According to a study conducted by researchers at Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts, and posted on the universityís website Feb. 26, school shootings have been declining in the United States since the 1990s. On average, about 10 students were killed each year because of school shootings over the past 25 years.Inarguably, just one student death related to school shootings is unacceptable. And El Paso County School District 49 is addressing all avenues to ensure the safety and security of all students and staff in the district, said Dave Watson, director of safety and security for D 49.ìWe are in the final phases of getting all the safe and secure entries completed at each building,î Watson said. ìThese entries have been very successful by funneling all visitors to the main office, and they cannot gain access to the rest of the building without going through another buzz-in entry. It makes sure visitors do not have unimpeded access to our learning environments.îWatson said the mill levy override that voters passed in 2016 paid for the new entries.The district does not solely focus on active school shooting situations when it considers safety and security, he said. ìWe have to take an all-hazards type of approach,î Watson said. ìWe do mandatory emergency preparedness drills, including fire drills, hazardous weather training; and, of course, our lock-down, lock-out drills.îWatson said the district follows the standard response protocol from the ìI Love U Guysî Foundation, which was formed following the Sept. 27, 2006, school shooting at Platte Canyon High School in Bailey, Colorado. According to the foundationís website, the ìI Love U Guysî Foundation was created to restore and protect the joy of youth through educational programs and positive actions in collaboration with families, schools, communities, organizations and government entities.îAdditionally, Watson said the district conducts training sessions once per year with the staff, where the safety and security team sets up table-top exercises. ìWe get a group of people around a table, present a crisis or emergency scenario and allow the participants to brainstorm how to handle that situation,î he said.Depending on a staff memberís job title and description, they also receive additional training, including crisis prevention training, first aid, CPR and automated external defibrillator training, Watson said. Each buildingís administration and emergency staff also provide training to the rest of the staff on emergency preparedness, he said.ìWe will be adding an additional school resource officer through the El Paso County Sheriffís Office, who is a sworn deputy, to the Falcon Zone to increase law enforcement capacity in the area,î Watson said. With the addition of Bennett Ranch Elementary School, which is currently under construction, the Falcon Middle School campus will become a shared campus.The zone model that makes up the district allows each school to analyze the need for additional law enforcement presence, Watson said. Schools can assess that need at any time, but adding a school resource officer requires approval from the Board of Education and depends on manpower availability through the Colorado Springs Police Department and the EPCSO, he said.Other district-wide initiatives to increase safety and security include increasing the current amount of surveillance cameras and possibly adding two district security personnel that would be assigned to a specific zone, Watson said.ìThe additional officers would allow us to have more capacity at the zone level to provide additional staff training, prepare the schools at their levels, prepare for emergency or crisis situations, help with data-tracking and provide more training overall,î he said.In an email to the D 49 staff and families from Pedro Almeida, the districtís chief operations officer, he stated, ìThe safety of students, families and staff on our campuses is of the utmost importance to the District. We are dedicated to ensuring a safe environment awaits our learners whenever they are in our care.îWith that in mind, Watson said the district is constantly researching best practices for safety and security, which includes consulting with law enforcement officers and getting input from students, parents, community members and other district stakeholders.ìWe want to make sure that everyone has a say in what safety and security looks like and to just be able to talk about it openly.î
