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Miss Clark. So, District 20 has been taking steps with uh mental health and help. Um, one thing that they did bring in was the resource center, which I think was a great use of our co COVID funds. And with that resource center, they are specifically making appointments available in after hours so that our our kids can be serviced. I would like to see that type of programming expanded. Sources of strength is also uh a great program. It builds peer-to-peer support uh for students who may not feel comfortable going to adults. My son was actually just selected uh for Shinook Trail Middle School and is excited uh to be that support system and teachers need the support as well for mental health. Um retention supports our kids emotional needs and that needs to be addressed as well. Mr. Silva, start with promoting value. These children need to know how valuable they are.
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uh we're all created equal endowed by our creator and searching for that value in an app on a device so on so forth that's not the answer that's not that's not where it begins and we need to help our parents the school district maybe need to help support the parents more to promote this value with the kids within the home if that if if the shoe fits and we have to wear it we need to address it sometimes it might be difficult um and Yeah, I that's these kids just need to know how valuable they really are. Mr. Salt. So, as Mr. Cororm said, this is uh very lengthy topic to discuss. Uh as a social worker, I recognize that there are internal and external factors that that play a part in this and how we address those are very different. Um from an external standpoint, uh there are several things that we can do.
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um some things that that don't cost us any extra money. I mean, we know that there are natural remedies for um for boosting morale and um emotional support such as stretching and breathing exercises. Uh sunshine uh these are natural things that don't cost us anything that definitely help out dispositions. Uh increased access to counselors um is something that we can do across the district with the caveat that uh we need to have regular updates to the parents of what's going on in those sessions. Um, from an internal standpoint, we also need to look at um, you know, making sure that we understand the role of virtuous character within our schools and how that plays a part in education. When we respect other people, then we are able to to eliminate some of those external factors and some of the bullying issues that end up being causes.
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Thank you, Mr. Riffle. So, as as a veteran, this this weighs heavy on my heart. We we lose about 22 veterans a day to suicide and I don't know why. Um lost personal friends and this might be a little emotional so I apologize. Uh suicide tears me apart, lost members of the church and I don't have an answer to it. I do agree with Mr. Corm over there about resiliency training. I' I've seen that work and and I think that needs to be an absolute resource for these students. Um, but the mental health, it it's hard when when you look at what we've done to the kids. Um, we've ripped God out of schools. Um, we we're dividing the children by race, by sex, by gender, and it needs to stop. We as parents need to stop doing that with our kids and let them grow up as kids.
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Uh, I don't have an answer to it. I wish I did. Um, but that that's all I'm going to say, Miss Moore. Our students social and emotional health is so important for them to learn. We want each and every kid to know that they are loved and cared for. And isolation is the worst thing you can do for any kid. School is the one place where we can have eyes on and ears open. And for many of our children, it's not only a place to learn, but a place where many of our children make friends and they rely on these friends. The last 18 months have taken that away. Let's take away the roadblocks. And we need to keep our kids in the classroom. They need to stay engaged. And there's this thing is called the rule of one. All it takes is one person.
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All it takes is one person in their life to touch them in a way that nobody has ever touched them. Whether that be a teacher, whether that be a parent, whether that be a fellow friend. And when we isolate those children and we take away that power of one, those kids, they feel hopeless. We cannot let them feel hopeless. That one person takes that time to speak into them. And with parent involvement, those two things together, they can work magic on any kid's life. So I encourage you, the power of one, we can make a difference in our kids' life and we can help them succeed to the best of their ability. Miss Leash, a child's mental health is a basic need and we always need to meet our basic needs before we can expect a child to learn. Data shows that a child is less likely to attempt suicide if they have access to mental health care.
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I do feel like District 20 does a good job and they are really working hard to provide as much mental care to our students as we can through programs that have been mentioned like sources of strength which we have in all of our high schools and we are now taking to the middle school level. Ruler any social emotional learning we even use it on the preschool level. We make it basic. We just ask them how are you feeling today? just getting them to express their emotions and their feelings is a big step towards our mental and health mo social and emotional health. Now I feel like children cannot learn if we don't address these issues first. And so when we think about a school and child learning, we really need to make sure that all factors involved with a child, whether it's their mental health, their emotional health, social health are covered before we can expect them to be a great student in the classroom.
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Thank you. Thank you. Again, candidates, again, a reminder, disclaimer, some of the positions, you could all probably recite it with me by now, I think, at this point, but some of the positions expressed here should be considered opinions, not facts, agreed to by experts. And we encourage you, the voters, to learn more and do your own research to get factual information. So, I had a question that I try to learn something new every day. And today, right here with all of you here is my learning thing right here. Um, one of the questions, and this is not to the candidates, this is to you the voters. Um, specifically, your answer is to you the voters. Who are the major financial campaign supporters to these candidates? And I wanted to know um where you go to get this information. So, the Secretary of State, SOS.col.gov, has a uh basically a tracking system called Tracer.
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That's where you go to find out every single dollar that these candidates or in the future whatever specifically these in particular go to tracer at the secretary of states which is tracer.sos.col.gov to find out where they get their contributions. Okay. All right. You got 30 seconds on this one. Okay. Because I think I'm going to I'm trying to get us out of here on time. So 30 seconds. This one should be pretty fairly easy for you to answer anyway. Um, and I'm hoping a teacher submitted this, but I'm not sure. But what are your thoughts about actually second time I've learned something new today about faster the faster program in Colorado, which is faculty administrator safety training and emergency response. You have 30 seconds to answer and Miss K, you are first up. I as well look forward to learning something after the forum. Um uh emergency response to me uh encompasses all um natural disasters um gun uh violence, you know, anything infiltrating the schools from within or without.
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And I I would hope that all of our staff and teachers would um be on board with sorry readiness. Thank you. Yes, ma'am. Thank you. It is a short time. It's 30 seconds and you know what? You got to be on your toes. But again, you're up here for a reason. I I definitely have you. I have high um expectations of you. So, uh Mr. Johnson, 30 seconds. I too am looking forward to learning something new. But I I think a way to make the school safer is to have at least two SRO's walking around the school. Only one entry point into the school when school starts. And this is going to be a controversial one. Is teachers who want to and are properly trained by professionals can conceal carry if they choose to. But if no teachers choose to, then there's still the threat of a teacher possibly concealing.
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So, a school might have no one concealed carrying, but the threat of that will keep the schools way, way safer. So, thank you, Mr. Gorm. I'm sorry, Mr. Johnson. That was Mr. Johnson, right? Sorry, Mr. Cororm, you're up next. Thank you. Sorry, we're starting to meld together. That's how quick we are. All right. Um, I would not be in support of the faster program. I think teachers have enough to worry about rather than having to carry a weapon. I also think about the mental health implications of what if the student who is armed is in your classroom and you now have to defend against one of your own students. I don't believe that with even just thinking about police hit rates in terms of firing their weapons that you can be readily and available to fire a weapon and expect that you're going to hit a target.
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One thing I've learned by being a gun owner myself is that you need to consider not just what's in front of you, but what's behind your target. And I think that's way too dangerous for schools and people who are not readily trained for that. Thank you, Mr. Corn. Miss Clark. So, I think safety should be left to the experts and the professionals so that way you can allow the f the rest of the staff to do their job. We do have on staff CSPD and SRO's in our schools and I have seen them in action when I have worked in the schools and uh they're great at what they do. So, let's leave our teachers being great um at what they're here for and leave the experts uh to keeping us safe. Mr. Silva, 30 seconds. Safety is paramount and as far as I'm concerned, it should be re-evaluated and evaluated on a constant basis.
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Uh whether it's this program or another program that might be better than this one, it's uh you're constantly evaluating it, constantly looking at it, and constantly improving it at all at all uh at all angles. Mr. Salt, I am well acquainted with the faster program and I stand 100% in support of it. Um what's interesting is that it actually has a higher qualification rate of number of shots than what the post training is. So the people who come out of that program are more qualified than the officers that you have that are patrolling the streets u based off of qualification. But aside from that, there's also an immense amount of first responsive uh training that they go through as far as being able to plug wounds and heal stuff. So many casualties happen because ambulances and first responders are not allowed to get into the building to take care of wounded.
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And this program trains that. We sent people from our charter school to this program just for the first responder nature so that they could protect our students and make sure that they were taken care of. I'm sorry. Thank you. I know 30 seconds is very quick. Um I want to try and get as many of these questions in. And by the way, just a heads up, you will be having a couple of questions for homework tonight. So just thanks. Okay. Um, mi I am. I know, right? Get used to it. Um, especially if you're elected. Ms. Moore, you're up. No, I'm sorry, Mr. Riffle. My bad. Mr. Salt took my 30 seconds. I'm sorry, Mr. Riffle. You're up. 30 seconds, Mr. Riffle. Thank you. I don't know the FASA program. I've not looked into it. But, uh, from what Mr. Salt has said, there are probably some portions of it that I agree with.
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Uh, no one ever hurts from medical training. I may or may not have lived a life carrying a weapon. And it's not an easy thing because when you have that, you have to be willing to destroy whatever you pointed at. And I could see the conflict with some teachers having to do that with children. Uh but that may not be for all teachers. So I'd like to research a little bit more and I'll probably put something on my website mikele.org so that uh I can answer that question more fully. Ms. Moore. Fantastic. Our students deserve the safest environment possible. faster is an excellent program and we should allow our teachers to take advantage of this program if they so choose. I've lived through Coline. I was in high school when that happened. I know what it's like to feel unsafe. Our kids need to feel safe and we need to empower our SRO's to be able to do that as well.
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Thank you, Mr. Lavali. Nope. Miss what? Oh, son of a miss. Miss Leash, I'm so sorry. I apologize. I am off my game. Miss Leash, I definitely think it would be great to have extra medical training. I myself have uh trained in CPR and first aid. I do not agree with any teachers that should be carrying guns in our schools. We already have double door entries. Our doors lock during the day from the outside. you have to be buzzed to get in or out. We use the Raptor system with our licenses to check for any background knowledge on each person. We do have SRO's. We do have uh license and CP CPCD staff that have guns and I feel like they are the qualified ones to have them, not the teachers. I too am very sorry. I too am very familiar with Faster and I think it's a great program.
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I loathe the gun-free zone signs. The good guys obey them. The bad guys ignore them. I would love to have signs even if we had just a couple people highly trained. We have FBI agents who are teachers in our district who who are are extremely good with guns and just a couple in the entire district just to say be advised. You may be walking into school where there's an somebody who is armed, highly trained. I support it. Thank you candidates. Apologize for my mishaps there. Um, you did great in 30 seconds. Appreciate your patience on that one. Um, so again, it's 8:09. Um, I want to give you a couple of questions because your audience was here gracious enough to give these to you if you wouldn't mind writing these down. We are going to ask you to send them to the league. You should have our phone number or your our email address just because of the vote411.org information that you um, we're hoping you submitted.
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Um, again, that vote411.org or is our league's portal for candidate information. The candidates fill that out. We do not. Um, so it's very nonpartisan. If you f want to get more information about them, that's where you're going to go. But if you wouldn't mind, here's two questions. Not every student is a collegebound student. I think a couple of you have kind of mentioned this tonight. How would you bring increased awareness to other avenues for our children? Those of us who joined the military, the trades, vocational studies, and steam. So specifically on that one again, not every student is a college student. How do you bring increased awareness to other avenues for our children? And this one is specifically if you're elected, what will be your primary metric of success for your tenure on this board? I know as a real estate agent, I just want to make sure I get through the end of the year with all of my hair, but for you guys, how do you measure what is your primary metric of success for your tenure on this board?
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And for those of you um if that was your question, we will make sure we try to get that to the Academy District 20 designated election official. So it's also listed on their website for you. Okay? So you have as much information as you can about your candidates. Um again, just that final disclaimer, some of the positions expressed here should be considered opinions, not facts, agreed to by our experts, agreed to by experts. And we encourage you, the voters, to learn more and do your own research to get factual information. your closing statements. Candidates, you will get one minute. One minute. This is your final forum hopefully for us. Um, we're going to start from the other end. I believe I told Miss Clark that we're going to start with her on your closing statements. Again, one minute, please. Thank you. So, District 20 has a lot of strengths, and we're only going to get stronger by continuing to put in the work to address the challenges.
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We get this done by ensuring there is a nonpartisan board elected to keep the focus on what matters. All of our students, staff, and community stakeholders. I bring the perspective of a district alum, parent, volunteer, invested committee member, paraprofessional, and community liaison. These attributes combined with my extensive hands-on experience means that I have the skills needed to start leading our district 20 community on day one. I will listen to all voices even when there are differences. I will advocate and be the voice for those traditionally not heard. The focus of the board needs to be prioritized to go back to supporting kids and staff academically and mental health support. As a board member, I will work to recreate create an environment that is able to educate and inspire all students to thrive. Mr. Silva. Oh, wait. I'm sorry. For those of you that don't know, my usual bedtime is like 8:30 p.m.
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