SWAMPSCOTT, MA — There was a time in the not-too-distant past when school safety largely consisted of lining up for fire drills, hopping out of the back of buses, and teaching children the dangers of roughhousing and running with scissors.
These days, for school administrators, educators and school resource officers, the persistent concerns involve school shooting and bomb threats, lockdown protocols, and both the emotional and potential physical harm caused by incidents of hate and bias in and around the school buildings.
“It’s sad that in the world we live in we have to think about these things,” Swampscott School Resource Officer Brian Wilson told Patch on Thursday. “We don’t want to make the schools prisons. We want the kids to be free to learn and not feel like they are locked in. But there is a fine line there in the world we live in today.”
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Patch spoke with Wilson about some of the evolving aspects of school safety entering the new school year in a follow-up to a presentation that Superintendent Pamela Angelakis made to the School Committee last week, which included a new “active shooter training” protocol and a recent interfaith leadership summit on incidents of hate, race and bias across the town over the past year.
Wilson said the summit included a discussion on some of the higher-profile incidents, including a swastika scrawled on a Redington Street sidewalk in January and a racial slur written on a playground basketball court in June, as well as how the schools can best react to similar incidents that occur among the town’s younger people.
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“We work to make sure that the students are respectful of not only different religions,” Wilson said, “but also sexuality and making sure people are using the correct names (preferred pronouns).
“The biggest thing we want to do is educate. I have an open door and the students know they can come to me and talk about anything. I have had a lot of success with that.”
Wilson shared how the schools responded to one incident last year at the high school when a student air-dropped photos that included what appeared to be a swastika drawn on a pair of sneakers.
“In that case, we were able to work with him, bring him to the local temple, and educate him on the holocaust,” Wilson said. “I don’t think he actually really knew what it meant and what a big deal something like that really was. But we educated him on it and the kid has been wonderful ever since.”
One change at the schools this year will be a switch from the ALICE (Alert, Lockdown, Inform, Counter, Evacuate) active shooter drill to the “I Love You Guys” protocol developed in response to a school shooting in Colorado. On Sept. 27, 2006, a gunman entered Platte Canyon High School, held seven girls hostage, and ultimately shot and killed Emily Keyes. During the time she was held hostage, Emily sent her parents text messages that read: “I love you guys,” and “I love you guys. k?”
“I found ALICE to be very rigid in its training,” said Wilson, who will be holding a parent/family night to share more specific differences between the two protocols early this fall. “They want us banging on doors. They want fake bad guys. After COVID, the mental health of children is more of a consideration, even for adults.
“This has a pre-K to second-grade aspect that is a little more user-friendly. They don’t need to hear about ‘bad guy, bad guy, bad guy might be coming’ over and over.”
Wilson said the new system also involves a reunification element in which staff members are assigned to greet parents and help ensure that families are brought together in a calm and orderly fashion, as well as more flexibility in the lockdown procedures depending on the threat level.
“If you have a gas leak down the street this allows students to move through the building even if they cannot go outside,” he said. “Other lockdown procedures would have the kids remain in the classroom no matter what. But that’s not always realistic or necessary if there is not a direct threat inside the building.”
Wilson said that, unfortunately, some changes deemed necessary in recent years — such as having only one door at the high school where students are suppose to enter and exit each day — are likely here to stay.
“We used to be more lenient than that,” he said. “But this allows us to greet everyone when they come in and put eyes on everybody. That way if there is a kid that we don’t recognize we can follow up on that.”
School safety extends to the streets and sidewalks around the school with Wilson putting out an educational video for parents and students to watch in advance of this week’s first day of school.
It can be a lot.
Fortunately for Wilson, he has a highly effective partner in helping him connect with students in Swampscott comfort K-9 Sora. Sora became a fixture by Wilson’s side — police comfort and operational dogs live with their companion officer — and has been a big help in both tense and lighter situations around the schools over the past year.
“She’s with me all the time,” Wilson said. “It’s been amazing to see the reaction to her. The whole vibe changes when they know she’s in the building. She’s helped kids learning to read because she will sit and listen without judgement. We’ve had kids who have been having tough days and she’ll help them calm down in 30 seconds in a way an adult talking to them for three hours wouldn’t do.
“She’s done so many things at the schools that I didn’t even know were a thing.”
(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at [email protected]. Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)
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