Neillsville District Administrator Talks School Safety
Friday, June 29th, 2018 -- 1:19 PM
-With the continued school shootings that plague the country, it has many people wondering if our local school districts are safe.I spoke with John Gaier, the District Administrator of the Neillsville School District, about safety at the local level.
Here’s my full interview with Mr. Gaier:
Q: “Throughout this past school year, especially toward the end of the school year, it seems like we saw an increase in school shootings. How do you feel the shootings have affected the Neillsville School District?”
John: “Well, I think when anything like that happens, you know the news coverage about such tragedies, it certainly raises everybody’s awareness of what’s happening out there. And I think it causes everybody to reflect on what their practices are and what’s need to be done. I know anytime there’s a tragedy like that that occurs, the first thing we do is meet with our staff to review our policies and procedures to make them aware.”
“But I think it’s also affected people’s moral a bit. It is such a horrible thing when these school shootings take place. I think it causes a pain for everyone. And I think that’s one of the things that occurs that we have to be careful of.”
“The other thing that it causes us to do is realize that we really need to listen to our kids and build relationships with them because they’re the best source of information that we have. And if we have an open dialogue with our kids, we seem to be able to find out about things, not just violent things, but other things that go on. So, I think having that relationship with kids and having those conversations with kids is really important.”
Q: “Now, obviously there are some challenges in making the school safer as the Neillsville School District is a public place where people can come and use the weight room, or pool or even walk in the morning. So, can you talk about some of the challenges of making a public space like the Neillsville School District safer?”
John: “Well, I think the first thing we have to deal with is perception. And the reality is that schools are still the safest place for kids to be. It’s even safer than in homes statistics will show. I think the perception when we have these school shootings are that schools are not a safe place to be, when in reality, that's not true. In, I think, the last census, there were 99,000 schools across the United States and when a violent act happens in one, it’s still a pretty low percentage overall.”
“But I think the biggest challenges are that school buildings were built to invite people in. And, certainly in the case of Neillsville, when we open our doors at 6am for Rec Department activities and for our citizens to be able to walk during the winter time and with recreation activities that go on all the way until 10 o'clock at night, it does provide us with some real challenges on how to make things safe. But, again, I think it’s that conversation that goes on with our kids and others and that becomes our best deterrent to anything that might be a violent act.”
Q: “Can you talk about some of the drills and training the Neillsville School District goes through in order to prepare for a situation like this should it arise?”
John: “We’re mandated to go through our fire drills, our tornado drills. We go through those. Now, we will be mandated to go through lock down drills, which we will be incorporating. We do have an Emergency Response Plan for anything that can happen in the school building. All of our staff have trained in the Response Plan, have copies of the Response Plan. And we’re continually updating that as new information becomes available about best practice, so we’re continually looking at that. Lots of conversation with the Board of Education about policy that best protects us and other trainings that we should go to. Lots of conversation with law enforcement about their training and their suggestions on how we should handle situations in things like somebody that wants to do harm to students and others whether they’re currently outside the building or inside the building and talking about situations and how those things will be handled. But law enforcement has been very helpful as well.
Q: “Something that has been floated around other districts and something that bigger school districts have and has even been discussed here in Neillsville; could you talk a little bit about a School Resource Officer? Do you think something like that would be beneficial for the Neillsville School District?”
John: “Actually, our county sheriff’s department and our city police department have been very good about having their people come through and do walk throughs of the building at different times. Letting people see that law enforcement is here at different times. Building relationships with kids, I think, is very important for law enforcement as well. So, they’ve been very accommodating to us about, at times, coming up and having a presence here.”
“The problem with having a resource officer is resources. I don’t believe that it’s in the county budget or the city budget or the school budget to be able to put on a full time person.”
“The other challenge is that we have a 300,000 square foot building and a single resource officer can’t be everywhere. And so that becomes a challenge as well. There is the $100 million grant out there, but it cannot be used for resource officers. It has to be used specifically for building upgrades to provide some safety ideas. So, it is a challenge when you talk about resource officers because it’s an ongoing cost. And again, the size of the building make it difficult for having just one.”
Q: “Speaking of that grant, the state legislature recently provided funding for school safety grants. Has Neillsville applied for those grants and, if they have, what would the district use that money for, should they receive it?” (NOTE: At the time of this interview, the Neillsville School District had not received a grant from the Wisconsin Department of Justice. However, since then, the district received word they would receive the full amount on their application.)
John: “Well, he have applied for the safety srant. We’ve applied for the maximum amount for us, which is $40,000. What we would be looking for is shatter proof glass coverings. There is a film now that is being developed that doesn’t stop a penetration of a bullet, but it will not shatter the window. So, we’re looking at that. We’re actually looking at adding vestibules at our three major entrances. And, along with those vestibules, would be a camera and intercom system. So, people would have to buzz into our building. All doors would be locked at all times when students are present. So, that is a part of our grant. It has been submitted and has been received by the Department of Justice and so they are reviewing those applications as we speak.”
Q: “Something that I’ve noticed, not only here in the Neillsville School District, but other school districts around the county as well, is there seems to be more of a community response. Community members are coming forward and talking about the safety at their local school districts. Can you talk a little bit about that and the kind of response that Neillsville has seen from the community in regards to these shootings?”
John: “Well, I think when community members are coming forward, it’s just an indication of how tragic and how much it impacts people to think that children are being hurt somewhere. And, of course, they fear for the children in their own district and their own children. And that’s why community members, I think, are getting involved because this is one of the greatest tragedies, I think, anybody can ever imagine is sending their kids to school and they are harmed.”
“So, I think it’s great to have the conversation about school safety because the community members are going to be the ones that are going to be greatly impacted by this. It’s not going to be as convenient for them to be able to just come in to school and be able to get in and get their kids. So, trying to strike a balance between being a welcoming environment and being a secure facility is really a challenge for many school district, including ours, are going through because of the tragic shooting that have gone on.”
Q: “Along with that last question, can you talk a little bit about the student’s response to these school shootings? Have you noticed students in the Neillsville School District having some sort of reaction or response to these shooting that have been occuring around the nation?”
John: “You know, there hasn’t been a lot of conversation by our students. I think, with their innocence, probably, and being inundated by news all the time, they are not as shocked about things as we as parents might be or adults might be. I know that they are aware of it. I still believe in areas like ours there’s probably a belief that it’s not something that will happen here.”
“All though, I was horrified, I guess, a bit by an interview that was done with a 16-year-old girl in Santa Fe, Texas. When she was asked about whether she thought anything like that could ever happen in her school; and her response stunned me when she said ‘yes, I assume that these kind of things are going to happen in a lot of schools because it’s become the new norm.’ And I’m thinking that’s really something that’s horrible and we adults need to deal with so that our kids don’t think that that’s the new norm. But our kids really don’t converse about it a lot.”
Q: “And finally, again, to kinda go along with the previous two questions, what about your teachers and staff here at the Neillsville School District? Have you seen any sort of response from them in regards to this influx of school shootings we’ve seen over the past several years.”
John: “I think it does affect them. People have gone into the business of education, they do it because they love kids. They do it because they want to provide a welcoming environment. And now, somewhere, even if it’s in the back of their mind, they have to be concerned about safety and keeping kids safe. And instead of being able to talk about best practices in the classroom on how to teach reading and mathematics and those type of things, now we’re talking about how they have to be able to secure their area in case there’s a shooting. And I think all of that has an impact on the moral of people. Because it’s not what they went into this business for. And I feel for them about that because it makes us all a bit more negative, I think, about the things that go on in the world and I think that impacts us as adults.”
Q: “Now, in the past, you and I, along with Neillsville’s Police Chief, have done an interview in regards to Neillsville’s responses if something like an active shooter situation were to occur. Or something similar. Can you go over that a little bit again; just talk about Neillsville’s plan or response if something were to happen, not necessarily with an active shooter, but in any situation here at the district.”
John: “If it’s something to do with a stranger or a threat of violence, depending on what level it would be, we have a lockdown and a lockdown and secure plan, which would get our kids out of the hallways, lock our school doors. We found that, statistically, if students are locked in a room and quiet and out of view of somebody going through a hallway, that an active shooter is actually looking for targets and they don’t pause if a door is locked and try and get in. So, one of the things we stress with our people is having that lockdown plan in place for each of the classrooms.”
“We have bought actual door stop type apparatuses that allow us to keep our doors locked. But they are still able to open unless we pull this apparatus out, so they are a quick lock system. We put in a system where any of our secretaries can hit a panic button and all doors lock from the outside. All of those things are a part of the plan.”
“We also have just a general lockdown where we believe that something may be going on outside. There’s not anybody inside, but we keep everybody in the room, but, at that point, they can keep teaching. If it’s lockdown and secure, lights go off, people go quiet, we get them out of view of anybody that’s walking through a hallway and they are going to stay in that lockdown and secure until they get an all clear.”
Q: “The last thing that I have for you is if you have any final thoughts? Anything that you would like our listeners or the community to know about in regards to plans in place here at the Neillsville School District in case a shooting were to occur or anything else regarding safety here at the Neillsville School District?”
John: “I think the most disappointing thing that I have seen in all of this is it seems as though schools have been left alone to try and fix this entire problem. That there isn’t a lot being done by anybody else. We have a one time $100 million grant from the state that can do some things to the physical structure of the building that will help. But, if we look at the makeup of the people that are creating this violence, we know mental health is an issue. We talk about mental health being an issue. No matter where you fall on the gun rights debate, all seem to understand that there’s a mental health issue that is involved with this and along with the mental health there’s also AODA issues, alcohol and other drug issues, that sometimes go along with these things. Yet, we don’t invest in it. We don’t invest in doing a lot about those things.”
“It’s kind of ironic to me that we came up with a $100 million grant that we can use to do some things to the physical structure of the building, but only $3.2 million were put into mental health grants to deal with these situations.”
“So, that is probably the biggest frustration to me is that schools, again, have been left to try and solve this, pretty much, on their own and, I think, it’s much more of a societal issue then that. And if we really want to address these things, we have to get serious about doing some things legislatively to make sure that people are getting the help they need and that we are keeping weapons away from people that are threats to other people.”
Feel free to contact us with questions and/or comments.