District uses professional development, active shooter drills to prepare personnel
VICTORVILLE — The amount of teachers being violently threatened by students is “a silent national crisis,” San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department deputies said during a presentation to Victorville teachers.
The Victor Valley Union High School District held two days of professional development presentations for its teachers last week, with a total of 245 voluntarily attending their selection of workshops.
On Tuesday, about 70 teachers sat in for a presentation entitled “Gunfire in the Hallway” from deputies Deon Filer and Stephen Kessler, who provided information on the trends of violent, gun-related activity in schools today.
“If you have the mindset that it won’t happen to you, that’s a very dangerous mindset,” Filer said, pointing out that schools practice fire drills much more often than active shooter drills. “Especially in the High Desert.”
Filer said local schools are beginning to look a lot like those he remembers growing up around when he lived in Los Angeles.
“We need to get ahead,” Filer said.
The professional development topics were selected by an ad hoc committee of teachers who discussed issues that would be relevant to their schools, according to VVUHSD Director of Curriculum Kristine Foote.
“A lot of what was happening in San Bernardino brought to light these sort of issues, and they chose what was important to them to discuss,” Foote said.
According to data from the National School Safety Center, youth are more at risk of a shooting in school than they are outside of school. Teachers are in no better place, Kessler pointed out, noting that 7 percent of teachers have been threatened with injury.
Kessler said that teachers should be aware of how to determine “threat assessment,” including four different types of threats — direct, indirect, veiled and conditional.
Kessler explained that even homework assignments may contain “scary” material that should serve as warning signs of threatening behavior, and teachers should always report anything they feel uneasy about.
“If you see something going on, tell someone,” Kessler said.
Lakeview Leadership Academy teacher Andrea Gonzalez expressed that she was surprised initially that VVUHSD was hosting the safety seminars for its teachers.
“At first I thought, ‘Wow this is sort of a strong topic,’ but I think it’s actually a really good feeling to know the district wants to prepare us for the worst,” Gonzalez said. “We must understand the seriousness of these topics ... You always hear it in the news, and even though it may not seem realistic it’s important to be prepared for anything. I’m glad they’re starting to provide us with measures of safety.”
VVUHSD also held several training sessions for its school security officers last week in addition to holding an active shooter training drill at Adelanto High School with personnel from across the district participating.