The Statesman Journal contacted Salem-Keizer School District’s eight high schools to find out if they completed the drills, which have been state mandated since 2013. Some admitted they didn’t, others were unsure if they complied with the law and one refused to answer the question.
District administrators weren’t keeping track either, as they do for earthquake and fire drills.
“Our goal is to be in compliance with the law, so if we’re slow in doing that, we need to speed up and get there,” said Jay Remy, a spokesman for the district.
The Salem-Keizer School District is the second-largest in Oregon, serving more than 40,000 students.
Remy said that staffers are working on developing a system for schools to report how many drills on safety threats are conducted.
Since the district did not track these drills during the first school year that the law took effect, Remy did not know how many of Salem-Keizer’s 65 schools complied.
“No, I don’t think there will be any circling back to see who did them this year,” he said. “I think the focus will be on getting everything ready to go for next year.”
Focus on improving next year
The fatal shooting Tuesday at Reynolds High School in Troutdale, located approximately 65 miles north of Salem, reminded Oregonians that school shootings can happen anywhere.
Following shootings at Columbine High School in Colorado and Sandy Hook Elementary in Connecticut, lockdown drills have become a reality for students and teachers across the country.
Schools prepare for the possibility of an armed intruder on campus by quietly huddling in rooms or in corners away from closed windows and locked doors.
Reynolds Superintendent Linda Florence and police have credited the swift response in the shooting to regular safety training and drills.
The Statesman Journal asked officials at all eight high schools if they conducted at least two drills on safety threats in the 2013-14 school year.
The law doesn’t explicitly define what a safety threat is, but does make a distinction between fire, earthquake and tsunami drills. A drill on a safety threat could include a lockdown drill.
Principals or assistant principals at West Salem, Roberts, Early College, Sprague and McKay high schools said they did not conduct lockdown drills in the 2013-14 school year.
McNary High School conducted one lockdown drill.
North Salem High School officials weren’t sure whether they did comply with the law and directed all questions to the school district.
South Salem High School Athletic Director Paul Sell refused to answer whether or not the school conducted at least two drills on safety threats.
“We’re working to implement the safety protocols,” Sell said repeatedly after being asked the question multiple times.
West Salem High School has monthly drills where students and staff evacuate the building. They also learned early on in the school year in their student handbook what to do if there is an armed intruder in the building.
West Salem High School Principal Ed John was aware of the law but the Statesman Journal also sent him a link to House Bill 2789. State lawmakers passed that bill in 2013, requiring schools conduct at least two drills on safety threats.
After reviewing the bill, John said the school will be making sure they follow it next year.
“To be honest, we haven’t done them as I think the law has intended,” he said. “I think we give ourselves an excuse by saying we have a monthly drill when they go outside and line up.”
McNary High School Athletic Director Ron Richards said they conducted a “safety day” where students and staff went through different emergency situations that would prompt a lockdown.
Richards said they conducted the drill in response to the new law, but only in the second semester.
“In the future, we’ll be complying with the two times every year,” he said.
The last day for high school students was Friday.
Remy said that the school district did notify the schools they needed to conduct at least two drills on safety threats every year, but beyond that he said “I don’t think there has been much follow up.”
Going through motions key
Salem-Keizer schools aren’t the only ones that have failed to comply with laws requiring lockdown or similar types of drills.
More than 20 states require lockdown or similar types of drills, according to the Education Commission of the States.
But many of these laws are based on a “good faith effort,” and education officials are not proactively auditing or asking questions about the data that is being submitted, said Ken Trump, President of National School Safety and Security Services.
“It’s far too often there are few carrots and no sticks for local school districts to follow through on state mandates,” Trump said.
But there’s a big difference, he said, between having emergency safety procedures on paper and actually going through the motions of a drill.
School officials learn through lockdown drills that their speakers don’t function, restrooms aren’t checked, teachers aren’t locking their doors or a class is talking so loudly that it could draw a gunman to their location.
One of the biggest mistakes schools make is not conducting the drills during different times throughout the day, including when students are eating lunch.
“They’re drilling for convenience rather than reality,” he said.
The most impressive practice, Trump has seen is when a superintendent and assistant superintendent walked into a high school unannounced and told the high school principal to put the school on lockdown immediately.
“The look on the face of the principal is priceless,” he said. “They’re not going to tell their boss no and it was done at lunch time.”
Rep. Betty Komp, D-Woodburn, the lead sponsor of House Bill 2789, said lawmakers purposefully left the definition of “drills on safety threats” broad to give school districts more local control.
The bill was passed in the wake of the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary in Connecticut and the expectation was that local school districts would enforce the law.
Oregon Department of Education spokeswoman Crystal Greene confirmed the state isn’t keeping track of these drills. Under the law, there isn’t a reporting requirement or a penalty for not conducting the required drills.
“It’s common sense,” Komp said. “If you’re a school principal, the first thing you want to do is make sure your staff and students are safe.”
The Law
House Bill 2789 required schools to conduct at least two drills on safety threats every year starting in 2013. Safety threat drill is defined broadly in ORS 336.071.
“Drills and instructions on safety threats shall include appropriate actions to take when there is a threat to safety, such as lockdown procedures if those procedures are appropriate to the safety threat,” the law states.