Districts Review Safety Plans Students Participate In Efforts To Stop Violence

As the spate of school shootings edges closer to home, educators wish more kids would behave like two Shadle Park High School students.

A .32-caliber handgun and a knife were taken from an 18-year-old boy Monday after a pair of students told school officials about the weapons.

The warning allowed Spokane school administrators to grab the boy’s backpack - which also contained 11 rounds of ammunition - within minutes.

“Other students took this very seriously and obviously perceived the importance of the issue,” said Emmett Arndt, principal at Shadle Park, who expelled the student immediately. “They did the right thing.”

Students, teachers and principals throughout the Inland Northwest will be getting similar reminders today, as they mull the tragedy in Springfield, Ore.

They’ll also be practicing lockdowns, reviewing safety plans and revising lessons to include violence prevention.

A common message? Students who report weapons aren’t snitches. They’re life savers.

Kids are also being asked to do something else that’s not always instinct: tell an adult if a classmate makes threats or is unusually depressed or angry.

“One of the major things we try to do here is talk to kids, because they’re the most eyes and ears in the place. They know who’s hurting,” said Mike Howson, principal at Lewis and Clark High School.

In the Bonner County School District, Superintendent Roy Rummler hopes to try a pilot program to strengthen bonds between students and teachers.

“A teacher would be responsible for a number of kids and would follow them through so the child has someone to talk with about their frustrations,” Rummler said.

But Rummler and other educators agree it’s impossible to completely prevent angry students from opening fire at school.

“We’ve had to become a little bit more realistic about the fact that these things can and have happened,” said Mike Dunn, principal at Mount Spokane High School.

“You have to try to do proactive things to prevent them. And that’s not always possible.”

Most schools, for instance, have many entry doors. And what’s to stop an expelled student from returning with a gun?

Disciplining students - or even giving them bad grades - is also beginning to seem like a safety hazard for many teachers.

“It crosses my mind all the time,” said Ron Beard, a woodworking teacher at North Central High School. “If I have a student that is chewing tobacco in class (and discipline them), how will they react?”

“It gives you a sick feeling,” said Chris Lynch, assistant principal at North Central. “I went out for lunch duty and my secretary said, ‘Gee, I wish you had a bulletproof vest.”’

School counselors have been working on identifying angry and upset students and then pulling them aside to talk through their problems, Lynch said.

It’s important that school officials allow punished students to speak their minds, said Carl Crowe, principal at Garry Middle School.

“You’ve got to make sure their side of the story is heard. If not, those feelings build up, and you can’t predict what might happen.”

North Central and Havermale Alternative Center are among schools scheduling lockdown drills to make sure kids can react quickly to violent outbursts.

“We bring everybody in, cover the windows and doors and lock it down,” said George Renner, principal at Havermale. “The important thing is that we not become over-alarmed but certainly be prepared and wellorganized.”

At Ferris High School, Thursday’s shooting in Oregon brought to mind a recent bomb threat that caused officials to lock down school buildings.

No bomb was found, but the scare proved how important good crisis plans are, principal Jon Bentz said.

“It’s something on people’s minds now,” Bentz said. “Every time another incident occurs, that concern or awareness increases.

“That’s good. We can’t ignore that kind of thing.”

Staff writers Kevin Blocker, Erica Curless and Marny Lombard contributed to this report.