Emergency plans in place, working in local schools

PALMER — Training and set procedures will continue to ensure Mat-Su Borough schools are safe, even in the face of threatening graffiti like that found at Colony High last month.

Deena Paramo is the school district’s assistant superintendent of education. Paramo said it is a challenge for administrators to predict scenarios about what could go wrong at a school. The district and its schools follow specific training and procedures to help prepare for situations similar to the one at Colony.

One of the first steps school officials take to address a threatening situation is to notify law enforcement. At Colony, Alaska State Troopers were called on Oct. 18 to investigate the threats scrawled on the walls of two restrooms and help determine whether students were actually in harm’s way.

“We did everything we could to make school safe,” Paramo said.

One threat mentioned the possibility of a shooting at the school happening Oct. 24, 25 or 26. The other was a more general threat of violence.

Like many parents, Janet Lestenkof worries about the general safety of her children. The recent threats at CHS increased those worries.

Although one 16-year-old student was arrested last week for allegedly posting threatening comments in an Internet chat room, Lestenkof, parent of a Colony student, said the possibility of other individuals being involved in making the threats found at the school is what concerns her most.

“It looks to be back to normal [at the school], but I’m still concerned about the threats,” she said.

Scott Simmons, risk manager for the Mat-Su Borough School District, declined to comment on the ongoing investigation at Colony, but said he reviewed general procedures schools are supposed to follow in case of an emergency.

“Each school has a plan to separate perpetrators from students,” Simmons said, adding specific details of those plans are not given out because they could be used to circumvent a school’s emergency preparedness efforts.

In the event an armed individual enters a school, teachers are trained to keep students out of sight of perpetrators, he said. After students are secure, the next step is to inform law enforcement.

Student safety has always been a top priority for the district, Simmons said. Since the April 20, 1999, shooting at Columbine High School in Colorado, where two students killed 12 students and a teacher and wounded 23 others before taking their own lives, security and sensitivity to threats has increased dramatically. One of the outcomes from the Columbine attack is a law mandating all schools have emergency plans.

Although incidents like Columbine haven’t happened in Alaska since the 1997 tragedy in Bethel when 16-year-old Evan Ramsey shot and killed a fellow student and the principal at Bethel High, Paramo and Simmons agree it is important to take every threat seriously.

“The difference is what have been school pranks in the past are held at a different level,” Paramo said. “We’re not willing to take a chance thinking it’s a joke.”

Troopers report it hasn’t been determined if the 16-year-old suspected of making the chat room threat also is responsible for the disturbing graffiti at Colony High School.

Contact Chris Gillow at chris.gillow@frontiersman.com or 352-2284.