Together, we can be A BETTER, SAFER FM!
On this page, I will share my personal thoughts on school safety, as well as periodic updates on safety discussions in our district. There are obviously many important issues in the FM district, but none are more important that the safety of our children, teachers and staff, which is why I am addressing this issue separately on this page. I understand that this is a topic that is scary to many, potentially divisive, and one on which there are many varying opinions. My sincere hope is that we all approach this topic from a place of common ground: the desire to keep our children, teachers and staff safe and alive. I welcome any productive discussion on this topic, and invite you to contact me with your thoughts, input and questions. I can be contacted at any time at DSeidberg@gmail.com.
May 1, 2018:
Unfounded rumors during election season are always interesting, so lets clear one up here: I am NOT in any way in favor of arming teachers. Anyone stating otherwise is merely spreading false information. Teachers are in our schools to teach; not to serve as armed guards.
April 9, 2018:
Even before our community forums on school safety, I spoke at the March 12 Board of Education meeting to present and encourage two specific initiatives. Every potential incident must be addressed from both a prevention aspect and a response aspect. Both of the initiatives that I addressed focused on the response to an incident in our schools.
The first is the purchase of trauma kits for each of our classrooms. After any violent attack at a school, 911 has to be contacted, they have to dispatch EMS agencies, EMS providers need time to get to the scene, and then the scene needs to be cleared before they can get to anyone who may be injured. This all takes considerable time. Time is something that seriously injured victims don't have. Though hopefully never needed, trauma kits, with tourniquets, compression bandages, anti-clotting products, etc, can go a very long way in potentially saving a life while awaiting emergency medical care. Local EMS providers and trauma physicians are available and willing to quickly train our school staff in the proper use of these life saving tools. Some of the students should also be trained, so that they can care for any injured staff. Our district spent more on a district-wide online survey last fall than it would cost to equip all of our classrooms with these kits. In the realm of spending priorities, trauma kits should be very high on the list. Though only time will tell if the district will move forward with this initiative, it's realistically something that could and should have been accomplished within 30 days.
The second initiative is organizing prompt, comprehensive training among all of our community stakeholders. Specifically, active-shooter training that involves our fire and EMS agencies, as they are the ones who will be tasked with treating anyone who may be injured. They also represent greater manpower numbers than our local police agencies for traffic control, scene coordination, etc. To date, our local fire and EMS agencies have not been invited to participate in any of the training that has taken place in our schools. Training and drills are critical to the effective coordination and management of any emergency situation. After I made this request to the district at a Board of Education meeting, the district held an active-shooter drill, but the fire and EMS agencies were again on the sideline and were not asked to participate. The best response is a pre-planned and coordinated response involving all of our emergency management professionals. It's time that we do better.
There were many additional initiatives that I wanted to address at the same time, but the Board limits public comments to a mere three minutes.
April 2, 2018:
Actions are always more telling than words.
On April 2, our Board of Education voted to adopt a school budget for 2018-2019 with the largest percentage tax levy increase in more than a decade (3.67%). The tax levy is the total amount of tax money that the district collects from the local taxpayers. District voters will vote on this budget on May 15.
Despite two community safety forums (and lots of other resident input) to determine the list of “short term” safety/security improvements desired by the community, the approved budget did not include a single safety/security change from the preliminary budget that was presented before the community forums. The community presented a lengthy list of items that were desired in the short term; none of those resulted in any changes being made to the budget.
Apparently, “short term” for our current board and administration must mean more than a year from now, in some future budget. We can, and should do better.
March 27, 2018:
Our students are afraid to go to school.
Let those words sink in. Think about what this means.
“Afraid” and “school” should never be in the same sentence. We have failed our children by allowing this to happen. We owe it to them to fix this.
Like many of you, I have given this a lot of thought, especially lately. I still vividly remember watching all of the Columbine funerals, and experiencing the horror of Sandy Hook. Now the most recent shootings in Florida and Maryland are at the forefront. What has changed is the approach of the students to these tragedies. Sadly, we as adults have little to nothing to show for our efforts.
I keep asking myself the same questions. How did we allow this to happen? Why have we failed our children so badly? How can we fix this for them, now?
Recent meetings in our district have primarily focused on hardening our schools. More resource officers in our schools, more threat detection technology, stricter entrance policies, panic buttons, more drills, and on and on. So many of these things are needed, and I agree that we need them here at FM. We also need significantly increased funding for mental wellness resources, programming and staffing. All of this is good. All of it is needed. All of it is long overdue. But we need more.
We can harden our schools, but our children will still be vulnerable to many of the same threats. Arriving at school, leaving school, at recess, during gym, on the buses, during sporting events, during concerts. Hardening schools still leaves these and other vulnerabilities. We need all the enhanced security that we can buy, but we still need more.
I am firmly convinced that of all the available security measures, there are three primary entities that serve as the most valuable and most comprehensive preventative tools at our disposal: our staff (teachers, administrators, aides, bus drivers, custodial staff, etc); our students; and all of the parents. Our staff, students and parents collectively represent our single best hope for preventing tragedy in our schools. We must recognize the value each of these individual groups has to offer, and we must embolden and empower each of them to maximize their effectiveness
STAFF. Our staff truly represents the front line in this battle. This is not what any of them signed up for, but there they are. We entrust them daily with our students. That used to be so that they could learn reading, writing and arithmetic. Now it’s so that they can, hopefully, make it through the school day alive.
Our teachers and staff need fewer curriculum mandates, and more time to simply communicate and form meaningful bonds with our students. With properly managed and constrained class sizes, and more freedom from mandates, they are the ones who can and will see the behaviors, the loneliness, the taunting and teasing, the depression, the withdrawal, the boasting, the false bravado, and so many other signs and symptoms of children who simply need attention and help. Let’s give them the freedom to teach in a more free and interactive manner, so that they can better identify those who need help. And then let’s make certain that we provide the necessary resources for that help to be available, in a non-disciplinary, stigma-free setting and manner.
STUDENTS. If our staff represents the front line, then surely it’s our students who are in this battle. Let’s be honest, they know what’s going on in their schools before anyone else does. They are the advance scouts in this war. Why is the messaging not getting from the scouts to the leaders? Sadly, it’s largely our fault.
We have focused so much on discipline, that the students know that any reported incident will likely be met with discipline. They don’t want to be one who tells on a friend or classmate. They don’t want to be the one who gets a friend or classmate in trouble. They are also smart enough to know that “anonymous” online reporting is rarely if ever truly anonymous.
If we have learned anything this year, it’s that our students are able to lead this battle effectively. We just need to give them the room and freedom to do so. We need to embolden and empower them, so that they will come forward with what they know. We need them to know that they can do so without fear of reprisal or repercussions. We need them to know that we will support and protect them when they do so, and that knowledge and information is our goal, not discipline. Let’s let them guide us in the the avenues that they want to use to report this information, rather than us telling them how and when to do so. We need to adapt to them, and to let them guide the methodology of this transfer of knowledge and information.
PARENTS. Though we have largely failed to this point, our role in this is no less important. We must look harder, we must listen more carefully, and we must communicate more regularly and effectively. We must talk more openly with our children, their friends, and each other. We must more vigilantly monitor social media accounts, and we must be more understanding of the impact that our own actions and behaviors have on those of our children.
When we can’t communicate with others who may have differing opinions in a calm and respectful manner, how can we expect our children to do so? What lessons are we teaching by our own actions about tolerance and acceptance of others and of opposing viewpoints? Introspection on these behaviors is needed now more than ever, and we owe it to our children to lead by example.
For us to be effective in our role, we also need more from our schools. We need regular, open, frank communications from our schools about what is happening in the schools, what they are hearing and seeing on social media, and what should be on our collective radar. We can then use this information to guide our conversations and inquiries at home, and to better understand what we should be looking and listening for. More clear communication from the schools about their in-school messaging on any critical topics will also enable us to provide consistent messaging at home so that we and the schools can reinforce each others’ messaging. Lastly, we too need a clearly defined method and protocol for communicating any concerns and information that we have back to the schools, without fear of such information resulting in student discipline.
Our students are afraid to go to school. This is the reality in which we now live. We have allowed this to happen. We must now all do our part to fix this. Join the movement. Be a part of the solution. We owe this to our children.