PANAMA CITY, Fla. (WMBB) — In right this moment’s local weather, many mother and father are involved about security as they ship their college students off to high school. Bay District leaders mentioned they’re working to tell mother and father with out unnecessarily alarming them.
Native leaders consider they’re doing all the pieces they’ll to maintain your children secure.
The folks in command of college security in Bay County keep extremely busy, coping with threats, medical points, and extra.
“Day-after-day, day by day we have now first responders which will go to our campus whether or not it’s a paramedic,” college security coordinator Vernon Barth mentioned. “Whether or not it could be a fireplace company division or regulation enforcement probably.”
Barth handles a number of issues every day, tracks them, then recordsdata a month-to-month report. With greater than 27,000 college students, directors describe the district as a bit of metropolis. Similar to first responders do of their cities, academics, directors, and security officers face challenges of their little cities.
“We have now loads of companions and businesses that we work with very carefully and we simply need to ensure that the youngsters are being secure and they’re being protected and that you realize mother and father can be ok with their college students coming dwelling day by day,” Barth mentioned.
In response to the district, 5 college students have been dedicated to psychological well being points throughout the first month of college and one other 90 have been referred for psychological well being therapy.
District leaders have confused the necessity for psychological well being providers for college kids nonetheless coping with the emotional fallout from Hurricane Michael and the pandemic.
“I see loads of college students that don’t know the right way to deal with conditions,” Barth defined. “I see loads of college students that aren’t geared up emotionally to have the ability to deal with attempting robust conditions in order that they lash out verbally or bodily when it comes time which is due to this fact leading to extra threats and extra college violence.”
Paramedics answered 26 college calls within the first month. District officers and regulation enforcement officers investigated 50 threats.
“No one needs to listen to that decision, this is a vital district security replace about your little one’s college right this moment, we had a risk right this moment or right this moment we had a harmful object,” Bay District Director of Communications Sharon Michalik mentioned.
Nonetheless, not each risk brings the identical stage of concern.
“If a pupil for instance introduced a plastic toy knife to high school, we need to let mother and father understand it was a plastic toy versus an actual knife as a result of definitely there’s a distinction within the stage of alarm,” Michalik mentioned.
It needs to be famous that district officers mentioned they’re in fixed contact with different districts throughout the state and nation.
They mentioned that, whereas we have now some distinctive challenges, each college district is coping with these kinds of issues.
