School Safety Director Dennis Webber outlines security changes to Levy County public schools.
By Terry Witt – Spotlight Senior Reporter
Classes started Monday for Levy County public school students and security was tighter than ever before.
School District Safety Director Dennis Webber invited members of his staff to give a few examples of what has been done to make schools safer over the summer months in the wake of the mass school shooting in Parkland, Fla. on Valentines’ Day 2018.
The presentation at Tuesday’s school board meeting was part of the district’s strategic plan for the new school year and provided a rare glimpse into the security measures being undertaken at the county’s public schools.
The school board has rarely discussed school safety measures in public meetings. Most of their discussions have taken place behind closed doors in executive sessions. The school district says it is withholding information that might help a killer devise a plan to get around safety measures.
Among other things, all school district employees are being given “first aid mental health training” to identify behaviors and signs of mental illness in students. Webber said mental health first aid training has gone well. The training takes place at all the schools.
“We’re really grinding that out, getting ready for the new school year,” Webber said.
School Board Attorney David Delaney said he would prefer not to discuss details of the mental health training, but he said they could talk about it and figure out what could be discussed publicly.
The new safety requirements are part of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas Public High School Safety Act of 2018. The law forces school districts to hire more armed school security guards, harden schools to make them safer from attack and train school personnel in “active shooter” drills.
Transportation Director Gary Masters said the district has also focused on training bus drivers to be alert to vehicles parked at school bus stops or people they aren’t familiar with standing close to where students board buses.
Bus drivers who see something suspicious at a bus stop are trained to radio the school transportation office. Masters’ office will immediately contact law enforcement to investigate.
Masters said bus drivers have also been trained to limit the time bus doors are open to reduce the chance of someone boarding illegally. He said the school district has modified school buses to allow them to be identified from the air.
“Our bus drivers are being made very aware of noting the bus stop as they approach it. Anything that looks suspicious,” Masters said. “For example if they are rolling up to a bus stop and there’s a vehicle sitting there that’s not usually there, or there’s someone standing over close enough when the students are standing, that they could slip on (the bus), they will bypass the bus stop and they will contact us by radio.”
He said the youngest students on school buses, some only 3 years old, are seated close to the front of the bus. The youngest are secured in child safety seats.
Masters described an incident last year where a vehicle kept showing up at various places along a particular bus route. Police were notified. He said he couldn’t give further details.
He recalled one incident in Wisconsin last year that started at a school bus stop. He said a kidnapper watched a bus and identified the girl he wanted for himself “in his own sick way.” He came back later, kidnapped the girl and murdered her parents. She later escaped while the kidnapper was out of his house.
“We’re transporting 60 percent of our students. We’re securing the campus but we’re concerned about, to the degree possible, to secure bus stops,” he said.
Tracy Stockman, the district’s building and maintenance director, gave a couple of examples of how two Williston elementary schools have been secured with fencing and remodeling.
He said Joyce Bullock Elementary School was originally designed in a way that allowed people entering the office area to have immediate access to the student campus. Stockman said they remodeled the office area to cut off direct access from the office to the student campus.
“We had to do a complete remodel there to make the front office accessible to the public without being inside the secure perimeter,” Stockman said. “That was a big project for us. We did a lot of that in-house.”
He said the district added 4,000 feet of fencing at Williston Elementary School to protect the perimeter of the school. He said the school already had a way to prevent people in the office from accessing the secure campus.
School Board member Paige Brookins said the Chiefland High School campus was so big they didn’t try to erect additional fencing, but she said it was her understanding the district would ask for funding to fence the campus.
“But the Chiefland campus is secure,” Edison quickly added.
Julia Oberst, food service director, said the district had concerns about female food service employees coming to work in the dark to direct the offloading food delivery trucks and she made changes to their work schedule to correct the problem. She said they had been coming in as early as 5:30 a.m.
“So the ladies are out with flashlights; they’re trying to hold their keys, trying to open the gate; a lot of issues with their safety,” she said. “What I put into place recently to help with costs was changing menus and bringing the ladies in later so they don’t get there until 6:30. That’s helped tremendously because by then God has provided light. That’s more of a safe atmosphere.”
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School Board of Levy County Regular Meeting August 13, 2019;Post August 13, 2019
