Havre schools host public forum on school safety

Havre community members met in the auditorium at Havre High School to hear about new safety procedures and to have a chance to share their own concerns with the school board Tuesday evening.

Havre Public Schools Superintendent Andy Carlson first introduced members of the Havre Police Department, Chief of Police Gabe Matosich and Assistant Chief of Police Jason Barkus and thanked them for their assistance.

Havre schools are now moving to the Standard Response Protocol throughout the district, Carlson said because it provides consistency for students and teachers across the entire Havre school district.

“Our substitutes are the ones who really pointed it out to us and really brought it home,” Carlson said. “They said, ‘look if I’m subbing at Lincoln-McKinley, it’s great because I know what Lincoln-McKinley is going to do. The problem is I can go to Havre High and their program is great, too, it’s just it’s so different. I spend my entire time trying to figure out what the safety plan is at every school and I have about zero time to prepare to sub.’”

A presentation followed showing the five symbols that will now be used to communicate to parents, students and faculty regarding safety procedures.

The first was the Lockdown symbol: A picture of a lock inside a red circle. The Evacuate symbol is a picture of three children holding hands inside a green circle. The Shelter symbol is a small chevron over a person within an orange circle. The Lockout symbol is a pair of hands within a blue circle. The final symbol, Hold, is a door with a red line through it.

Officer Josh Holt explained the differences between the symbols. For example, the Shelter symbol is for natural disasters like an earthquake or tornado. The Hold, or Hold in Place, symbol is for keeping the hallways clear of students for medical emergencies, Holt said.

“From now on, Lockdown means one thing and one thing only,” Holt said, “Lockdown means there’s someone inside the building posing an imminent danger.”

An audience member asked who the main decision-maker would be for implementing the five statuses of the SRP. Carlson said that the principal at each school would be the one to make those decisions because they are the ones who are there in the moment.

After the presentation of the SRP symbols, the audience was given three questions to respond to via their mobile phones. The audience just had to enter the given web address and enter the code and respond to the question and their responses would show up on the screen. Notecards and pencils were provided for people who did not have mobile phones with them.

The first question was: “My greatest safety concern as a parent and community member is?”

Some responses were, how open the campuses are, how to make the playground safe but still fun for kids, child abduction at bus stops and how to convey safety procedures for kindergarten through third graders.

Carlson asked Mark Irvin, the Highland Park Early Primary School principal, to come up and address the topic of how to teach kindergarten through third-graders safety procedures.

Irvin said that they go through the SRP chart with the kids right from the beginning, but that the biggest key for teaching them is the drilling process. Irvin also said they rely on their adult assistants to help because the kids are of such a young age.

“We talk with our kids,” Irvin said. “We’re open and honest with them. We talk with them at a level that they can understand it. We have to make sure the vocabulary we use for them is careful.”

The second question was: “If I was an elected official or school superintendent, my next safety steps in the district would be?”

Some of the responses were Nightlock system, making sure front office staff members keep track of people coming into the building and continued conversations with parents and students about safety.

The Nightlock system is advertised as being a door barricade. Earlier in the evening, an audience member asked about door jams and why they weren’t being used in schools.

“I met with the attorney general’s office last year,” Holt said. “And what it all boiled down to was: It’s not up to them. We need to change the law to allow the Nightlock system. So we need to talk to our state folks that we have elected and start pushing them to get this changed.”

The final question was: “What do we have to do as a community to become the safest school district in the country?”

Some of the responses were requests to continue conversations and training about school safety, clear communication between school district and parents, engage as a community, participate as an interested group for the safety of our students and school, and support for mental health.

“I’m very worried about what’s happening with the Department of Public Health and Human services because it’s going to impact right away our mental health,” Carlson said. “Those resources and those people are suffering some of the largest cuts, and I fully believe that’s going to go on the backs of the schools and we don’t have the resources or people to address the needs that are there.”

Carlson commended law enforcement agencies for all the help that they have provided to the schools and staff. Carlson said that he would like to do another safety forum in the future and encouraged parents to go and tell their friends about what they heard.

During a question and answer session at the end of the presentation, an audience member asked a question about the protocol for fire alarms. The example she gave came from an incident in which an active shooter pulled the fire alarm and shot at the students as they were running out.

“Typically, the way you hear it is you’re going to go into a lockdown and then you’re going to hear a fire alarm,” Carlson said, adding that he recently saw a demonstration of this at a school

“Students are taught that ‘lockdown’ trumps everything,” Carlson said.

Some parents stuck around afterward to either talk amongst themselves or to ask further questions.

“I appreciated being here and being a part of this important conversation,” said community member Angie Olsen. “I thought it was a great opportunity to share our thoughts and opinions and hear what the district is doing currently to help keep our students safe.”

Olsen said she does feel at ease after attending the meeting, and is grateful that they have the Standard Response Protocols now.

“I feel this was just a good way to start the conversation. Maybe they don’t have all the answers yet, but I trust they’re going to work towards those things,” Olsen said. “I do feel like we were heard tonight at least.”

Sunnyside Intermediate School Principal Carmen Lunak said the safety procedures were outstanding and “that every building has a uniform process is really critical.”

She said she felt that the safety meeting was a big start for the schools to connect with the community to work together for the best interest for the students.

Lunak also said that she believes more people will start to turn out for the safety forums and that this was a good start.