School officials, SPD respond to questions raised by Uvalde shootings

May 28—Common talking points in the wake of the May 24 mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas have focused on two key issues: school safety measures and police response.

Here in Pulaski County, officials in both those areas reflected on the tragic death of 19 students and two teachers as a result of the incident — and shared their reactions to the above concerns.

All three local public school superintendents shared their grief over the loss of those lives, before saying anything else.

"It's just a tragedy," said Pulaski County Schools Superintendent Pat Richardson. "As society changes, and it seems it's becoming more and more violent, I feel like there's a lot of need for more emotional support for those folks in our society that need that."

Added Science Hill Superintendent Jimmy Dyehouse, "My heart goes out to those folks down there in Texas. It's just heartbreaking."

While Richardson touched on the need for a greater emphasis on promoting mental health, it's school security that most under the microscope from his position, and that's something he said is becoming "more and more of a focus" in the school system.

"This shooter was not a student; it's more of a societal issue that we as school systems are forced to deal with and put precautions in place and try to secure our buildings the best we can, as much as possible," said Richardson.

How best to do that is as much a matter of public debate as anything else. For some, the solution is to have teachers carry firearms; others object, saying teachers aren't trained in using weapons and shouldn't carry that additional load on their already burdened shoulders. Others call for armed guards or metal detectors, but it's hard for many to imagine the school environment as something resembling a prison.

If there's a balance to be struck there, it can be a difficult one to find — and to Richardson's mind, what might be the correct answer is always evolving.

"I think it is hard to balance that," he said. "Everybody has ideas, and everybody has their own thoughts on it. Since Sandy Hook happened (in 2012), in Pulaski County ... all of our buildings now have security vestibules. Just in the last few years, we have put the camera systems with the locking doors on all of the front doors of our schools and some other entrances. We have radio communication between that door so we identify folks before they come in and find out what they need. We have increased our (School Resource Officers, or SRO) presence in all our buildings within the last two years.

"We continue to look for ways to increase our security," he added. "It's just a constant thing to continue to try to find those avenues that help us best protect our kids. ... It's a continuous thought process. Of course, when something like this happens, it brings focus to it."

Dyehouse said he found himself discussing the topic of potential danger at school with classified staff following the events in Texas. "We feel like we've got a really safe school, and we feel like we've got a good plan in place," said Dyehouse.

That includes locks on the front door with an overhead camera, a buzzer system that makes one ring into the front office before being let in, and the vestibule to wait once in the first door for someone to come get the visitor. That started because of COVID-19 precautions, but Dyehouse said they like the set-up so they'll continue doing it even at a time when COVID isn't the same issue it was two years ago.

Dyehouse also said that each room in the school has a telephone that directly connects to the front office, and everyone carries a cell phone. He said that the school plans on doing another active shooter training with Kentucky State Police using blank live rounds, to show school personnel exactly what the sound of gunfire in the building sounds like.

"We practice, that's what we do," he said. "There's no way for us to practice every scenario, but we try to practice as many as we can, to make sure we practice the way we would do it if it was a real active shooter."

Talking about the balance between security and a welcoming school environment, Dyehouse said "nowadays you can lean more toward being extreme on the safety side and you won't have any arguments with parents, because they know what we're doing." He said they try to balance the more unfriendly elements by creating a cozy, home-like environment with interior paint scheme, decorations like flowers and images of the Yellowjacket mascot.

"All those things are inviting," he said, "but once you get in the school, even the kids know that what Mr. Dyehouse is doing is to keep us safe. If he says don't open the door for anybody ... (they know to) always go get your teacher if somebody's knocking at a door to get in.

"You have to try to keep it as safe as humanly possible without making it scary," he added.

Thinking about these situations can have a pyschological impact on students, noted Richardson.

"I know it affects students," he said. "Some students are less likely to worry than other students, but those students (that do worry), it bothers them. Any time that things happen that students can possibly think, 'Hey, that can happen to me," I think that impacts them. I've had a handful of calls from community members to me in the last few days asking questions, and I've tried to answer those questions and had good conversations with our community members on that."

Having someone armed in the building is what having an SRO is for, said Dyehouse, as opposed to arming teachers themselves. "They've been trained; teachers carrying and being trained as much as they could and myself being trained, I would feel comfortable doing that. But when you think about having five, six, seven teachers armed, there's that liability issue that you have to look at. What if a gun is dropped? What if somebody's out of control in a high school, and a kid bigger than a teacher is able to take that weapon away form a teacher? Those kinds of things scare me. I don't think you'll see (teachers with guns) happen. I really don't. I think what you're going to see is more security, an SRO in every building, and the camera systems and locked doors. To my knowledge, there's not been a school shooting in a classroom behind a locked door. It's always when someone left the door open."

Somerset Independent Schools Superintendent Kyle Lively echoed Richardson in saying that his school system is continually evaluating and adapting safety protocols and procedures to ensure students and staff are protected at all times. He personally thanked Mayor Alan Keck, Somerset Police Chief William Hunt, and Captain Mike Correll for their efforts in working with Somerset Schools.

"Student safety is our first priority," he said. "... Thanks to the strong partnership with the City of Somerset and Somerset Police Department, we maintain a well-trained SRO in each school. Our community values our school system, and most of all, the safety of our students."

The actions of police in Uvalde have also come under scrutiny. The Associated Press reported that students trapped inside a classroom with Salvador Ramos, the 18-year-old attacker, repeatedly called 911 during this week's attack on a Texas elementary school, including one who pleaded, "Please send the police now," as officers waited in the hallway for more than 45 minutes, authorities said Friday.

The commander at the scene in Uvalde — the school district's police chief — believed that 18-year-old gunman Salvador Ramos was barricaded inside adjoining classrooms at Robb Elementary School and that children were no longer at risk, Steven McCraw, the head of the Texas Department of Public Safety, said at a contentious news conference, according to the Associated Press. Ramos was quoted saying that it was "the wrong decision."

During the siege, frustrated onlookers urged police officers to charge into the school, according to witnesses, according to the AP.

"A lot of us were arguing with the police, 'You all need to go in there. You all need to do your jobs.' Their response was, 'We can't do our jobs because you guys are interfering,'" said Robb Elementary parent Javier Cazares, whose fourth grade daughter, Jacklyn Cazares, was killed in the attack.

The Commonwealth Journal contacted the Somerset Police Department for perspective on the incident, and spoke to Capt. Correll, who said he would need to hold off until more of the investigation unfolds before commenting on the police actions in Texas; "It's really too soon to say what was handled correctly or incorrectly."

However, he noted that "every agency each year looks at their response times to emergency and non-emergency calls for service," and police in Somerset are no different.

"I don't know the Uvalde geography, but here in Somerset, the locations of our schools helps," said Correll. "Among all calls for service, emergency or otherwise, we have an average response time of roughly four minutes city-wide. That's almost unheard of in a city that is as large geographically as we are.

"We train to respond to the threat, until there is no longer a threat," he added. "Having an officer in each building is a comfort; knowing the number of officers will increase significantly and fast means a lot."

Correll said that as a parent himself, "when a tragedy like this happens, we think about it like any parent." He, like Lively, commending Keck and the Somerset City Council on the partnership between the city schools and SPD on building a successful SRO program.

"Our School Resource Officers are parents," he said. "They know each of their colleagues' level of dedication to the students and staff in their respective buildings. As parents themselves, that means a great deal. Any special assignment in law enforcement requires specific training for the assignment. An SRO has to have much more than training. It's a different level of commitment. Our SROs want to do that job, they want our children to feel and be safe."

Correll noted that SPD and Somerset schools have worked together on safety plans, policy, and have gone through "meticulous planning and research" to do everything possible to prevent a crisis like the one in Uvalde.

"Our officers train often on responding to a crisis," he said. "Additionally, each year SPD officers alongside school staff and students train and work to develop trust with one another and do all we can to communicate and work as a team. That team includes this entire community.

"We rely on kids, parents and neighbors to report information they see or hear," he added, "and we know as a community we will pull together should tragedy ever occur."