Planning for the worst

Planning for the worst

Re-1 plans to prevent school violence

Mar. 24, 2001

OFFICER DIANE FOX stands in front of her patrol unit at Montezuma-Cortez High School. Fox is one of two resource officers for RE-1. The other is stationed at Cortez Middle School.

By Aspen C. Emmett
Journal Staff Writer

As school shootings and violence continue to become more common, school authorities across the country continue to search for ways to keep tragedies such as the Columbine and Santee shootings from happening. Montezuma-Cortez schools are no different.

"We try to be proactive," said Montezuma-Cortez High School Principal Mark Rappe. "We’ve been proactive over two years since the situation with the Dale Claxton killing. We saw a need to really have a comprehensive crisis plan."

Rappe said each school building has its own individualized plan to accommodate the architectural needs and to organize faculty and staff.

"We have 22 exit doors, and so looking at outside intruders coming in we started locking down certain doors (from the outside) during the day to control which doors people are coming in and out of," Rappe said.

"We have a tactical map that shows our building, and our doors are numbered on the outside so if we needed somebody to respond to door 16 they know where it’s at so they can get there quickly. We also have roles and responsibilities and a reaction plan for different scenarios."

The schools also rely on communication via two-way radios, cell phones and an intercom system, Rappe said. However, the most important tools the schools have are preventative measures and plans in place to handle whatever might come up.

"Our school has the Student Assistance Program, which is a really specialized counseling program," Rappe said. "Troubled kids get referred to SAP and they can get one-on-one help. That can deal with the common issues of being a child of an alcoholic or abusive family to anger control."

Both MCHS and Cortez Middle School have full-time school resource officers in the buildings to respond to the variety of incidents that have occurred or might occur at the schools. Additionally, the two officers are in the process of organizing a district-wide informational seminar to educate the school staff and faculty about school violence, what to look for and how to respond accordingly.

Diane Fox, a Cortez Police Department officer who is the resource officer at MCHS, said that school violence has become "a sign of the times," and training school personnel to deal with violent acts and how to help prevent them is a necessity.

"We’re going to be addressing lock-down procedures, and some of the myths and realities of school violence situations that they’ve heard of through the media," Fox said. "We’re going to put together profiles for school shooters and talk about what some of the characteristics that they share are, as well as early warning signs they can look for."

Rappe said the seminar will be an all-inclusive.

"Basically it’s to reach all employees — bus drivers, custodians, secretaries, cooks," Rappe said. "If they hear something or pick up a rumor they’ll know what to do with it."

Rappe said the "rumor mill" is a useful tactic for school administrators and staff to keep in touch with what is going on in the school by checking up on hearsay and other indicators of problems.

"Our teachers are always checking the themes of any written or oral reports," Rappe said. "If there are violence themes, they give us a heads up on it. We follow up on drawings, speeches, graffiti — anything that gives indication of violence."

From dress codes to zero tolerance for fighting and bullying, Rappe said the high school has specific policies in place that are part of the strategy for addressing violence.

"We have the ‘sagging and bagging’ (dress code) in there and basically that was for kids being able to hide contraband and weapons, but we also know that they can dress in a very traditional way and still hide a weapon," Rappe said.

School staff also works with kids on basic civility — especially their language toward one another.

"We deal a lot with monitoring their cursing at each other in the halls and how they treat each other," he said. "We look a lot for any kind of ‘mad dog’ looks. It’s a gesture kids do if they want to fight or challenge somebody. We don’t let them do that."

Fox said when the possibility of violence is in the rumor stage, there are certain actions taken by the school.

"What we’ve done is pull those students in that we understand are planning something or talking about planning something or even made statements about having a gun or bringing a gun," Fox said. "We’ll pull the parents in too and talk to them. I think if we let the kids know that there’s someone out there that cares and wants to listen, everybody feels safe coming to school here."

However, when something violent does transpire, the school does not take matters lightly.

Assistant Principal Dave Crews said there is automatic suspension for at least three days for fighting, bomb threats or possession of a dangerous weapon. Depending on the severity of an offense, expulsion is also an option.

Crews said so far this school year, 13 students have been suspended for violent offenses and one student has been suspended twice.

Rappe said that the high school has not seized any firearms from students this year, but he acknowledged that doesn’t necessarily mean that they aren’t there.

"I think it’s a sign of the times in society that we have to follow up on every type of issue that is potentially violent," Rappe said. "I know our country is founded on the right to bear arms and there’s some constitutional issues ... but we’ve got some issues in this country that we put our heads in the sand about violence and we have to address as a country."