EL CAJON, Calif. — The Cajon Valley Union School District is making sure its safety and security procedures are up to date.
In 2018, the district launched its school safety plan following the deadly Parkland High School shooting in Florida. With shootings still a growing threat across the country, the district is taking a step further.
"It's something that we revisit every year, practice training protocols tools, everything," said Dr. Superintendent, David Miyashiro.
The district along with the El Cajon Police Department and San Diego County Sheriff’s Office are once again working together to beef up their prevention strategies and response for all 27 district area schools.
“To have that collaboration, to have that open-minded communication is super important to accomplish that goal," Mike Moulton, Chief of Police El Cajon Police Department.
Miyashiro says the district is making the necessary adjustments after hearing safety concerns from students and parents on student behavior, discipline procedures, and the frequency of which incidents happen.
“It's part of a system-wide safety comprehensive plan including the physical plan, our school themselves, the training, and then our policies around student discipline," added the superintendent. “Across the country, coming out of covid, we’ve seen a lot of different needs for students and some of those needs come out in student behavior, so the need to have different procedures to make sure we keep our kids safe, not just in a critical incident but on a day to day basis – on their playgrounds or at lunch or recess duty – are important.”
Last month, the school board took steps to address these concerns, gather input and update their safety plan.
As part of their preparation, law enforcement agencies hold realistic training exercises.
“Our school district concentrates on an option-based response, we don’t rely on just a lockdown-only response if ever faced with a violent, critical incident. We wanna make sure that if staff is ever faced with the presence of danger they know what the response is going to be," said Ryan Love, Safety & Security, Cajon Valley Union School District.
The efforts to increase security and safety come as welcome news to parents.
“They need to be able to know the blueprints of where they’re at so they can handle the situation better. They know where the doors are," said parent, Ryan Chilcote.
The district will be holding future town hall meetings to lay out how they are putting this plan into action.
The public is invited to attend and voice their thoughts.
To find out how to participate and when the next meeting is, click here.
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