As we approach the fourth month of school, it has become clear that Santa Barbara High is not immune to the multitude of threats plaguing school safety across the country. Messages were sent out from the Santa Barbara Unified School District (SBUSD) to families detailing threats of school shooters on September 12 and September 18, as well as a safety issue that occurred near campus on September 30. With so many threats being made in such a small window of time, the safety of campuses across the district has come into question, forcing students and families to reconsider the danger they put themselves in just by coming to school each day. 

The first safety threat of the school year came on September 12 when a staff member overheard two young adults making a statement about having a gun as they walked towards the parking lot of SBHS. The staff member then reported the incident and the students left campus. Authorities were notified, who then found the students at their respective schools while San Marcos was placed on lockdown due to one of the students not cooperating with law enforcement. The statement that was overheard turned out to be in reference to a vape pen, and the entire incident lasted twenty minutes from the time of the report to the police meeting with the students. 

Less than a week later, many social media posts were circulated with threats of shooters coming into the school after pulling a fire alarm. Police were notified and investigated the posts, and while there was never a direct threat made to any school group, a ParentSquare message was sent out to families September 18 detailing the issue. On September 30, Santa Barbara Police Department (SBPD) conducted a traffic stop on Anapamu Street, and due to the heightened fear of the earlier weeks, SBUSD decided to send out a ParentSquare message to alleviate possible fears from students and families. 

According to Assistant Principal Ed Gomez, who facilitates the school safety plan, the procedure when it comes to any threat on social media is to contact law enforcement and allow them to verify the credibility of the threat. Since the threats have occurred, administration at SBHS has devoted more time to refreshing and educating teachers on safety protocols, specifically the use of the CrisisGo app in place on all district staff devices. “The incident on campus on (September 12) was a good reminder for us that not everybody is as aware of CrisisGo as we thought, so it was a good reminder that we need to make sure we’re all trained and have access to CrisisGo and are using it properly,” Gomez explained. “It was just about refocusing, reminding, and refreshing about protocols that are in place.” For many students, their confidence in their safety at school was put to the test when a fire alarm went off shortly after the social media posts had been circulating. The alarm came from the construction zone on campus, and teachers were instructed to follow the general practice after a fire alarm, which is to wait for a notification to evacuate if you don’t see or smell smoke. “People were on edge a little bit and so we want to make sure that staff members as well as students are informed and reminded…It’s our job as administrators to make sure that we’re communicating that clearly and in a timely manner,” Gomez said.  

According to Gomez, the biggest issue when handling threats to school safety is ensuring that SBUSD families receive accurate information. While Gomez understands that families want to be updated as quickly as possible when it comes to the safety of their children in schools, he says that, “We need time to assess what’s going on and we can’t always communicate updates in real time, so I think that can be troublesome because as we’re dealing with it in real time, sometimes misinformation or rumors go out and that creates a panic or concern that’s unwarranted at that time…We want to make sure we don’t put out misinformation and that we put out accurate information, and sometimes that takes a little bit more time than the person waiting for it wants it to take.” Another issue to ensuring safety on campus is that SBHS is very spread out and has multiple access points, but Gomez still says that the Dons community can keep each other safe by watching out for when something doesn’t seem right on campus. “School safety is everybody’s job…All of us are part of the safety plan, and that means when you see something, report it, or you hear something, report it,” he said. 

For many students, going to school in the midst of these threats has made the idea of feeling safe on campus a distant reality. One student said, “Those threats made everybody…on edge and pretty nervous. I think that we were all pretty scared.” For another student, seeing the threats made her feel concerned for her safety at the pep rally on September 20.  “I know a lot of people just didn’t go…because they were scared that someone was going to show up and that it was not safe,” she shared. The students saw the initial social media posts that circulated during the week of September 18, and while they doubted the legitimacy of the threats, they thought it, “could be real because it is so real for so many schools in the country right now.” Both students think they would feel more safe on campus if there were more lockdown drills and clear instructions on what to do if they were in the hallways or bathrooms during the lockdown. While these instructions would be helpful, their fear persists, as one student said, “I feel like (there is) an underlying fear at all school events now.” 

SBUSD Executive Director for Student and Family Services, John Schettler, understands that while it is important to create clear communication between the district and families when it comes to safety threats, sending out messages to families can also create a sense of fear for students. “With these threats of school violence, we’re going to take every threat seriously…fully knowing that 99% of the time, there’s nothing real to it. You never want to err on the side of ‘something’s not real and we’re not prepared,’ but it’s also emotionally exhausting,” Schettler explained. “It takes a toll. We see it in attendance, we see it in mental health referrals. It’s real. Even if we’re fortunate enough to not have had an incident, it doesn’t mean that the stuff circulating doesn’t have an impact.” In order to address these concerns as well as refresh staff on standard response protocol, the student free day on October 21 was used as a training day for staff on the best means of handling these situations. As far as prevention goes, there has been an increase in campus safety personnel hired on campus across the district. Schettler says that these staff members serve as the “eyes and ears” on campus, getting to know kids and seeing when they need support or when someone is not recognized on campus. In addition, SBUSD is aiming to make it clear to students that they should never repost threats they see on social media, and could even be criminally liable for intentionally spreading misinformation. For now, the issue of transparency between the district and families remains a question of keeping people informed while still keeping their peace of mind. “It takes all of us…to make schools the spaces that we want them to be, which is where kids can focus on getting an education, socialization, and not having to worry about these things,” Schettler reflected. “So it’s one thing to be prepared, but we really don’t want it to be the thing that kids come to school thinking about or worried about…I do think we need to listen to students around that, and sometimes the best ideas are not ones that adults are going to generate.”

As we continue into the next few months of school, students’ confidence in their safety on campus is an issue with no clear solution in sight. Can students ever truly feel safe on campus? As schools across the country are subject to the same types of threats, is fear of attending school a new persistent reality for students and staff? While the messages in September turned out to not be credible threats, it is no question that SBHS students lack the same peace of mind they came with in the beginning of the year.

[Image Credit: Mary Moses]