Pocatello Education Association self-starts active shooter school safety training

One month after the deadly school shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida, local students, teachers and staff are wanting changes.

Some people within the Pocatello/Chubbuck School District #25 feel the district isn’t doing what it should in properly training its schools. In response, the Pocatello Education Association (P.E.A.) organized a C.R.A.S.E. (civilian response to active shooter events) training Wednesday night.

KIFI/KIDK’s Taja Davis talked with the president of the P.E.A. and with the school district, who says it is, in fact, trying to implement new training procedures for staff.

“This isn’t a matter of ‘if,’ it’s a matter of ‘when’ it hits a community like ours, or ours,” said Mary Anne McGory, the president of the P.E.A.

The P.E.A. is working with police to offer training for school staff in the case of a horrific incident on campus.

“All of the feedback I’ve gotten from that training, from people who have attended, has been, ‘we need this in every school. We need every school personnel.’ we need teachers, administrators, secretaries, cafeteria workers, janitors, custodians, and substitutes trained in this procedure,” McGroy said.

But as McGory told me, there was concern from people saying Dist. #25 wasn’t doing enough. The district explained that safety protocols are updated by recommendations through law enforcement. and the most recent practice during active shooter events was shelter-in-place.

“Shutting out the lights, shutting the doors, putting barriers in front of the doors, and kids hiding quietly so intruders don’t know where they are,” said Shelley Allen, the Dist. #25 spokesperson.

And even though Allen says the district has been in the process of training in new safety procedures, it takes time.

“The tragedy in Florida just kind of really sparked the desire, the passion to go forward and to protect everyone in every school building in our city,” McGroy said.

In January, Dist. #25 school resource officers approached the safety committee with the idea to implement new safety training like C.R.A.S.E, based off research from active shooter incidents in schools.

“It’s a big change from what we’ve done with shelter-in-place. So we’ve been working through the process of figuring out a way to get this training to our staff,” Allen said.

And now they have: staff will get two hours of training, after specific early release days.

“But it’s not something that happens overnight. We had to take it to safety committee, back to administration, administration met with the chief of police and went over it. He will come back now and present it to our board,” Allen said.

“We can’t just hope and hide, we now have to act and really train ourselves on what to do in those situations,” McGroy said.

Dist. #25 will introduce the C.R.A.S.E. training April 2, for two hours after the district’s early release day, therefore all teachers and staff can be trained at the same time. The district plans on continuing to implement that training for the rest of the school year and the next.

The P.E.A is holding another C.R.A.S.E. training Thursday night for school staff from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. at Grace Lutheran School.