School Creates Plans For Crisis Holmes Students, Teachers To Practice Violence Drills

Students and teachers at Holmes Elementary School will be practicing more than fire drills next fall. They’ll also rehearse how to handle violence.

During crisis drills, they’ll lock classrooms and cover windows. They’ll pull name tags from doorways and children from halls.

The North Spokane school also installed a panic button recently to give office workers instant access to a security company.

“As educators, we’re nervous,” said Holmes principal Denise Sandbo.

Both teachers and parents are anxious in the wake of several school shootings during the past school year, from Jonesboro, Ark., to Paducah, Ky., said Holmes. Four shootings left 11 killed and 25 wounded.

“Some of these things we know can’t be prevented, but we’ve got to be ready,” Sandbo said. “We should be thinking about this in the same way we think about a fire drill.”

On Tuesday, parents, teachers, police and West Central community members will gather at the school to review their recently revised crisis plan and upcoming drills.

It’s a move security experts wish more schools would make.

“There’s so many notebooks where (crisis) plans are on shelves and have never been implemented,” said Pamela Riley, executive director of the Center for the Prevention of School Violence at North Carolina State University.

Schools can’t afford to believe they’re immune from the violence that has shattered other communities, she said.

“Severity of problems is on the rise. It’s no longer shirttails out and chewing gum. It’s guns and knives and razor blades.”

Sandbo said it became clear parents needed to know more about Holmes’ crisis plan in February. The school was locked down when police were in a nearby standoff with suspected gang members.

As news spread through the neighborhood, parents rushed to the school, demanding to take their children home.

“We had parents who really wanted to take their kids out earlier,” Sandbo said. “Then it became a management issue for us.”

Joe Madsen, District 81’s security chief, said Spokane schools have all created crisis plans, which they’re required to review every year. But lately, they’re taking any hint of violence more seriously.

“There’s a heightened awareness,” he said. “We’re listening probably more closely than we have in the past.”

Last week, a 14-year-old Glover Middle School student was expelled after writing graffiti threatening the lives of six teachers.

In Moses Lake, educators have learned not to underestimate what disgruntled students might do.

Memories linger of the day 14-year-old Barry Loukaitis walked into Frontier Junior High School with an assault rifle and began firing.

Three people died and a fourth was seriously injured in the February 1996 rampage. Loukaitis, who was sentenced to two life sentences, didn’t get along with one of the boys he killed.

“You’re constantly suspending and expelling kids and disciplining them for misbehavior,” said Larry Smith, principal at nearby Moses Lake High School. “It is frightening, frankly. You never know how kids are going to react.”

After the shootings, Smith said he began locking all but a few entry doors at the high school after students arrive.

“The best advice I’d have is to make sure you have a crisis plan in place that is detailed and well thought out, so you’ll know what to do if something happens,” said Smith.

He worries some schools won’t take the risk of violence seriously until too late.

“You know the old adage, you don’t pay as close attention til you’ve been burned a little bit.”

Preventing violence A public forum for West Central residents will be Tuesday at 7 p.m. in the multi-purpose room at Holmes Elementary School. A panel will discuss “Preventing Violence: a School Community Solution.”