Some Onondaga County schools are working to implement recommendations made in a 2018 school safety report.

Last August, the Onondaga County School Safety Task Force released a report on how to best protect schools in the area from various dangers, including school shootings. The task force was assembled in the wake of the February 2018 school shooting in Parkland, Florida.

The Syracuse City School District and the Skaneateles School District have put into practice several of the task force’s recommendations, said Jaclyn Schildkraut, a SUNY Oswego professor and task force member.

Based on the report, SCSD has implemented the Standard Response Protocol, created by the “I Love U Guys” Foundation, an organization focused on school safety.

The protocol establishes four scenario-based actions a school can take: lockout, lockdown, evaluate and shelter. SCSD will also be implementing the Standard Reunification Method, which provides methods for successful reunification, Schildkraut said.

The Skaneateles School District implemented a software platform called NaviGate Prepared, said Julie Abbott-Kenan, a member of the Onondaga County Legislature and the task force. The software application can take attendance during an emergency situation. It also shows 3D images of buildings, which helps law enforcement know how to navigate the space inside.

“I get stopped at the local grocery store by our facilities people, the janitors, the maintenance people, and they are breathing a sigh of relief because all of our doors are now marked and there are maps,” Abbott-Kenan said.

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Planned safety drills are being taken more seriously than before the report, Kenan said. In school districts like Skaneateles, students and teachers alike would go through the motions in anticipation of getting through the drill, she said. The task force realized this and stepped in.

“We have stopped announcing when they are,” said Abbott-Kenan. “We stopped telling administrators and teachers. They used to prepare for the drills so what’s the point?”

Now, in the Skaneateles and Syracuse districts, police officers and their dogs are brought in during drills. There’s a greater sense of urgency in drills, largely due to the decision to treat it like the real thing, Abbott-Kenan said.

The school safety report was a joint initiative between the offices of the Onondaga County District Attorney, Onondaga County Executive, Onondaga County Sheriff and the mayor’s office. It included recommendations surrounding student and teacher training, threat assessment, school grounds safety and law enforcement.

The report recommended that all classroom doors have locks that can be secured from the inside, as well as that schools conduct annual evaluations of existing safety protocols. Onondaga County schools should define concerning and prohibited behaviors, determine a threshold for local enforcement involvement and develop risk management options, the report recommended as part of its findings of threat assessment.

“We are currently in the early stages of negotiating a contract to perform threat assessments for the juvenile justice system on school kids who make threats in schools,” said James Knoll, a SUNY Upstate Medical University professor and task force member.

The task force continues to meet periodically. In September, law enforcement officials from the Broward Sheriff’s Office in Florida met with the task force to discuss their experiences with two shootings that occurred in south Florida — the Parkland shooting and a January 2017 shooting at the Fort Lauderdale airport, WRVO reported.

Schildkraut said the task force met in the late summer. It is planning to meet again to revisit how the Onondaga County school districts are handling the recommendations given in the report.

Published on September 29, 2019 at 8:41 pm

Contact Cameron: cbmckeon@syr.edu