MCCSC, R-BB schools withhold active shooter protocol to keep students safe
After the 27th school shooting of 2022, where 19 children and two educators were killed at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, Monroe County families may be wondering what safety and active shooter plans are in place at local schools. They may have a hard time finding out.
Indiana law allows schools to withhold information about “the safety or security of a student or a school facility” from the public, according to Indiana Code 5-14-3-4(b)(18). This means schools can release their school safety plans if they wish, but they aren’t required.
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This information is often withheld to ensure the safety plans don’t end up in the hands of a dangerous person, said Jeff Hauswald, Monroe County Community School Corp. superintendent, in a school board meeting earlier this year.
“We don’t want to give too much of our playbook away,” he said. “Providing too much information could actually make us less safe.”
Monroe County Community School Corp.
The MCCSC “does not release details related to its school safety plan or discuss specific preventative measures,” said Karen Butcher, a spokesperson for the MCCSC, in a May 27 email to The Herald-Times.
Andrea Mobley, assistant superintendent of human resources and operations, said in an email that the district focuses foremost on creating positive relationships between students, teachers and staff. This includes measures such as anti-bullying and anti-harassment training for students and staff and employing several counselors and social workers in the schools.
All students participate in two active shooter drills per year as required by the state. An Indiana law passed in 2019 requires public schools to conduct the drills. One must be conducted within the first 90 calendar days of the school year.
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All schools are locked throughout the day, Mobley said, and visitors are required to be admitted to enter. Every school is also equipped with surveillance cameras.
The MCCSC has three school resource officers who travel throughout the schools and security guards at Bloomington High School North, Bloomington High School South and the district’s three middle schools, Batchelor Middle School, Jackson Creek Middle School and Tri-North Middle School.
The school resource officers are trained on the national and state level and through the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office. Training includes de-escalation and crisis intervention tactics as well as CPR and how to control bleeding in an emergency. The school board voted to disarm the officers last year.
The district has a school safety committee that meets on a regular basis to discuss school safety, planning and preparedness. The district’s school safety plan, which is updated annually, is regularly reviewed with employees, Mobley said.
Additionally, the MCCSC has more than 30 teachers and administrators trained as school safety specialists through the Indiana Department of Education.
Certain details of the school safety plan are not shared with students, Mobley said. Half of the U.S. school shootings between 2009 and 2019 were committed by current or former students, according to a study from the U.S. Government Accountability Office.
Following a school safety presentation at a January board meeting, Hauswald reminded the public that when safety incidents happen in schools, some information may be withheld due to laws such as the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act.
“When situations arise that may cause concern for safety, we have to be mindful of FERPA that protects privacy of educational records and balance the desire for information,” he said.
Richland-Bean Blossom Community School Corp.
R-BB schools implement many of the same preventative safety measures as the MCCSC. Similarly, the district does not release specific active shooter protocol.
Edgewood schools also conduct two active shooter drills per year per Indiana law. Safety drills are also conducted on school buses, R-BB communications coordinator Brittany Tucker said in an email.
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The district also has a school safety team that meets monthly, and school safety plans are reviewed and renewed annually, Tucker said. R-BB employees also communicate with the Ellettsville Police Department and Ellettsville Fire Department to discuss responses to different emergency scenarios.
Additionally, two school resource officers travel between schools and are trained at the national and state level. Several teachers in Edgewood schools are also certified as school safety specialists through the Indiana Department of Education.
This July, R-BB schools will also host ALICE training, which teaches preparedness for “violent critical incidents,” including an active shooter. It is similar to the “run, hide, fight” method, which the district currently teaches to students, teachers and staff.
Contact Christine Stephenson at cstephenson@heraldt.com.
This article originally appeared on The Herald-Times: MCCSC, R-BB use preventative measures to protect schools from shooters
