The Blaine County Journal News-Opinion - We've Got The County Covered

The Chinook Public School Board of Trustees has taken measures to update policy regarding school safety with the increased number of school shootings nationwide, including the most recent school shooting this spring in Uvalde, Texas. Parents of students attending Chinook Public Schools were mailed out a statement regarding current policy, proposed policy changes and asking for parental input in reaching the best possible solution by Superintendent Fred Hofman prior to the start of the school year.

The letter included the statement, "The Board of Trustees is considering a number of safety measures in light of continued school shootings nationwide, social media challenges, and a local threat to conduct a mass school shooting during this past school year in Chinook." The need to take a much more in depth look at everything the policy should include was discussed and it began with Mental Health, "We established a need for mental health services prior to the start of the 2021-22 school year and brought in a private therapist for students. Parents need to initiate such counseling, but we provided the avenue for that to occur. We brought in another therapist for staff as well. This upcoming school year, we are increasing our counseling presence in the 7-12 by committing a half-time person to assist our guidance counselor. We are working with juvenile probation to create an alternative school option for some students who are not otherwise succeeding in the traditional school setting."

Mr. Hofman went on to state, "This past year, we increased our presence on the elementary playground with additional staffing at recess, which we will continue doing. The school district provided parent and community education on social media safety, drug trafficking in Montana, human trafficking in Montana, and vaping, including what parents should be looking for etc. We provided much of this same education to our students. We've invited our local law enforcement agencies to stop in and visit the school regularly, including just stopping in to get a free cup of coffee. We brought the drug dogs back into the school to conduct random drug searches and that will continue this upcoming school year. We have increased the number of vape-detectors throughout the school; they work well but are not foolproof."

Discussions have been ongoing about what steps to take next, and Mr. Hofman offered these thoughts, "We are considering other safety improvements. They include improving our intruder or lock-down alert system, increasing our staff training, adding wide angle peep holes to classroom doors, upgrading our surveillance system, amending our school policies to increase the consequences for certain behavior, some of which include educational and counseling requirements, having designated security at larger home events, and improving our door lock system at all our facilities. Door locks were an issue at the school shooting in Uvalde, Texas earlier this year. The board also put a strong emphasis on school safety by creating two stipend related positions to coordinate our school safety plan." In addition, several options are being considered including safety counter measures to include an 'Active Shooter' situation and encouragement for the parents to offer their suggestions is being sought.

Chinook School District Board of Trustees Chair Frank Billmayer added his thoughts on the matter as well, "State statute allows local School Boards to authorize individuals to possess a firearm inside a school building. After consultation with our attorney, insurance, staff and parent surveys and multiple meetings the Board unanimously voted to approve a very select few and vetted individuals to possess firearms in the school."

Billmayer stated his reasoning as such, "It is about giving the School Staff response options and is one small piece to a very large and comprehensive safety plan which includes Lethal and Less than lethal countermeasures, facilities upgrades, threat response drills and mental health counseling." He went on to say, "The Board has approved the Safety Committee Chair and Vice Chair to be paid positions so it should be clear that the Board takes Staff and Student safety very seriously. We would love to have a School Resource Officer however, a law enforcement presence in the School has been non-existent. We have invited both the Sheriff's Office and Police Department to safety meetings in the past and to even come over for coffee and interact with the kids. They have not come."

Furthermore Billmayer goes on to say, "We have had instances where kids have been caught with drugs and the Police do not respond with evidence bags in order to preserve the chain of custody of the evidence. In our most recent (May) School shooting threat the Police arrived and did not even take the individual into custody and the student was not even charged until August. Given the totality of the circumstances the Board has been forced to implement all of these policy changes and will continually review them as 'Safety and Academics' are now standing agenda items. The Board's goal is have the safest and most productive learning environment for our communities most valuable asset, our children."

The Board of Trustees will continue to take input from parents and staff and discussion is ongoing about further updating the safety and security protocols at the schools. We will continue to keep our readers up to date as information comes in.