Schools' security reviewed

Officials say there's no way to guarantee student safety

By Julie Poppen
Camera Staff Writer

Like most schools, Monarch High School in Louisville has faced its share of pranks and threats. But a recent string of fires in restroom stalls (someone torched the toilet paper) prompted school officials to consider the behavior something beyond mischief.

Rumors about someone wanting to burn the school surfaced again Tuesday — the day two youthful gunmen opened fire on students and set off bombs at Littleton's Columbine High School.

The source of the Monarch rumor never materialized, and the school and police never apprehended anyone involved in the restroom fires March 30, April 2 and April 6. But school officials are on the defensive.

"Every time we hear things through the rumor mill, we trace every tendril of that rumor mill," said Barbara Stayton, Monarch assistant principal.

School safety has been a major issue nationwide, as inner city schools resort to metal detectors and schools like Monarch consider using identification cards as a way to track who is in the building at any given time.

In addition, Colorado schools are taking an increasingly strong stand on weapons in schools, in part because of a 1993 state law requiring expulsion of students caught with guns or knife blades longer than 3 inches.

There were no reported gun incidents in the 27,000-student Boulder Valley this year or last, Superintendent Tom Seigel said. However, one high school student who scared his peers with a false but authentic-looking gun was expelled in late 1998.

"In those instances where things have occurred, we take a strong response to ensure the safety of the kids," Seigel said. "We don't let things slide when security is concerned."

Equally important, perhaps, are good, open relationships between students and staff.

"There is a need for counselors to help balance out kids' emotional roller coasters," Seigel said. "There is also a need to have kids that will cooperate. Kids need to have the intestinal fortitude to speak up."

In the wake of Tuesday's fatal shootings and bombings in Littleton, school officials in the Boulder Valley and St. Vrain Valley school districts and local law enforcement agencies are likely to review and adjust security policies.

According to the most recent Boulder Valley statistics, there were 31 suspensions and 23 expulsions for possession of deadly weapons, mostly knives, on school grounds in 1997-1998 — a sharp increase from 1994-1995 when there were nine suspensions and two expulsions.

In 1997-1998, 19 St. Vrain Valley students ranging from fifth through 12th grades were expelled for having weapons. Of those, four had guns, including one pellet gun. The rest of the weapons were knives.

This year, 10 St. Vrain students — including two who brought BB guns to school — have been expelled.

Craig Boccard, assistant principal at Broomfield High School, said it's important to take any threat seriously.

"Any time you have an open campus like we have, with so many entrances, there is no way you can absolutely guarantee no one would come in to the school with a weapon," Boccard said.

But, he added: "We're going to do whatever we can to ensure we have a safe campus; that is first and foremost a priority with us."

Broomfield High, like other Boulder Valley high schools, employs two people as security monitors trained to keep an eye on students. Four video cameras are focused on the Broomfield High parking lot, and other Boulder Valley high schools are exploring the possibility of installing similar video cameras.

"Resource officers" from local police departments also are stationed at most Boulder Valley high schools. And, without providing details, Bill Van Howe, director of secondary education, said the Boulder Valley School District has emergency response plans and a staff team at each school that is versed in the latest methods in crisis-control.

St. Vrain Valley officials have reinforced crisis plans after the Oklahoma City bombing and highly reported school shootings elsewhere in the country. Educators met with the American Red Cross, police, emergency crews and firefighters to create a District Incident Response Team, or DIRT.

"Rather than acting upon good judgment, we have assigned roles," district spokeswoman Nancy Herbert said.

Each trained person has a DIRT bag — blueprints of every school and district office building, master lists, cellular telephone numbers, locations of emergency equipment and other information. The blueprints help SWAT or emergency teams find ways into buildings through air vents or other paths, Herbert said.

In addition, the district now has two evacuation sites for every school.

The Adams 12 Five Star School District, serving students in eastern Broomfield, has similar contingency plans.

"Each school has emergency plan systems — including coded announcements, signals for teachers, building evacuations, lock-downs or whatever is needed," Superintendent Judy Margrath-Huge said.

The Adams County district also has a closed-campus policy at high schools for freshmen and sophomores and a limited open campus for juniors and seniors. In Boulder Valley, the only high school that doesn't allow students to come and go during the day is Louisville's Monarch.

In Boulder, the police department last year put together a policy for responding to school shootings, Boulder Police Sgt. Larry Mason said.

"We wanted to make sure we weren't going to get caught unprepared," Mason said.

In the wake of Tuesday's school massacre, Mason said it's time for a brush-up on the policy.

But Broomfield Police Chief Tom Deland questioned whether any preparation would be enough to prevent a disaster like Tuesday's.

"I don't know that any plan any community could put together could handle a catastrophe like this," Deland said. "This is as bad as it gets."

Camera staff writers Margie McAllister, Pam Regensberg, Christine Reid and Matt Brannaugh contributed to this report.