The fear of a shooting happening inside a school is top of mind following the tragedy at a Texas elementary school. In California, all public schools are required to have safety plans in place for any natural disaster and active shooter scenario, according to the San Diego County Office of Education.
"As a parent you're always looking out for your safety and I think there are new conversations that we do need to have when it comes to safety especially at their schools," said mom Tahnie Nollenberger.
SDCOE has guidelines that all public schools need to follow, this as the county stresses how children need to be able to go to school feeling safe.
"If we aren't careful about how we train, we could actually make them afraid to come to school," said Bob Mueller. "With small kids, it might be stories and talking through options and with older kids, it might involve practices and more frank conversations."
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Mueller is the interim director for safety and student engagement for SDCOE and he shares how after the Columbine mass shooting, schools were using a lockdown type of drill where students and staff close the blinds, turn off the lights and hide.
"Now, we've adopted options based on the strategy you might have heard as 'run, hide, fight,' but the county Office of Education provides training workshops so that school districts and charter schools can have certified trainers to work with their teachers and staff," said Mueller.
While having secured campuses is important, training teachers and staff on how and when to lock or barricade doors have also become commonplace.
"Training your staff to understand what the options are in an active shooter event and having staff understand how they can barricade a door effectively, that's not something that we ever learned to do," explained Mueller.
The other tough piece of advice, but one the county stresses is that parents should not go to the school if there is an emergency, because that could make it harder for law enforcement to respond. Instead parents are advised to wait for instructions.
SDCOE says they are looking at what happened in Uvalde, Texas, to see what they learn and will update guidance and safety plans as needed.
