School safety became front of mind across the country following the Uvalde shooting where 19 children and two teachers were killed.
Shasta County School District has been working to increase its security in the time since. Associate superintendent Mike Freeman said they are looking at perimeter safety and will also be doing vulnerability assessment training in the fall.
“We’re looking at the Uvalde, Texas incident and that has all of us looking at student safety,” Freeman said. “Hopefully student safety is front and center in a lot of conversations and a lot of planning districts are doing right now.”
The school district also works closely with local law enforcement, like Redding Police Department, and their school safety officers to make sure campuses are protected.
“Cool partnership with law enforcement,” Freeman said. “Couldn’t do it without them. They can’t do it without us. I think getting people in the room, and having conversations about student safety, especially in the wake of some of the things we saw last year, we definitely want to make sure that we’re being proactive.”
They have also been working with Shastcom on a new text notification system for schools and getting juvenile probation officers on campus.
However, Freeman said school safety is everything from threats on campus to bullying prevention.
“If kids don’t feel safe, psychologically safe that sense of belonging safe, to their teacher to their school, then learning is going to be a struggle,” Freeman said.
Freeman said they will continuously work on safety in all aspects because they know parents trust them to protect their children.
“We want kids to feel like they belong,” Freeman said. “We want kids to feel happy and safe in school. If that sense of safety and belonging is happening, amazing things are going to happen with learning”