School safety looks different but remains a focus, officials say

For school administrators, there is no more important issue than keeping their buildings and students safe.

“This is the most sobering part of my job,” said Justin Milner, assistant superintendent and chief operating officer of Norman Public Schools. “It’s something we think about 24/7, now more than ever.”

As the 2024-25 school year begins in Oklahoma, school districts are constantly thinking and working on ways to keep children safe — not only from intruders, but also from storms, especially in light of the massive 2013 tornado that destroyed two elementary schools in the Moore Public Schools district and killed seven students at Plaza Towers Elementary School in south Moore.

Security improvements range from the simple — door locks, fences and cameras — to more expensive ones, such as school resource officers, or SROs, and building expansions.

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Deer Creek School District used a $45,000 grant its foundation received from Casey’s convenience store chain to help the district purchase security devices for more than 1,200 doors in the northwest Oklahoma County district.

Alex Looper, executive director of the Deer Creek Foundation, said the organization’s goal is to raise $100,000 to purchase security devices for key doors at schools.

“We are grateful to receive the Cash for Classrooms grant from Casey’s and are excited to announce that we have reached 76% of our fundraising goal,” Looper said. “The needs of our district continue to evolve, but the top priority for all of us as a district, foundation, parents and community remains safety—especially when it comes to children.”

In addition to fundraising, districts are also using school bond proposals to fund safety improvements. Almost every bond proposal, regardless of district size, now includes some type of safety component. In the case of Western Heights Public Schools in southwest Oklahoma City, its first bond proposal since 2017 focused almost exclusively on safety.

Western Heights Superintendent Brayden Savage said the bond money will be used to update security cameras for the first time in 10 years, add fencing around the middle/high school campus and repair gates around most of the campus. He said the work should be completed by early November.

“We have to be as safe as we can, and we’re always evaluating our plans for that,” Savage said. “It’s really a necessity. We always have to evaluate that because technology changes every day.”

She added that the district plans to prepare another bond proposal for 2025 that would allow Western Heights to add entry vestibules to schools that do not already have them.

The new technology includes devices that resemble metal detectors used at airports or at the entrances to major public buildings, such as the Oklahoma State Capitol, but are less intrusive, allowing students to enter school facilities more quickly. Wayland Cubit, director of security for Oklahoma City Public Schools, said the district will expand its use of the devices this year to prevent weapons from entering schools.

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“It’s a system designed solely for detecting weapons, so it doesn’t turn on keys, it doesn’t turn on phones, it doesn’t turn on belts or other metal objects,” Cubit said. “It’s designed solely for identifying weapons.”

The 2023 bond passed by Norman voters included $5.711 million for safety improvements throughout the district. It also included money to expand classrooms at eight elementary schools, as one of the district’s primary goals is to move students out of portable classrooms separate from the main school building and put all students under one roof, which Milner said is preferable for safety reasons.

Norman’s 2019 bond issue paid for the addition of storm shelters to 16 district schools that didn’t have them. The last of the shelters were recently completed. Other districts, including Moore Public Schools, have been working toward a goal of having a shelter in every school.

Recent legislation has helped some schools start or expand SRO programs

There have also been efforts to increase the number of school resource officers, especially after the Oklahoma Legislature approved two bills, House Bill 2902 and House Bill 2903, that created a pilot program known as the School Resource Officer Program. The funds provided each district in Oklahoma with about $93,000 to hire an SRO and implement security improvements. By definition, SROs are sworn law enforcement officers.

Savage said that before the law went into effect, Western Heights didn’t have an SRO. Now it has two, who circulate throughout the district’s campuses, focusing on the high school and middle school.

“It was a game changer,” she said. “It helped us a lot. It’s just a different feeling when you have an SRO versus a security guard.”

Tulsa County Sheriff’s Office Sergeant Brandon Hendrix has spent most of his career as an SRO and is vice president of the Oklahoma Association of School Resource Officers. He said the goal of both bills was “to provide schools that are underfunded and don’t have the ability (to pay for SROs) with some level of safety.”

He said the role of an SRO is often misunderstood: “We’re not there to arrest kids. We’re there to be positive role models and build relationships before something violent happens.”

Hendrix said SROs are sworn officers, but they also serve as advisors and mentors who help resolve issues with students “and direct them to the appropriate services.” He also said SROs are often “law educators” who “go to classes and explain how law enforcement came to be, constitutional rights, things you can get in trouble for, the differences in the types of law enforcement. We encourage them to be educators.”

Milner said that while many of the safety measures districts are implementing aren’t the focus, parents should be assured that keeping kids safe is a priority for school administrators. He said safety includes a wide range of measures that aren’t often thought about, such as counselors to support kids with trauma and mental health issues.

“I don’t think many people … realize the full burden or challenge that we have in education to support the whole child and also feed and clothe students,” Milner said. “That’s the one thing that unites us all.”

This article originally appeared in The Oklahoman: School security remains a concern for Oklahoma administrators