By Chelsea McNerney-Martinez
MONTE VISTA—The Sargent School District held a public meeting for parents and concerned community members last Monday, April 16, to discuss ongoing school safety measures. Although the topic of arming teachers, an option Sargent has been exploring, took up much of the conversation, Superintendent Greg Slover assured the roughly two dozen people in attendance it was not an armed staff meeting, but rather so parents could get “a complete picture of making our schools safe.”
Slover and Jr./Sr. High Principal Ronna Cochran explained the school is emphasizing the social-emotional health of students, ensuring students who may be struggling with suicidal ideations or other emotional health issues are being connected to resources. The school is conducting advocacy groups from K-12 for a half hour every week to make sure students feel involved and understand they have at least someone— teachers, peers or both— that they can turn to in times of crisis. “You’ll reach 98 percent of students that way,” Cochran said of emphasizing social-emotional health. Counselors come to the school multiple times a week as well, provided through a BOCES grant and a SLV Behavioral Health program.
 Students are also being encouraged to remember their social media interconnectedness with their peers from other schools, and are being urged to report when they see either potential threat to any San Luis Valley schools, acts of bullying or other alarming behavior on social media, regardless of what school may be affected. Additionally, the school has been implementing physical safety measures, like increased monitoring of the schools’ perimeters, bulletproof glass in certain areas, protective films on some of the windows so it’s harder for intruders to see into classrooms and monitors in the cafeteria with instructions for students to follow in the event of an emergency. The students have been providing ideas for safety measures to administrators as well. Slover indicated many students were shaken after the Parkland, Fla. school shooting and were hesitant to even complete fire drills without law enforcement present, but turned that apprehension into productivity, telling staff what their concerns were from their perspective and what weaknesses they felt existed in the school’s safety plan.
Paul Gearhart and Darrin Barnes of Outdoor Training Solutions (OTS), a safety consulting firm that serves schools, businesses and churches and teaches a variety of training courses, were present to answer questions as well. OTS has been discussing options for arming staff at the school with the administration as well as conducting other safety courses with staff, including a recent course on combat and trauma training, “so we can maybe save lives in an event until EMTs get here.” The administration and school board members emphasized throughout the meeting they are not eager to arm teachers as a first option, but because of how rural Sargent is, it’s a “soft target” because of the time it would take law enforcement to reach it. Cochran assured the attendees that in the event of an emergency, any nearby agency, including CSP, MVPD, CPD and DOW would respond even if RGSO was not nearby, but ultimately RGSO is responsible for the school and may have to respond from any corner of the county. With most school shooting events lasting on average about three minutes, the school is in need of means of responding immediately and potentially neutralizing threats. Cochran noted some teachers and staff are opposed to being armed, but all are eager to complete any necessary drills and courses to best prepare themselves to respond.
Parents asked OTS staff what was entailed for a teacher to be armed, with Gearhart noting the teacher has to have a concealed carry permit with all of the necessary courses and has to take and pass firearms safety training and active shooter training before they complete an additional four-day course. The teachers then have to attend additional annual trainings. Some of the trainings involve live simulated ammo, paint rounds fired from a real gun, which hurt more than paintballs and provide more realistic noise. OTS has also designed additional screening questions to ensure only the most prepared and qualified staff would be armed. Parents expressed concerns with the potentially armed teachers’ abilities to act in an active shooter situation, potentially harming or killing one of their own students. Cochran answered “We’re not training law enforcement officers; we just want to them to be able to respond in the event of an emergency,” with Board of Education Secretary Tyler Mitchell adding, “Even if only two out of the possible 10 [the maximum number the school anticipates being trained to be armed] can respond, at least it’s better than not at all.”
Parents inquired if the school has explored other options like a security guard or school resource officer. Administrators stated the former was the most expensive option and Gearhart explained resource officers pose a lot of complications, because often they are partially or totally grant funded but still answer to a department which then has to fire them when the grant runs out and the officer will often have other department duties to fulfill, leaving them at the school only about three quarters of the time and only one officer to an entire campus. Another parent asked about volunteers like retired military personnel or retired police, which OTS staff indicated wasn’t practical because they wouldn’t be likely to find enough who are available and willing in the Valley.
Parents also asked about other alternatives like tasers or mace in classrooms, with Barnes noting tasers for each classroom would be expensive and their effectiveness can be hindered by thick clothing like jackets. With the ventilation of most classrooms, mace would hurt everyone in the vicinity and neither would guarantee a potential shooter would be stopped.
Board Vice President Gina Mitchell asked administrators if they have explored any arguments against arming teachers, which Slover readily answered, stating he has considered hypothetical dangers, using himself as the example. One of his greatest fears is if he had a medical emergency and passed out in the hallway and a student found the gun on him and harmed themselves or another student. Earlier in his career he was opposed to having even an armed resource officer in the building with students, “but society has changed a lot.”
Cochran added she also absolutely has reservations but “after having been in situations where you’re waiting on emergency responders it changes your perspective a lot…nobody wants to face this in a school but I would rather be well-trained and prepared because my responsibility is the safety of all the kids…It’s hard to have a teacher’s heart and be armed.”