001to the people in the audience. I absolutely agree with Levi that I think especially when it comes to school safety, it really takes everybody. Um we're seeing in recent events in nationwide news where um you know, school safety incidents have had implications for parents. You know, we saw a pretty big case with a with a conviction of a parent who had uh provided a gun, bought a gun for his son, which then ended up being used in a school shooting and uh pretty serious conviction on multiple charges in that case. So, it's more than just the school that is um involved in, you know, school safety and doing we all have to do our part to make sure that we're keeping our kids as safe as we can. So from a legal perspective, probably the
002number one question I get is what you see here on the screen and that is what is a school corporation's legal obligation with respect to its kids when it comes to school safety. I do have some people who think that if somebody gets hurt and it happens on school property that there's some kind of automatic liability standard that applies to the school. I can tell you that is not true. Um it is it is along the lines of a negligence standard which is what we call a reasonable person standard. We have to make sure that we are acting reasonably based upon information that's known or should be known to us that um reasonably provides a safe environment for those who are on school property. So ultimately um people get hurt everywhere in all different kinds
003of places. That's no different at at schools, but the school's standard of care from a legal perspective if these things make it into court is uh is a reasonable reasonleness standard. So let's talk about this next one. This is a very common one. So, I heard a student directed a school safety threat to another SCu student. Why will the school not tell me that student's name who made the threat? We get this all the time. Um, inquiring minds want to know. And so, we have obligations as public schools, not only in Indiana, but nationwide. Any public school that gets federal funding is covered by what we call the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act. The short acronym for that that gets thrown around a lot is FURPA. And so when you hear people talking about
004FURPA and a student's FURPA rights, what that means is that every student has a right to confidentiality with regard to their personally identifiable information that is maintained by the school corporation. Now there is there are multiple exceptions within the FURPA. one of which comes into play the most frequently when we're talking about school safety matters. So that is what we refer to as the health or safety emergency exception under the FURPA. So this federal privacy law does allow it doesn't require but it does allow a school to disclose a student's personally identifiable information from their education record even without parental consent. If the student's a minor or if the student is 18 or older, the student's written consent, if it's appropriate under the circumstances to deal with a health or a safety emergency. So, typically
005when you're going to see this is going to be when maybe we have a threat that has been posed, there are kids involved and a school's working with law enforcement. We're going to be able to disclose information to our law enforcement officers in order for us to be able to cooperate and work together to be able to try to mitigate and hopefully resolve the threat. Also, public health officials, we saw this in a big way back during CO. Um, every public school was working closely with its local health department to be able to provide contact tracing information, all kinds of stuff that the local health department was requiring. So, we were relying upon the the health emergency exception in order to be able to provide that information as was needed during that time. medical personnel.
006You get a call um we get a student who's maybe sick at school or gets hurt at school, needs to be taken by ambulance, you know, medical personnel arrive. We're able to be able to give the people who are there to help the child the information that they need under that health emergency scenario. Also, it could be a parent of someone who who's not the actual student at issue. That's rare, but when it does happen, it could be, for example, uh we become aware that uh a student has threatened the life of another student. Uh and so we become aware of that if it is an imminent threat hasn't been able to be mitigated yet or resolved by the school or by law enforcement, we are allowed then to alert that family of the target
007and be able to disclose the information that's necessary in order to be able to try to address the imminent threat. So that doesn't mean after the situation is resolved we can go out and start talking with other parents. It's very limited when we can use that and the timing means everything and it's a real balancing act quite honestly. But typically when we are disclosing information to the parent and that parent is not the parent of the student at issue that would be the type of example of a circumstance when we would be doing that. And a lot of times law enforcement is working there side by side and sometimes is the one who gets to deliver the information uh to be able to try to help protect all involved. So, did it flip there? Let's
008see. It did. Okay. So, this is not a blanket release. So, when this exception comes into play, we just can't take all the information about a kid and and go and disclose it to whomever we want. Um, we've got to be very thoughtful about that. And again, it's a balancing act. You're trying to balance that privacy of the student and their rights under the FURPA with the health or safety emergency that we're dealing with at the moment and how that that may impact others. There are certain requirements that if we pull the trigger for this particular exception, there are certain things that we have to do in order to document um the situation. So, it's going to be subject um any disclosures brought under the health or safety emergency. We're going to have to make
009sure that we let anybody who we let know information about a kid. We have to let them know they can't go out and re re-release that information unless there's some other exception that would allow that information to be re-released. And that's on the school to make sure that the person who is receiving the information understands what the obligations are to not go out and and redisclose that we're only allowed to release the information that's absolutely essential in order to address the immediate threat. So just because you know we may know a lot of information about a particular student only that information that's absolutely necessary to address the health or safety threat is going to be fair game in terms of being able to release that information. Now the threat does have to be what the
010federal law calls um something that you can really articulate. It has to be really significant. I will tell you that we get threats at schools all the time. And I know that that's not a settling, you know, thing to hear, but I know I was talking today, um, Levi alluded, you know, I've been in this business for I'm in year 27. I can tell you this, I wasn't a grandma when I first got in this business and I am now. Um, but uh, but I've seen a lot of change over the years. It did not used to be common place when I was a young lawyer that we would see things like metal detectors in schools. We didn't see schools that had wands, you know, um things like that. We see that stuff now. It's
011pretty common, especially in some of the urban schools or in some of the larger schools. just the mere threats with social media and how easy it is to disseminate information at a mass level and do it very quickly. People unfortunately will abuse, you know, social media and they will use it for reasons sometimes that are are not good. I was talking with the superintendent. I touch, as Levi said, about 75 of the public schools in Indiana. We have 290 some. My firm touches over 200 of them. So, we see a lot of schools in Indiana and stuff that goes on. My superintendent down at New Albany Floyd County was on the phone with me this afternoon. They're a large district, probably 11 12,000 kids somewhere in there. And I was telling him I was going
012to be coming to a a public safety um work session tonight. And you know I said sometimes you know people become concerned because there'll be a threat could be totally bogus that goes out you know over social media and people react to that and he said Michelle I can't tell you how many times every week we get that down here. Um it so you know Clinton Central um is not alone. In fact you guys in Clinton County fare pretty well. uh comparatively speaking you don't have near the number of you know threats and things that get posed like what we see in some other places but still when it happens it can be very alarming and I can tell you that the schools take it very seriously including all of our schools here in Clinton
013County. So just to move on here to the point about the balancing test. So ultimately anytime we pull the trigger and releasing information because of a health or safety threat, we document that very well. We have to put in the students file, what the circumstances were, who we disclosed to, what we disclosed, and then make sure that that is maintained as part of the child's education record. that way it's always there and we have that information in the event that we need it um on on down the road. These situations are very facts sensitive. They're handled on a case-byase basis. There's not a one-sizefits-all. Um unfortunately, and law enforcement, all you officers can say this, it's very seldom that we see the exact same thing in every situation that involves an emergency. uh life is
014just not that easy. So, you know, it's it's the same way when we deal with these health or safety issues within schools. So, we look at these on a case-byase basis, and you know, we do what we can to be able to address very promptly and as effectively as possible, working with all of our partners within law enforcement as well as anybody else necessary within the county to be able to address the the issue. And again, all while trying to balance the health, the safety of our kids as well as privacy rights of kids. The next question that I hear, I heard a student threatened another student and was not expelled. Why? So you've got a scenario it goes viral because of course if we have a school fight or anybody threatens another person a
015lot of times that news will spread like wildfire and when it does people start watching and they want to know what are you doing and you know are you taking action against whoever the alleged perpetrator is who is the student. And what we always have to keep in mind as a school and what I would ask our communities to keep in mind is that these are individual student disciplinary matters and because of that they are governed by the confidentiality rules of the FURPA law. So, we don't have a right to go out short of it fitting into one of the exceptions like the health or safety exception and go out and talk to people about how an individual student is being handled from a disciplinary perspective. And I know that that can really frustrate people
016and you know they they want to know and why can't you just tell us but what I try to ask people is think of the role returned and if it were your child who were in the middle of a disciplinary incident would you want the school to go out and discuss that with everyone who wants to know? Uh usually they'll say well no I don't want that. Uh but we have we have to apply that equally to all of our kids. So people say, well, what's you know what happens if you violate this federal privacy law? Well, interesting enough, our courts, our federal courts have held that there is no private right to file lawsuit based upon a FURPA violation. that there is one little small thing that the federal government can do and that's
017called re revoke our federal funding. So that's pretty big deal. Um I can honestly say in my years of working with schools over the last you know more than two decades that uh I've never had a school have their federal funding revoked over FPA violations. Um, I have seen administrative complaints filed with the US Department of Ed, which is the one that would look into any kind of alleged Furpa violation, but our schools take that very seriously and they make sure when it comes to your kids that we are safeguarding their individual information and not going out and disclosing that to everybody. And we certainly don't want our schools to be losing their federal funding. that can be pretty significant for uh for a lot of schools. So that is the reason why um also
018I will tell you that there are times in disciplinary matters that we have to handle individual students in different ways and there could be an array of reasons for that. Um it could be that we have other laws that govern how we need to handle the student. So for example, we have both federal and state laws in Indiana that if we have students who are part of our special education programming and have their own individualized education plan pursuant to that programming, we're not allowed to just immediately change a placement of a student without going through a certain process that the law dictates to be able to do that. So, I know that that's not something that's commonly known, but that's just one example of when there could be reasons why the school can't do something
019immediately to be able to address a particular student behavior. That's not the the only example, but it's the one that um we typically will will see the most frequently. So, just know that there is typically a reason why. And again, because the federal privacy laws, it's not something that we can just openly go out there and talk about. I would ask all of you to please um work with your schools, work with local law enforcement. Uh the one area that I work in outside of public schools, I'm very much in a niche expertise, but it's with police. Um, my father is actually a two-term retired sheriff. He was career law enforcement and I work with about 25 of the county sheriffs around the state of Indiana and do some specialtity work with IMPD out of
020Indianapolis as well. So, I get the opportunity to see things from the law enforcement perspective as well as from the school perspective. And to say over the course of the last 27 years that my client bases have merged would be an understatement. Um, you know, you all didn't used to be in our school buildings all the time, you know, years ago. And now, uh, we have memorandums of understanding. I know here in the county, I think we've got some county officials here. Um, I know I have worked with your county attorney here to be able to do memorandums of understanding to be able to get help from uh from law enforcement for our schools. and all the feedback I get is is really positive about the work that our SRO's do here in Clinton County.
021So, you know, all the police, I appreciate you. I know the schools appreciate you and uh keep up all the good work because I don't get calls from Clinton County very often about school safety issues. So, kudos to you for working with your schools. With that, does anybody have any questions that you'd like to ask? ask any burning questions. I know there's going to be some other presenters, too, and I'm the boring one because I get to talk about all the boring legal stuff. All right. Well, we'll move it on to the whoever is going to be next, and I'll turn the show back over to you here, Levi. >> Thank you, Michelle. Appreciate it. >> All right. Give it. So, yeah, our next presenter is Dr. Chad Cruz. So, I just met Chad today.
022We've talked several times now, so um I didn't have to give him a tour since he is a graduate of Clinton Central. Um so, very cool to have Chad here. Um former police officer, school resource officer, school administrator, and now works uh for the office of school safety with the Indiana Department of Homeland Security. I I'll let you tell us what all those titles are or whatever they mean, but uh appreciate Chad being here tonight. So, >> no, thank you so much for having me here. Uh it's always good to come back to Clinton County, come back home. There's some people I've seen I went to high school with here, some people I've known. Um you go north three miles, that's where I grew up. So, uh very very uh familiar with the area, what's
023going on in kind of the area. Um, so it's always a pleasure to come back. Let me tell you that I am very thankful that this was put together. This is not common across the state of Indiana. So, thank you for putting this on. Um, I greatly, greatly appreciate it. Okay. down. Oh, I'm sorry. All right. So, as I'm a deputy director of the Indie Alpha School Safety, um that means that I have three employees that are underneath me, we go across the state to schools to make sure that they are compliant with what is required under Indiana code. Um, we are also heavily intertwined with legislation, new legislation that's getting ready to come out. Um, and a whole bunch of tax dollars that that you are contributing to and don't know it. Um, so
024surprise if you don't know. Um, but we will talk about some of those and where your money is actually going. Um, out of all these things, the proudest thing for me is I'm a husband and father. I have a seven-month old daughter that's going to go to public schools. So, there are 1.25 million students across the state of Indiana. It's our job to make sure they're safe every day, just like I want my daughter to be. So, um out of all the things I've done, I've been in education, um special education, agriculture, uh principal, assistant principal, uh 15 years in in law enforcement, SRO. Uh those are all great things. So hopefully that can add some validity to what to what we're going to talk about. I'm going to talk about things that we see
025across the state and nationally as well. I can't get that right. There we go. All right. So we are part of DHS, Indiana DHS. Please please bear with me. We are not federal DHS. I get that question a lot from schools. We are not involved in anything happening at the federal level. Just want to make that clear. We are our own office. The only thing that we care about is what's happening in schools. So, um, we did move from the Indiana Department of Education to Indiana Department of Homeland Security this year and establishment of the Indiana Office of School Safety. These are our roles and responsibilities. If any of you guys are teachers or administrators, I would heavily encourage you to go to the Indiana School Safety Specialist Academy if you have not been. There
026are a lot of great resources that come out of there. That's one thing that our office is is uh doing. Uh like I said, we talk about safety plans. Uh we sit on county safety commissions and meetings. uh administer the school secured school safety grant and we'll hit that I think on the next slide of how many dollars are going to that and what's uh being paid through that training on bullying cyber bullying prevention uh criminal organizations there's just a myriad of things that we do the misconception is that school safety and security is all about armed intruders It is not. So, we will talk about that as we go through this. I think this is important for you guys to know. 27.1 million this year went through the secured school safety grant. If we
027look at the number one allocated dollars, $20 million in SRO's, that's the best money we can put in schools. Thank you to the SRO's. You guys truly do keep school safe. Um, we're looking at other things of uh, you know, like $5 million for equipment, hardware, those type of things. My opinion, and this is Chad Cruz talking, not the state of Indiana, people over products. Products are glitchy. products will work sometimes and won't work others. You have an SRO in your building. They will create a bond with your students and will keep them safe. End of story. So, thank you to the SRO's. Um really, we couldn't do a lot of the school safety things without your help and assistance. This is what we do. Um, I'm not going to spend time on this. There
028are certain things that that are more important. So, I talked about the secured school or the um Indiana School Safety Specialist Academy. One thing to know is we have 4,500 school safety specialists across the state of Indiana. That's very significant. That means that we have 4,500 people in public schools, charter schools, nonacredited public schools or not accredited um institutions, private schools that have some kind of training in school safety and security. We have a basic class, we have advanced, we have regional trainings. I was just talking to Dr. Hannah about um the funds that we can give for training uh at the school level. We can do that across the state. Um we can absolutely bring that here to Clinton Central as well or any school. We do have an allhazards approach. I'll be quite
029honest, my phone has been blowing up for the last six hours or so about tornadoes coming in. Uh I am on the situational or the uh situational awareness team that all the information goes to the governor been blowing up about tornadoes. The number one thing in Indiana is you look at armed intruders, you look at tornadoes, earthquakes, anything like that, the number one probability is that you're going to have severe weather tornadoes. In the last 10 years, we've lost eight buildings in the state of Indiana. So, let's get out of this mindset that armed intruders are our number one. Tornadoes are very, very serious in the state of Indiana. Chemical exposures, that's something that's required in any statute. There are chemicals in schools. Um, you guys saw the or the pool at the elementary. Yeah,
030that's always a a big sticking point. Janitorial closets, uh, science labs, places like that. Earthquakes, people don't think about earthquakes. We were just talking about this at the state the other day. Southwest Indiana, there is a major fault line. If that is a 6.0 0 and last for 30 seconds. Every county in the state of Indiana would be affected with the exception of Stuben County, northeastern Indiana. So, we do need to start looking at earthquakes and earthquake drills. Luckily, we haven't had a major hit in the last several years, but we are about due for that. Armed intruder, you guys hear about that stuff all the time. I'm not going to be labor this point, but I will be more than glad to answer questions after. Cyber attacks are the big thing right now, whether
031that's ransomware um for schools, also student use. I'm going to hit some of the digital things and show you something that's probably going to make you question if you truly know what's on your students devices. So, um, I I kind of want to push your your envelope mentally on some of these things, um, without scaring at the same time. So, it's it's a fine balance that we have. Anybody aware of behavioral threat assessments? Okay. Few people. So, I want to get past the stigma >> that you're a parent and you get a call that says that your student has had a behavioral threat assessment rain on them that day. To your average person, that would indicate my son or daughter could potentially be a school shooter. Is kind of what we hear across the state.
032State law defines the need for a behavioral threat assessment to be ran when there is threatening or apparent behavior. I'm going to kill you could fall into the threatening category. So, there's a couple different ways that that we can run these. There's what's called a screener. So, it's like a one-page sheet that kind of helps it determine on if that's just a a fleeting type comment being made or if it's something that could be more indepth, more intense, then we would run a full screener or a full process for the behavioral threat assessment. This is not a punitive or a disciplinary tool at all. It can lead to that. It can lead to charges from law enforcement. That's not its intention. Its intention is to help students be successful in the educational settings. So, if
033you get a call from a school administrator that says your son or has had a behavioral threat assessment ran on them today, please do not freak out. It sounds scary. It's the school trying to make sure that everybody is safe. There are several tools out there. Uh Dr. Reeves model, uh NTAC, which is National Threat Assessment Center, uh Dewey Cornell Seastack model, several models out there. The state does not dictate the model that you use. It just states that there needs to be a school safety specialist on there, a person from the safe school committee, an administrator, uh, guidance counselor or somebody with mental health, uh, knowledge, special education, um, I feel like I'm leaving one out, but there's a it's a team approach. So, one person doesn't have all the say to say this
034student needs to do this. The team decides it. the court case that she was referring to um I'm assuming was probably from Oxford, Michigan from earlier. Um it's it's a telltale sign. This is what we're trying to prevent from happening and I wish I had a little bit more time to kind of go into depth with some of this stuff because that case is very interesting and shows you the need for behavioral threat assessments. So, please do not freak out if you hear this. We have digital threat assessments. Digital threat assessments are arguably probably more common anymore than behavioral threat assessments. We were talking about uh earlier about threats coming in. I think that one of the things that we need to talk to our students about is reporting instead of reposting. We see students
035take a a image from Snapchat, from Facebook, and then they re-upload it so that all their friends get to see it. That's a problem. If they report that to the proper places, then they're not the ones getting in trouble. And then we don't have this mass hysteria. Most of these threats come in and there's somebody from overseas. There's somebody from somewhere way way different. they cover their screens or they show a a stock image gun or something like that and they want you to elicit fear. So, I would encourage you to talk with your students about if they see something like this, reporting it and not if you repost it, you have a chance of getting law enforcement at your door, school um officials calling you, things like that. So, report, not repost. Okay, this
036one's going to blow your mind, guys. This app on your left looks like a calculator app, right? Can you play that for me? calculator vault. That app looks totally benign. Your students can put whatever apps they want in there. whatever contacts, whatever pictures, anything that they don't want you to see, they'll put it in there and it looks like a calculator app. I hope that that makes you a little bit uneasy because until we get things like this fixed to where we can't hide this stuff from parents and those that need to know. We're going to have tragedies such as in the community I live now live in with Haley Busby um Hamilton Southeastern. Please, please talk with your kids about the dangers of online. I'm begging you for their safety and the safety of
037others. This is just the tip of the iceberg. We're talking about something Roblox. Roblox lures in students all the time. And I can guarantee that most of your younger kids probably have Roblox or something like that on an iPad or or their phone. So, it's kind of my challenge to you guys is to please question your students, not an interrogative way, but as a conversation, I want to try to help keep you safe. The media is not doing it. The app developers certainly aren't. Please have those discussions early and often. This is something we're seeing across the state and nationally. Students are being groomed. Students are being abducted and they're made to do things that they don't want to do. If I say 764, does anybody in this room have any idea what I'm talking
038about? I got one person. started as kind of like a gang in the Texas area. What they would do is they would coersse students, young people into sending compromising pictures, not necessarily nude pictures or anything like that. Compromising pictures. They would not extort them for money like people think that they always would do. Instead, they're telling them, "If you don't carve this into your skin, I will release all these photos, all this information about you and your family, and you'll be ruined." Now, we'll ramp it up a little bit more. Now, commit suicide on live stream. I'm hoping that made your heart kind of beat a little bit. There's this whole wait till 8 initiative with uh cell phones, uh digital media. It's not waiting till they're 8 years old. It's waiting till they're in
039eighth grade and then properly supervising and having this discussions with your students. Too often we just hand computers, phones, iPads over to students and we don't talk to them about some of the dangers and the things that can come out of this. So please from my heart I want you to be informed and have these early and often. >> Yeah. you can. Um the the problem with Bart and things like that, there's VPNs. Um these kids know what they're doing and they will get around anything that you do. The only true method in my opinion is discussing this stuff with your students, letting them know what happens or what can potentially happen. It's a good tool, but it doesn't solve the problem. Thank you for that question. I I I think that products like that
040are great. These kids will find a way around it every single time. All right, so hopefully I didn't scare you too much and hopefully I scared you just enough. Vapes and drug trends. These are all vapes. That upper left hand looks like it's a uh white out pen. Nope, it's a vape. Hoodies. Hoodies with the vape in there. Uh smart watches. This is just the tip of the iceberg. They They are so creative with this stuff. And here's the thing. We don't know what's in those vapes. We know if it's a regular vape, it's bad enough. THCA, THC, Delta 8, Delta 9, Delta 10. They'll go up to delta 10 million by the time that that we're done with this. I hope that you guys watch legislation because last year there was a bill and
041it almost passed to allow the sale of psilocybin. If you don't know what psilocybin is, it is the active ingredient in psychedelic mushrooms. Almost passed. which means that you or your kids could go to the local convenience store or or gas station and buy something like this. The problem that we are seeing, does anybody know who Germaine Galloway is? Tall Cop says stop. If you don't know who he is, please look him up. I cannot be vendor specific or anything along those lines. Germaine is good. He will keep you a breast to what is happening. The scary thing about Indiana and talking to Germaine is Indiana's always in the top five when it comes to 18 one second. Okay. Indiana's always in the top five for things that Germaine has not seen anywhere else. 50,000
042hit vapes. I wish we had jewels again. Those are like 500 hit. I mean, I wish we didn't have any of them. That's way better than this. All the things that can be out, all the additives that can be put into them, the street slang for for some of these chemicals and things that they're putting in their bodies. It's horrible. Please follow Germaine. If you remember nothing else, tall cop says stop. He's great. Yes. >> Yep. Germaine Galloway. Tall cop says stop. He will open your eyes to things that you've never seen before. What can you do guys? You're doing Thank you for being here. This is the first step is actually showing up being a part of your students journey. Recognizing that there are problems out there and that until we as a community
043pull together, we're not going to stop anything or we're not going to even slow things down. So, thank you for taking time out tonight to be here. This is step one. Now, let's continue the message on. If you want our website, we have the Indiana Office School Safety website. The best thing I can tell you do is Google Indiana Office School Safety. It will take you directly to our website. We have all kinds of resources on there. What we have coming down the pipeline is so like the digital stuff that we're talking about. We are getting ready to launch a video series for parents, students to where it's age appropriate, administrators, everything across the board. That can be found on our website. We'll be releasing that here in probably the next month or so. trainings,
044things that we have put on for law enforcement, school personnel are also on our website. Um, you will also have my contact information. Please reach out to me with anything that you need. I am here to serve you. Sometimes at the state, we get it backwards to where citizens and and schools serve us. No, we serve you guys so we don't get it twisted. There's the resource hub. Just so you know, it's actually there. We have some big dreams. Um, a couple things I want to tell you about. We are currently in negotiations with a company that will come out to schools and assess doors for free. And we are trying to build legislation in that will help prioritize schools with needs of doors. When we talk about I know I I talk about not
045armed intruder all the time, but let's talk about for 30 seconds. What's the number one way to keep your students safe? A shut lock properly securing door. That third one's important. If you didn't follow Yubaldi, that's where they got lost. So, at the state level, we recognize that we have people that we are getting ready to send out to schools and be able to help identify those and hopefully through legislative dollars be able to help schools with that. We are in the midst of hopefully here soon we hear from the federal government to have a statewide anonymous reporting tip line. This tip line will be open 24/7. It will be manned 24/7. If something that that comes across as suicidal or homicidal, it will be automatically flagged. schools, leaders, and law enforcement will be notice
046notified within, I would say, within 2 to 3 minutes of a tip coming in. That allows law enforcement to do a welfare check if it's at 2:00 in the morning if they need to. And it starts allowing school officials to know of a problem before it happens the next day and spills over into school. Know that we are working hard for that. We also listen to what school officials say through county commission meetings, school safety visits, but also we want to know what you guys have to say. Which is why on the next slide or a couple slides from now, you will have my phone number and my email. It's not lip service, guys. I have to answer to you guys. My mom still lives in Frankfurt. I mean, I I have ties here. I
047would say this to anybody that's that we'll ever listen to. You call me, I swear you will not get a secretary. You won't get anybody else. You It'll come to me. If I don't answer, I'm probably either on daddy duty or I'm in the middle of a school visit. Please. That's my straight contact information. I am genuine and sincere when I say please, please use me. I will listen. I know I'm probably way over time, but I'd like to get anybody any questions or concerns. This is this is a real quick overview, you guys. I could talk all day long about this. No. Uh, it will be set up with a the anonymous tip line will be set up through the Indiana Office of School Safety. Um, it's through an app called Stop It or
048a program called Stop It. So, they vet that out. Long story short, we tried to get with the Indiana Fusion Center to allow a tip line to come into them. They said, "Sorry, we're not interested." So, we went with an outside vendor. Also, along with that, we are going to roll out videos for school administrators, parents, and community members on how to use the tool. Now, I know this could be straight in contradiction with the new legislation with the cell phone ban, but you can get on from any web browser. Any any kind of tool that will connect to the internet, you can report. We are seeing these tips come in 6:00 to 2:00 in the morning. Seeing a lot of those tips come in. And kind of the new thing which I'm grateful for
049is self-reporting of suicidal ideulations. These people are reaching out for help. So hopefully we can give them the help that they need. Any other questions? >> Yeah. Yeah. So, our videos that we're going to put out about the cyber stuff, they're going to be age appropriate. Uh, starting, I believe, at second grade because kindergarten and first grade is kind of hard to have that conversation with. Um, if a school is so inclined, I believe that you can move the second grade material down to kindergarten if you wanted to. Um, but they are going to be age appropriate. Um we all also as an office will come out to a school and provide any professional development that schools need. Um if if you tell us what you need as a school, we will do our our
050best to provide that. Uh we had a few schools that asked for steered straight. Um, I don't always agree with what he has to say, that kind of thing, but we will still get those in to schools at no cost to the schools or any family members. It just comes out of our state budget. Great question. I appreciate hopefully I answered it. Sound like a politician answer sometimes. and they >> Yes. So each school will have their own on the anonymous reporting tool. Each school will have their own drop-down tab. So you can say Clinton Central Elementary, Clinton Central Junior Senior High School, and it will be routed to however you want to set that up, whether it goes to the superintendent, building principles, assistant principles, however you want that set up. We are just
051giving the avenue. Also know that this is not a state mandate. So, we are not forcing schools to do this. I also think that schools are absolutely crazy if they don't get in on a product that costs $8 per student and we're providing it for free and we're building it into legislation so that this anonymous reporting tool can continue to thrive and help our students across the state. >> Anything else? >> Yes. Is this something? >> Yeah. I mean, it would it would depend a little bit obviously on, you know, how legislation. >> Yeah. And this guys, I'm I'm telling you guys things that are not public knowledge. So, I'm not trying to put any of you guys on on blast or anything like that. We have not been awarded the grant. I have to
052wait until we're awarded the grant. It goes through a state cycle. If you've ever done anything at the state level, it's done in triplicate and it'll be done 6 months from now. Now you have the federal government on top of that. Now we're just adding on that on. So we're trying to get this out. Our goal is July one roll out um along with videos. If we miss that preschool startup time, we're going to miss a lot of valuable time with school administrators, students, parents buy in for the actual program. We think about this stuff. So, know that we do have your best interest at heart. I truly hope that you believe that. I'm going to stick around and listen to what you guys have the rest of the night. Please feel free to come
053up to me. I'll talk to you. I'll let you know how I feel. Sometimes I may say this is how the state feels. This is how I feel. Um, sometimes they don't directly coincide. So, thank you so much for your time. It's it's it's great to have this many people here a week night that you're taking away from your family. I know my daughter's going to bed probably right about now, but it's well worth the time to come and talk to you guys and know that the door is open. If you need anything, please let me know. I can't guarantee that I will be able to answer all of your questions because as we were talking about with Furpa and things like that, there are some things that I don't know. I can't compel a
054school to tell me those type of things. So, if you have a complaint about a school or something, know that's a local decision, local control state. Kind of wanted to stay that way. We talk to the schools. They tell us what they want to tell us. We're able to put it in a form that we can redistribute out to. Please use us. I appreciate your time. Thank you so much for being here tonight. Well, thanks Chad. Appreciate you being here tonight. Um, couple things that you guys have mentioned that I wanted to touch um on, I guess. So, um, school safety specialists. Um, every school in our county has them here at Clinton Central. We have six of them. Um, all of our administrators, building and district are all certified school safety specialists in the
055state of Indiana. Um, and I appreciate that. Um we all take advantage um Clinton Central does and the other schools in the county. We take advantage of the school safety grants. Um talk about slowness of state and federal. Uh that can it is the most painful grant to fill out to report to to everything. Uh it is very painful but that's how we have our SRO's. Um Michelle mentioned and and Mr. Weaver is here as a county commissioner and appreciate the um support of our county commissioners and and our sheriff's department. Um that's who we have our so SRO's through um here at Clinton Central. Um and then I saw Deputy Tilman shaking his head when Chad shows the calculator vault. So I guess I need to go check my kids phone and other stuff
056when I get home. So uh we're going to move into our next uh session with a panel discussion. So I'm going to invite our panel up, Mr. Lake, our uh high school principal. Uh Mrs. Zard, our elementary principal, Mrs. Evans, our uh co-op director at our special ed co special education co-op, and Deputy Tilman. So, I'm going to have those four come up. >> Hey, sit wherever you want. You guys want to turn your mics on, you're welcome to. You got to hold the button, Sam said, for three seconds on the bottom. So, I've got some questions and I'm just going to ask them. And um just I'll uh first of all, if you guys want to just kind of introduce yourselves, what your current role is um and just a little bit of your
057background, I guess. So, there is a tiny button on the bottom. >> Yeah. >> Sorry, Mrs. >> What am I doing? I'm sorry. introduce yourself, your role, and a little bit of your background. >> Perfect. Um, I'm Aubrey Aert. I am the elementary principal uh right here across the way. I've been here for eight years um at Clinton Central now, four years as the assistant principal and then this is wrapping up my fourth year as principal. Um prior to that, I worked in the community schools of Frankfurt as an instructional coach and then prior to that a classroom teacher um in Carol County at Carol Elementary, which is where I'm originally from. Um, I live in Little Lakes now, right here, um, outside of town with my husband, Paul. I have a 5-year-old son, Bo,
058and a new baby that's four months old, um, named Banks. So, that's me. >> Hello, I'm Jason Blake. I'm the junior senior high school principal. Um, this is year 32 for me. So I started out at Western then I was at Northwestern then McConnell for 24 years and then this is my first year here at Clint Central and during that time I've been a I started out as a substitute teacher then a an instructional assistant then I was a classroom teacher for about 20 years and then five years or four years I'm sorry four years as an assistant principal and then this is my first year as a building level principal but the vast majority of my time when I work with students with special needs. Um, mainly students who have behavioral or emotional issues.
059>> Hello, I am Suzanne Evans. Um, I am the director of exceptional needs for Clint County Joint Services. Um, I am a um, graduate of Clint Central, so I see a lot of faces that I grew up with. Um, so it's nice to see all of you. Um so my background is um I um first was a special ed parent actually here at Clinton Central many years ago and then um went back to school and got my special education degree. Ended up at Western and taught there for several years. Um I was one of those crazy um middle school special ed teachers. Love those junior high and middle school kids. Um and then my director at the time had come to me and said, "You need to be a d." and I really drugg my
060feet and um I finally got my director's license. Um there was an opportunity to come back to Clinton Central. I was director of student services, but most of that was um the special education role, so I see lots of familiar faces um over there. Um so, um I've been married to my husband Brian for 33 years. He's a Clint Central graduate. We have um three children um and we have um four grandchildren and our love is being pop on Gigi. There's nothing like it. Um I love what I do, but I'm going to be honest, I am looking forward to retirement so that I can spend a lot of time with them. Many years down the road, Dr. Hannah, many years. Um, I have three of my bosses here tonight and I just want to
061say I didn't realize everyone was going to be here. I think Levi kept that detail out so that I would come. So, anyways, but it's nice to see all of you this evening. I'm a deputy with county sheriff's office. I've been there for now 18 years. I've been doing this job and my community. >> Awesome. All right. So, we'll start with the principles. Um, so in your role, what are things that you really focus on or specifically obviously at an elementary versus a high school, you have a pool, you have a weight room, different things. What are things that you kind of come to mind from a school safety standpoint? >> Sure. Uh, for me, I think it's, you know, school safety isn't one drill. It's not one program. It's it's honestly layers of of
062safety kind of all working together. Um, one thing we talk about all the time in education is relationships. And, you know, obviously a student learns better from someone that they have a relationship with. And I would honestly say that relationships play a super vital role as well when it comes to school safety. Um, obviously a student is a lot more likely to report something to someone that they trust and someone that they know. Um, and so I think that that strong relationships are are a huge piece of that as well. Um, and students when they feel safe, they they are going to learn better and it all kind of rolls together. Um, I think the next thing that comes to mind is just very clear procedures that all of our teachers know what to do
063and when to do it. Um, a lot of safety situations are not black and white. They're often very gray. And, um, as it's already been talked about a lot here tonight, I think what comes to mind when you hear school safety, it has a lot to do with intruders. And we start our school year every year with a convocation. Um, and we we have our very first drill day basically of the year where we run through every drill, including earthquake. So, I'm glad to hear that's important because I feel like sometimes teachers are like, why are we doing an earthquake drill? Um, but I read a book, I'm not scared, I'm prepared. And we talk about a dangerous someone. And we start the year kind of that way. And it and it is challenging because
064we do have three-year-olds um over in our building now in our little bulldogs program all the way up to sixth graders. Um and I think what they worry about is very different and what their parents worry about is very different. And so handling those things um from the jump and making sure that right off the gate they know that um we do have plans in place, students know what to do, teachers and staff know what to do um as best we can in those moments. But I think those two things um are really vital. And then I think just being proactive in in talking about safety. We have uh staff meetings as often as we can um where we do tabletop exercises and I'll throw scenarios at the staff members and have them talk to
065their teams and people that they're in the hallways with or who they're more likely to be with in those moments. Um, and they talk about what they would do because I think, you know, you might have a drill in place, you might know where you're going to go, but for example, let's say there's a fire. That's probably the least likely thing that's that to happen in our building. Um, and you're supposed to go out that door, but that's where the fire is. So then what do you do? Um, and so we just talk through those things and we u make sure that we're just keeping it a priority and that we're constantly revisiting it. We also have a school safety committee in our own elementary school um just made up of teachers. A lot of
066my teachers are are here tonight. Thanks for being here, guys. Um and and we try to challenge each other as well. And um I've been challenged a lot just this year with obviously with the new um and anytime administration turns over too. Um I think I was trained differently at other schools and I've been trained here. And so there are questions sometimes about what do you do if um we're in safety level three for example and there's a student that was in the restroom and now you block the door. Do you open the door for the student? And so we challenge each other with questions as well. So we just try to keep in mind that as good as we are and as many things as we have in place we can always get better.
067>> Kind of forget your question but just specific things. You know obviously every building's different. what do you look for and what you what concerns you? I guess >> I guess there's two things for me it's uh students and training. So when I when I say students I want everybody to know I love kids. I love your kids and I'm a parent. I'm a grandfather, papa, if you will, husband. Uh so I don't take that lightly. It's it's very important to me. I'm going to say some of the same things that she said. I believe that relationships with kids are very very important. I want to have that rapport with them and and I want students to come to me when they have issues. I I want to be proactive. Um there's been multiple times
068through my career where I've had kids come to me before they made a bad choice. That's what I want. I remember one time a student said to me, "Well, I'm not afraid of you. I don't want you to be afraid of me. I want you to feel comfortable with me. you kind of talk to me and share your issues with me and so we can deal with them. I'd much rather do that and being proactive is way better than being reactive. Uh so that's part of for me it's also um you know I want the students to feel like they can come to me if they have if they have a concern with someone else come and report it. I've had that happen many many times. Um my last school I worked as the assistant
069principal so I was part of the school safety committee. I was in charge of that. That's still something that I'm very interested in as part of the training. We do vector training at the beginning of every school year. Those are videos that we watch. I enjoy going to the pool safety meetings. I'd like to go to the advanced school safety specialist training. There's my plug. Um, but anytime that we have something like that, I want to go to it. I enjoy those things. I think it's important. It's important to train our staff, make sure that we're all on the same page. We have had some turnover in staff and so those are things that we've discussed and we want to make sure that we're doing them. You know, I'm the new guy. I'm the one
070that needs to learn how everybody else knows how to do it rather than the other way around. So, it's much easier that way. As a administrative team, we meet every Wednesday. It's an opportunity for us to to discuss educational things, academics, but it's also an opportunity for us to discuss, you know, safety concerns of what are you doing in your building? What am I doing over here? Um, and I I think it's important that people know that Aubrey and I we speak and that we are on the same page and that, you know, there's only two principles in this corporation. I want everybody to know that we like each other. We get along, we interact with one another. uh you know if there's an issue in my building I'll call her up or I'll go
071over and talk to her and let her know hey I'm going to tell you everything I can tell you and that way we we're on the same page. So again for me it's the students and it's the training. >> I'm going to jump over to Deputy Tman. So when we're fortunate you're at Clinton Prairie, Deputy Newman is over here at Clinton Central but also um Frankfurt City. I appreciate Chief Shoemaker being here. Uh, when does law enforcement when are they involved? When are they not involved? What are things that I guess same thing? What are things that concern you or what are things that you look for specifically? They said the relationship relationship with teachers, how we communicate, how we talk. You got a set of rules in your rule book. You're following that. And
072basically at that point, if you need an officer, I just stand back at the sense because if I put myself in situation you're asking for nine times out of 10 that's because something child a lot does that make sense so just depends the staff will be doing what the major question once that is complete. This is what we got. All right. Once I determined the crime is there to the student then I can walk away. Give them a little bit of time to have meaningful consultation. Mommy and daddy sit down and talk. Did you do this? I tell them to knock the door. I go back in. tell you what's going on, what you want to do. He's going to give you the phone. He's going to do ABC and search for that. We work
073together because we don't want to be in there put the record on kids if that makes sense. Let me be clear about that. We try to make sure that that's one of the things that we even do what you all need to understand my opinion is the parents. It's parenting. Everything that you're hearing right now on it for one reason specifically talked about a couple things with the app. I want to tell you about https no escaproom.org go to Indiana Department of Homeland Security. That's where that website is. That website is for everybody. It's going to challenge. It's going to ask you a few questions. What would you do if somebody sent you a picture? If I sent you a picture right now, of course, for us 18 and over, doesn't matter. 16, 17, 15,
07414. Is that a problem? That's a problem. Haley Busby, what happened? Okay, let's just be honest. I have conversations like this all the time with the students, with the staff. We're intermingling. We're talking. I'm trying to get approvals from superintendent, the principles. If we have the students watch this video, like he said, age appropriate. Has to be age appropriate. All right. The problem right now though is parents are just hey go to your room computer you hey go to your room use your phone leave me alone and unfortunately guess who's going to have to pay take pay all of you teachers when you get up here and you're standing in the front trying to tell them do ABC how many of them fall asleep in your class this is where come and I'm walking around
075talking to people that's how I client Okay. I talk to my kids. I talk to the staff like I do right now. I don't even know how to put an or just never practice. If kids aren't being taught that, guess who's talking to them about that? That's what we're supposed to do. I armed for yourself. We don't just do armed children. I just believe that that's major down. I'm worried about that's what I'm worried. Okay? And your kids will talk to you. They will talk to you. But you have to be a leader. Step in there. Get in. I've been coaching. I've done all of that for our kids. Get in there. Get your hands dirty. Work with them. You'll see a big difference. I hope that answers. >> Yes. Thank you. >> Suzanne, you
076go to five school districts. So, in our Clinton County Joint Services, um, Special Education Cooperative, it's Clinton Central, Clinton Prairie, Rosville. Um, even though it doesn't say in the name, Carol and Deli, too. Um, but it's CCJS. So, we just tell them it's Clinton Carol and whatever. We'll roll with it. But you you go to five school districts. What what are things you see? You know, obviously different districts have different things and different strengths, different challenges. What what do you see? >> So, um I think um Deli and Prairie are our biggest schools in our co-op. Um but Deli has um actually three different buildings that we go to. um three separate buildings. Um and um most of the others are consolidated within or they're two different um buildings like Carol. Um you got to
077walk a little little ways if you're going to walk from there junior high school to um over to the elementary. But um one thing that I do see and I'm starting to see more of um I came from Western and they had just a lot of safety protocols, bigger school, right? Um but I'm starting to see that more schools are starting to um have parents um bring their license again and have to check in with that. I think we kind of went away from that and we're starting to come back to that again. Um, the other thing that, um, I see is that, um, I want to put a plug out there. Um, our SRO's, we have them in all of our schools, and they're just they're not just sitting around. They're up, they're walking
078around, they're active with the students. Um, and I know I have another question coming, so I'll kind of wait and and discuss relationship and what that looks like for a special ed student that may have behaviors. Um, but going between schools and having five and yes, I go to all five. I know that I haven't been at Clinton Central as much, but we also have educational consultants that come and and um assist as well, but um I do not feel unsafe. I feel like, you know, the doors are always locked. Um you have to buzz to get in. Um, there are protocols in place for any type of tornado, fire, you know, I don't feel like, you know, I've been in schools and when they have them, no matter what school we're in, if they
079have a drill, we are participating. Um, and I see that the teachers have been trained in that and they know exactly what to do. And again, there's some other things I'll talk about. we come to the special ed um area. But um >> okay. So what you have to understand about special ed first of all um our biggest area is called child find and that is where when a parent or a staff member says that they feel like a student needs to be evaluated for um an IEP. All right. Um without going into too much detail, there has to be data that aligns to one of the 14 disabilities. Um developmental delay is only from 3 to nine. Um and um when looking at that, first of all, we look, you know, academically or behaviorally
080would the data that we see from the teachers aligning with one of those 14 disabilities to do an evaluation that those pieces of that evaluation. um are aligned with the disability. So two areas that we see students with behaviors um are emotional disability and other health impairment. Um a lot of times in other health impairment you see here ADHD kids. Um so you see those areas where we see more behaviors. So we have behavior assessments that are very thorough that we do. We do a functional behavior assessment and then we put a behavior plan within that IEP if if they meet criteria. It's all based on criteria. Um and um I know we've already talked about Furpa and you know we've already talked about when we discipline a special education student there are laws and
081whether we agree with the laws or not and I always say that in special ed uh presentations article 7 and IDA we may not always agree with it but we chose to be in education and we have to follow it because there are um as we talked about like fura violations that's funding and we already know and you know they're already taking a lot of funding from public schools and we don't want to see more of that funding um be taken away from us because we did not follow the law. Um so we also put in um crisis plans within um IEPs if we have a student that just I I'm again go back to I am not worried about a school shooter within special education. I'm just going to be honest with you. Okay.
082Um what I'm more worried about is the kid that elopes. That means runs out of the classroom and he doesn't get out of the building. All right. Um I'm also concerned for those students who have um major sensory um you know protecting them when we have a tornado drill or a fire drill because they can englobe and and keeping them safe but also keeping them safe if we do have an intruder. Right? Those are the areas that we see in special ed. But I want to go back to relationships. And I talk about this a lot with GED teachers, special ed teachers, and administrators. When you develop a relationship with a student, you can see instantly when they walk in the door, especially a special education student, whether it's going to be a good day
083or not. And according to that, if you have a relationship with that student, you you know what to do with that student at that time to keep them from escalating. And we put um strategies in place for them and accommodations for them. Um, I have worked with Officer Tilman when he was here and I have watched him with some of our most adverse behavior children build relationships with them and that made all the difference. Um, so I just had another situation at school and I brought that up. I said that SRO needs to have that relationship with that student. Another thing I want to talk about is those and I'm glad officer Tilman um said this. When an officer steps in or puts hands on a student, that means they're going to be arrested or
084put in the back of a cop car. Okay. But with that said, we train, one of the things we do is that we train all of your special education staff, administrators, and some uh gened teachers um on crisis prevention. Um we also do the deescalation strategies. We do that with bus drivers as well. Um really with any anyone who wants to go through that training. Um, and there is a misconception that that is to teach them to how to put put kids in hold. That is the absolute last resort that we do with the student. The only time we put a student as a hold is if if they're a danger to themselves or others. But what I want you to understand is going I'm glad that officer Timman brought this up. We cannot change
085home. Okay, I agree. It starts with the parenting, but we cannot change home. And several of these students are coming with us, and I don't use this term um over and over again because I think we tend to use it as an excuse. We have students who have true trauma in their home. And what you have to understand is that alters the brain. And the first place that alters is their problem solving and their executive functioning. My children had a safe home. They knew they come in. All of her children have a safe home. They know they come home to safety. Those children do not. Okay? So that's why we have to put a plan in place for them that they have every right to be in this school and in all of our schools.
086But it starts with communication. I'm a big communicator, right? I'm very proactive. Getting to know your students and building relationships means you're proactive in that. And all of us working together and knowing that student and what that student specifically needs. Now, I will tell you, I believe they're, you know, it doesn't keep them from being disciplined, right? They have to follow, they sign the handbook just the same as you. And um it doesn't mean a student with an IP or 504 cannot be disciplined. Correct. Um there's just law that gives them rights within those disciplinary actions. But I think the one thing that I would like to see more of, I would like to see all of our general ed teachers, um the entire staff, I would really like to see them go through the
087deescalation training and because it teaches you, you know, what's important, you know, what to ignore, what's important. um what is um how to communicate with them when it's the time to get an administrator. Um and I think that it's really important now with the students we have because we're just not talking about special ed kids and 504 kids that have trauma. We have gened students who also have trauma and have big behaviors. And I training is so important in that and how to handle these students that are coming through our doors. I don't answer your name. >> Talk about what everyone talk about. >> Jump in there. >> CPI crisis prevention intervention. >> I I've been certified in crisis prevention intervention since the 90s. And man, you're old. I am older. >> I have two.
088So >> Oh, wow. >> I'm older than Suzanne. >> I actually graduated the same year. So >> I was Oh, were you? Okay. >> Uh but crisis prevention intervention. I was also an instructor for crisis prevention intervention for the Cook Co-op for years. Um yes, the the deescalation part of it is is huge. And uh that if we could get all of our staff trained in that, that would be awesome. I would be fully support that. Absolutely. Um it's basically it's you you're you're rationally detached. You're taking yourself out of the situation. Typically when a kid's blowing up in a classroom, it's not about the teacher. It's not about us. It's about something else. And when you realize that, you can deal with it a whole lot better. Um you know, I've been through that.
089And I I don't like ting myself, but I will say this, because of that training, I know how to talk to kids, teenagers, and I've been doing it successfully for quite some time. And the reason I bring that up is because that's a big part of it when they come to me and they're upset and they're wound up, I had one today, able to calm them down, you know, and move forward. But it that's a big part of calming them down. That's a big part of them coming to me and feeling comfortable to to share their issues with it. Or maybe it's about home or, you know, I have no problem with the kid coming in my office and just letting them vent, get it out of the system. You know what? I I've been
090through that training. I know what what I'm doing. If you want to come in there, you want to vent, you get it off your system, I'd rather you do that in my office with the door shut than in a classroom with 25 30 other kids. So, I'm I'm full supporter of the crisis prevention intervention. You can look it up. It's It's >> Yeah, it is. It's the crisis um prevention institute and myself and my two educational consultants are all trained and we get our um renewals every two years. Um so, and there are some other um training out there that we're looking into as well, some newer training um just for those students who are physically aggressive. um you have to handle those a little differently and we're looking at some other training um out
091there as well for that. And um but yes, that deescalation is what's important and we all know when a kid is um oversensitized and I will tell you right now, we are seeing more and more ASD and developmental delay. And I'm going to tell you right now because I truly believe this, it's because the iPads and phones that we're putting in front of these little kids. We're not having conversation. So, when all my special ed teachers over there are shaking their head because um we have students who are nonverbal. It's not they're cognitively very smart. They cannot talk, right? And um I truly believe it's because we're putting a phone or an iPad or a TV in front of them and that's all they're doing. There's no conversation going on in the home. Um but
092we can't change that, right? Um, so we have to start looking at what proactive measures we can take to learn to teach them how to communicate because a lot of those students have big behaviors because they don't know how to communicate and so there are systems we put in place for that and it takes time. It takes time for them to learn that as well. >> Mrs. A, Mr. like what's what's um I guess what's changed over the years or things that you think about just man it wasn't that way my first year or it's this way or in terms of safety and security in school right like what do you think about >> I think for me I mean at the beginning of my career it was when someone said school safety I really
093thought of like physical security like is the building secure are we checking our visitors and things like that I think it's just way more complex Now, um I mean again, home life is so different. I would say, you know, from teaching kindergarten in those first years to kindergarteners that I see walk through our doors now, they're just so vastly different in so many ways. Um being a mom myself to a 5-year-old who is exposed and wants to see um the things that are that his friends come to school and talk about, roadblocks being one of those things, and he's five. And so, um, I just think again the things that they are exposed to and the things that we have to then be ready to respond to and not necessarily thinking that it would affect,
094you know, a 5-year-old who's in early kindergarten. Um, you're more thinking about the fifth and sixth graders probably when you're hearing those things and and up. And so, I think it's just very important that those conversations start young. Um and even just partnerships with families knowing um situational things for our students I think is very important. We have in my opinion way more split homes than we used to. And so knowing from teacher um if we see certain things out of a student that they were you know with dad that weekend or with mom that weekend and that's not their normal environment. I think that that's a normal um a thing that that we do every day now. um just knowing those indicators and those behaviors and knowing we might see a different version of
095Johnny or Sally today because of what their environment was the weekend before. So just very complex. I also think there's a lot of things that happen outside of school that then we see the ramifications of inside the school day um or are expected to handle um or friends are mad at each other because of something that happened you know during sports or at the park or wherever and we have to deal with um you know what happens then at school or be on standby on watch to see if that's going to escalate again. Um so just very very complex. There's just lots more to think about and I'll leave like the social media and the emotional looking for emotional triggers and all that to to Jason because I think that is more of a high
096school thing, but we certainly see the impacts of that all the way down in elementary as well. >> Well, I'm dating myself here again, but this is my fourth decade working with kids. So in that time I I was telling Lee by this earlier today people have asked me through the years like do you think kids are different now than they were than they used to be? I really don't think kids are different. I think that our world is different, you know, the social aspect, the social media, the cell phones. In the 90s when I started, kids didn't have cell phones, you know, they were kids were still getting busted for grabbing cigarettes. You know, somebody asked me about a year ago, do you ever bust anybody with cigarettes? I'm like, no, kids don't smoke
097cigarettes. They v they, >> you know, and I remember seeing kids with skull cans in their back pockets and stuff. We don't see that anymore. You know, when when he showed Dr. Cruz showed those pictures of vapes, they look like highlighters sometimes. You know, the ones that he showed today were new ones to me and I thought I had seen quite a few of them. They're coming up with new stuff all the time. That's the stuff that's changed is, you know, the vapes, the social media. Um, you know, sometimes I get calls parents and they want us to be the social media police. And it's frustrating for us too as a school. And my previous school, there were times that there were things posted online and it had the school name in it. And we
098when we would contact those social media sites, they refused to help us even though it had the school's name in it as the title of the page. And we we got no help from it. Those are things that are new to us that are very frustrating. I know it's frustrating for parents, it's frustrating for us. Um, Dr. Cruz mentioned the fusion center earlier and I don't know that anybody really caught on to that or does anybody even know what the fusion center is besides law enforcement? I didn't either until I was an assistant principal and we had a one of our SRO's contacted the fusion center. They are guys who are way beyond me in in uh what they can do with the internet and computers and all that. They are awesome to have. I
099didn't even know they were around until we had a social media bomb threat that they tracked down. And kids are very savvy. If you think that your kid doesn't know how to switch IP addresses or add VPNs to their computer, they do. They know how to do it. And those are things that, like I said, years ago, I didn't even know what that stuff was. I I can't I don't even know how to do a VPN. But the kids sure do. I guarantee you even our junior high kids know how to do it. And that that >> Mr. Sam had to help me come turn my computer on today. Not lying, am I saying? >> I'm here to help. >> But those are those are things that we we have to deal with now that
100we didn't used to have to deal with and that goes back to I said earlier about the training. So that that's why I like to go to those trainings because they're telling us new shapes of vapes or hey this is a new trend. Um one of the things that it's been real scary through the years is kids taking hits off of THC vapes then they have reactions from them and multiple times unfortunately I've been working as an administrator where we had to call the ambulance and have a kid picked up. That's scary and it's scary for the parents. It's scary for us and then finding out that well the kid hit the THC bait in our building and and dealing with that. So it's it's a scary world, but you know sticking your head in
101the sand and acting like it doesn't exist is not the answer. We we need to educate ourselves, need to educate our staff and be a part of these things. And since I mentioned vapes, I will say this because I think parents need to know this kind of stuff. If your kids vaping, they're not hiding it any like the easy to find spots. I try to be appropriate, but girls hide them in their bras and boys hide them in their underwear. So, just know that that that's the reality of it. And often times they will pass them from person to person. So, we will find out like, hey, so and so we think has a vape. We'll go get that student. Well, they've already passed it off to Johnny. Johnny passed it to Timmy. And so,
102for or steps behind. Uh, and like the THC baits, they typically like the part that has the actual THC in it is very small and they're very nothing as big as this pin. That's very easy to hide and uh then they will pass along like they may each have their own THC, but they will pass along the part that you screwed onto the top of it so you could actually puff on it. So those are things to look for as a parent. Just educate yourself. We're trying to do it here. I encourage you to do it at home. >> Kind of jumped around, but anything else? I mean, you guys have answered all my questions. Anything else come to mind? Want to add? >> I was um going to say um just a couple things
103where we support the schools in July when I meet with my governing board, which is myself and my five superintendent. We go over all of their policies um just to make sure that they have those policies. um safety policy, um seclusion and restraint. Um we also talk about what the threat assessment looks like. Um that is um becoming a more popular needed item. um when we have a student with a 504 or an IEP that has made a threat and it has led um to and I don't want to go into excuse me too much as Michelle you know already covered but um they have certain rights to certain type of of meeting that we we hold to look at um that and when that happens when we get to that point that is when
104um the principles or APS reach out to me because I help facilitate that meeting but also also ensure that the law is being followed um as well because my job is to protect the schools um from um ending up in a due process. So I help them facilitate that. Um but those are some things that um we do to support the schools as well. >> Anything else? I would just say this that like officer Tman or Mr. Beckman, our assistant principal, when it comes to questioning a student, we have a a lot easier path than they do. And so I think that we we've all watched a lot of TV, watched a lot of movies, and we think that whatever we see from a legal standpoint is how the school has to do it. And
105that's not the truth. So it's we have to have reasonable suspicion to find to talk to a kid to search him. There's a probable cause. Those are not the same thing. And I I think that sometimes there's some confusion when we have to deal with things like that. I see everybody's way too officies. Thank you. Appreciate all four of you. Um so we'll uh we'll go ahead and shift to our last spot. I know we've gone a little longer than I anticipated. So certainly if you uh if you feel like you need to leave, absolutely uh feel free to. There are some questions at the tables and and and again um thank you to our board members that are here and um if you're a parent or a teacher or whatever and you want to
106talk through some of those questions, we will certainly hang around. Uh but certainly I know it's gone a little longer than I had planned. So if you need to leave, I understand. But uh there are some questions at the table, but certainly talk about anything that comes to mind or questions you might have. And uh whenever you want to leave, feel free to leave. I appreciate Dr. Cruz, Mrs. Cooper. Thank you. Thank you to our our law enforcement folks for being here, our county folks. Um, so I appreciate you all. Thank you. Have a good evening. Sorry. Oh yeah.