three danger levels for situations based on an idea from parents who attended the listening session. This would mean that once a direct line of communication is established between staff members, a threat can be categorized into one of three levels based on an understanding of what to do in various situations. This direct line of communication as well as a shared understanding on what the definitions of the three levels would be hasn’t yet been established but appears to be in the works. Luke is also meeting with committees, including one led by teachers Madeline Doyle and Joy Schermer that is actively brainstorming ideas to enhance direct response after a campus threat. In order to get additional student response, Luke hosted listening sessions the week of April 3 in the College and Career Center to answer any questions the student body had. When Prensa reporters attended on Tuesday April 4, there were seven students at the session.
The conversation about school safety is still ongoing, and there is some controversy over whether School Resource Officers (SROs) should be brought back on campus. However, before any decisions are made, school board member Omar Medina said on the Puma Prensa’s podcast The Pawd that he believes the culture around law enforcement needs to be addressed.
If students have any interest, they can check out Maria Carrilo’s Comprehensive School Safety Plan, which is a document over 30 pages long consisting of drills and lockdowns which is revised by the fire department as well as other important parties in the community at least once a year. This document should be updated soon so that students can see the changes that are being implemented.