Nothing More Important

Jefferson Somerset’s campus safety evaluated

Ashley Hunter, ECB Publishing, Inc.

On Friday, August 17, the Florida Department of Education's Director of Safe Schools Damien Kelly visited Jefferson County on his tour through Florida schools to evaluate the safety and security of the schools.
When Director Kelly visited Jefferson Somerset, he sat down with the school's resource deputies and Principals Cory Oliver and Andre Gainey as well as Superintendent Marianne Arbulu, Sheriff Mac McNeill, and Police Chief Fred Mosley.
The purpose of the meeting was to provide an open discussion and evaluation on the safety of Jefferson Somerset's campus and ways to improve the safety of the students, staff, and parents within the school.
Director Kelly's position was created through a legislature that followed the tragic Parkland, Fl. Marjory Stoneman Douglas shooting; along with tighter security and prevention measures and the guardianship program, the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Act required the creation of the Office of Safe Schools and the appointment of a director for the office.
Kelly was chosen as the director due to his background with state law enforcement agencies.
“We are going to do everything that possibly can be done to see to it that students have a safe place to come and learn; that's what they come to school for and that's what our office is going to focus on,” said Director Kelly during the roundtable discussion with the superintendent, principals and law enforcement leaders of Jefferson County.
“This is the world we live in,” added Director Kelly.
“This is the new normal,” agreed Superintendent Arbulu.
The Office of Safe Schools will be focusing on ways to prevent tragic happenings like the Parkland shooting, ways to intervene in the middle of devastating scenarios and creating a sense of emergency preparedness.
Director Kelly also praised the attitudes of the Sheriffs that Kelly has met with throughout Florida; adding that they all shared a similar mindset and willingness to be proactive rather than reactive in the wake of a devastating emergency.
Riding on that praise, Director Kelly also lauded the relationship that the school administration and the Sheriff's Office have built, with Superintendent Arbulu agreeing.
The session was more than a praise session for working relationships and mentalities of change; the question posed by Director Kelly dove straight into the matter at hand.
“What's different now, then before Parkland?” asked Director Kelly.
McNeill spoke first, sharing that the Jefferson County Sheriff's Office (JCSO) had begun building a mindset of safety before the Parkland shooting had occurred.
“We're very proud of that,” said Sheriff McNeill. “Principal Oliver recognized the importance of it (school safety).”
Before the Parkland tragedy on Valentine's Day of this year, the JCSO and Jefferson Somerset administration had already consulted with other law enforcement agencies and SWAT teams and began making changes.
But of course, after Parkland, the urgency for safety increased, but the measures to ensure student and staff safety were already underway.
“I can't say enough about this school and what they did to embrace the safety of the children,” added McNeill.
Arbulu praised the emphasis that school staff has made to improve mental health assistance for students.
“To the benefit of these two gentlemen (Oliver and Gainey), the changes started before Parkland. This has been an ongoing effort to make sure that the school is safe and secure,” said Arbulu. “This has been a methodical, systematic process.”
Principal Cory Oliver shared updates that had been made within the school, such as the creation of an Impact Team, which is staffed by social workers, behavioral therapists and behavioral annalists.
With the Impact Team in place, there is an extra step for students experiencing difficulties before immediately sending them to a principal, especially when the students are lashing out due to stress or emotions that stem from their lives outside of the school.
Other improvements include surveillance cameras in all rooms as well as evacuation maps and emergency call buttons in every classroom.
A new, and perhaps outside-of-the-box safety addition that Principal Oliver is currently working on is displaying the building numbers on every side of pavilions within the school.
The idea was proposed pre-Parkland by Sheriff McNeill during an initial safety discussion soon after McNeill took office. The goal of the largely displayed building numbers was to assure that law enforcement officers could easily navigate the campus and identify the buildings from a distance. All officers at the JCSO also have Jefferson Somerset campus maps within their vehicles that show the placement of the buildings along with their respective numbers.
Suggested by Principal Oliver, the school will also paint large 6-foot numbers on the top of every building so that, should a helicopter be providing surveillance from the air, the buildings can still be identified.
Principal Oliver also mentioned the training for local emergency law enforcement agencies that took place earlier this year and focused on the officers and deputies ability to respond to an active shooter scenario.
“We did all that so we knew what our weaknesses were, and what our strengths were,” said Principal Oliver.
Following the table discussion, school staff, law enforcement, and Director Kelly took a tour through the school's campus in order to identify potential security and safety risks and for solution recommendations to be made.
At the end of the tour, Director Kelly praised both Jefferson Somerset, the Jefferson County School District and Jefferson County's law enforcement for the working relationship that had been built to further the security measures at the school.
Somerset itself was directly praised for the safety progress they had made though they had only been at the school for a year, especially for their pre-Parkland mindset towards student and staff safety.
“I was very impressed with everything Principal Oliver, Sheriff McNeill and Superintendent Arbulu have done,” said Director Kelly. “[Jefferson County] is very, very lucky to have a principal with security at the top of his priorities.”
“There's nothing more important than a safe learning environment for all our students and educators,” added Director Kelly. “I look forward to working together with all our school districts, partners in law enforcement and other agencies to implement the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Safety Act.”