San Luis
Obispo County schools and law enforcement personnel have trained and prepared for
possible violent incidents on campus, including school shootings, the county
grand jury has found.
In its final
report for the 2014-15 year, issued Tuesday, the San Luis Obispo County Grand
Jury examined the responses of schools and public safety personnel in the event
of a violent incident on a school campus.
In May,
students at Atascadero High School and North County Christian School endured a
live lockdown for two hours after a teacher reported hearing what sounded like
a gunshot.
Four months
prior, Pat Butler Elementary School in Paso Robles also went on lockdown after
students reported seeing a man with a gun near the campus.
The massive
response to those reports showed how local law enforcement and school
administrators have made it a priority to prepare for a shooter on campus,
according to a Tribune article published in June that examined lockdown
procedures on school campuses.
Ongoing
training at schools includes talks with law enforcement, monthly meetings with
school district administrators and the San Luis Obispo County Office of
Education, multiple classroom drills countywide each year, and at least one
full-fledged annual lockdown drill with law enforcement involvement.
The last
time there was an active shooter on a San Luis Obispo County campus, according
to sheriff’s officials, was in 2003 when a 15-year-old boy walked to the front
of his sophomore English class at Arroyo Grande High School and pointed a
handgun at the teacher before he was subdued by two fellow students. No one was
injured.
The grand
jury visited 11 schools, including nine public schools and colleges and two
private schools, though none were identified in the report.
Grand jurors
attended school drills, off-site training exercises and talked to law
enforcement personnel with the county Sheriff’s Office, all seven city police
departments and several fire departments.
The grand
jury found that all police departments and the Sheriff’s Office are
continuously training and have sections in their department manuals outlining
procedures to respond to a school incident, including an active shooter.
One
department periodically sends its officers to local schools to become familiar
with the campuses, while another has a school’s master keys and a map of
campus.
In addition,
the report noted, the Sheriff’s Office is leading an effort to provide a
three-dimensional map of every school campus countywide to all local police
agencies.
No agencies
were required to respond to the report, but the grand jury did include a list
of best practices for schools to consider. The report can be viewed at
http://slocourts.net/grand_jury/reports.
July 28, 2015
San
Luis Obispo Tribune
By Cynthia Lambert
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