At this meeting, a young woman emotionally pleaded for some help with a problem regarding her son who attends Mira Vista Elementary School in Richmond. She said that he has some severe allergies, being at risk for anaphylaxis, thus carries an epi-pen. The mother was told by the school principal that none of her son’s teachers were trained to administer the epi-pen.

At the conclusion of the meeting, a nurse appeared. It isn’t clear if she had been there for the entire meeting or if she had been summoned by the Superintendent. She met with the mother and told her there was some sort of procedure in place to ensure that this woman’s son gets the help he needs.

A mother with a medical concern had to come to a board meeting to get the attention she needs for her son’s medical condition. This is a new principal. That principal should have had the answers pronto.

It is very sad to here about schools that are unsafe because school and district administrators don’t listen to teachers about potentially dangerous students.

I am of the firm opinion that in any school where teachers and students don’t feel safe the potential learning is greatly depressed.

Las year when we kept hearing about Mt. Diablo HS and other schools in the MDUSD where staff in particular didn’t feel safe I’m sure their learning and test scores were depressed as a result.

And no, locking the bathrooms because of problems is not the solution Kate McClatchy and in fact is illegal.

By the way, when I talked to people in Stevie Lawrence and Sue Brothers last district in West Sacramento i heard multiple times about how unsafe that district had become under their so-called “leadership”.

They had their comprehensive HS principal seriously injured in a riot and their alternative HS was out of control with several students and staff injured in multiple 911 called incidents.

If we do anything right in education it has to be hiring real leaders that have proven track records at running safe and disciplined schools with up to date and regularly practiced safety plans.

2. Poor communication system for classrooms on the outer perimeter. By the time the police arrived, they were simply report-takers.

3. Open campus–not uncommon to have trespassers with guns. This supposedly has since been corrected with gates.

4. New teachers are often a weak link in the safety chain. High teacher turnover means less safe schools.

5. A student was shot outside of the school, then died in the principal’s office. I was later told that the paramedics would not enter the area until given the all-clear from the cops. It was a drive-by. The perps were long gone. The coast was clear. This is one area where planning could be improved if not yet done.

6. Teachers often reported troubled students, yet reports were not always acted on. In one case, my evaluation request was “lost.” When I first reported my concerns regarding this student, I was told “You can’t save them all.” The student then showed up to school with a loaded gun.

7. Administrators need to support teachers with respect to discipline. Students allowed to act up are a distraction. A distracted teacher is not able to provide a safe environment. I personally witnessed harm being done to students as a result of such distractions.

8. Violent students need to be placed in a proper institution, not just punted to another school. In one case, the student who was transferred, later killed 2 teens, and seriously injured a third. One of the fatalities was an honor student. I was told that I just needed to take the time to understand this violent “kid”, that he was a good kid.

Listen to the teachers. Sometimes they know something.

I’ve been informed that there is not a written, District-wide emergency plan. We need to create and implement one. It will be a top priority for me in the near term.

The individual school plans are not currently online because it was deemed that the documents were too large. With more modern web technologies, they can now easily be put online. As a parent, I want to be able to find these things online- much preferred to receiving a paper copy that can easily be lost.

During the CSBA conference, one of the sessions I attended was on social media. One district described how they used Twitter to communicate with the public after a school shooting. It allowed them to share information and knock down rumors. Additionally, we should look at using text messages as an additional way to share info with parents.

My place of employment has safety / disaster recovery plans documented and easily accessible to all employees and building support personnel. We have mandatory “classes” we must take online that also have an assessment to determine how prepared we are / our safety knowledge at our workplace. Each workplace has specific plans.

1. Does the district site have a documented safety plan that addresses all types of issues (fire, earthquake, flooding, shelter in place, collapsed buildings/structures, bomb threats, armed intruders, kidnapping, hostage situation, gang violence, inappropriate teacher/school employee behavior, etc.)?

2. Does each school site have documented safety plans showing safety procedures and evacuation routes and gathering places for each type of emergency? Are office staff, custodian/janitorial staff, kitchen staff, school site supervisors, parent volunteers trained on safety and emergency procedures? (note: when I volunteered for my children’s lunchtime parent patrols, I was never instructed on what to do in an emergency or provided safety procedures when I signed up).

If yes to 1 & 2 above, where are these documents / plans located? Are they available online? Where? Can someone proved links? If not available online, why not?

Do all schools have security cameras / systems in place? Are those adequate?

Do schools practice / drill for emergencies anymore? What type of drills and how often? who in the district would be in charge / responsible for scheduling and rating the drills? Who is responsible for ensuring updates are made to safety plans based on the drills?

The Sandy Hook unthinkable tragedy is our wake up call.