Orange County Grand Jury
• 2017-2018
• Agency Response
Response to:
Orange Unified School District
Orange Orange Unified School District*
⚠️ Translation Notice: This content has been automatically translated. The original English text is the official version. Translation may contain errors.
⚠️ Este contenido ha sido traducido automáticamente. El texto original en inglés es la versión oficial. La traducción puede contener errores.
Findings and Recommendations 9 findings
F1
School safety and security are priorities in every school in the Orange County public school system. The Orange Unified School District agrees that school safety and security are a priority and we employ a multi-department approach to keeping our schools and students safe and secure. The OUSD Student and Community Services department supports school sites with resources, trainings and serves as a liaison to law enforcement and first responders. OUSD Psychological Services department supports school sites with resources, trainings and additional personnel to not only work to prevent a situation but also supports students in families in the aftermath if a situation were to take place. OUSD Information Technology department supports school sites with resources, trainings and expertise when dealing with social media and the impact that plays on school safety and cyber security. Additionally the OUSD Maintenance and Operations division supports school sites by keeping our current facilities safe for students and community. We renovate our schools, student safety is always a top consideration.
Related Recommendations (1)
R1
School districts should explore all possible funding resources that may be available in order to implement desired security measures. The Orange Unified School District has implemented the recommendation and will continue to explore all possible funding resources as it has done in the past and is committed to spend current resources in addressing student safety and security. Examples include the installation this summer of security cameras at all of our middle and high schools. We have also invested in currently revising our district's emergency operation plan by employing a safety, security, and emergency management consultant to help us sure up our plans and procedures.
F2
The implementation of security measures for schools, in many cases, is limited by funding. The Orange Unified School District agrees with this finding. The extent to which our schools can implement the type and extent of security measures is often dependent on funding.
Related Recommendations (1)
R2
School districts should re-evaluate the lack of secure fencing on all school campuses and present a report to their respective boards by December 31, 2018, outlining their plans to make campuses more secure. (F.2, F.3) The Orange Unified School District will re-evaluate the lack of secure fencing and prepare a report to the OUSD Board of Education. The District middle and elementary schools are fenced and secure. The high schools are significantly more porous.
F3
Many Orange County school campuses are constructed to reflect an "open and inviting" atmosphere but are now faced with physical and philosophical security issues that challenge this thinking. The Orange Unified School District agrees with this finding. Of the schools within our district, many are considered to reflect an "open and inviting" atmosphere. Most schools being constructed in the 60's and 70's
Related Recommendations (1)
R3
School districts should implement procedures to ensure that all campuses maintain a complete, daily log (electronic or manual) of every visitor and volunteer entering and exiting the campus, excluding program events such as awards ceremonies or stage or musical productions. (F.4.) All schools are directed to maintain a complete, daily log (electronic or manual) of every visitor and volunteer entering and exiting the campus, excluding program events such as awards ceremonies or stage or musical productions.
F4
While every Orange County school district reported the use of a campus visitor sign-in process, there is a lack of procedural consistency among school campuses. The Orange Unified School District does agree with this finding as it pertains to its schools.
Related Recommendations (1)
R4
School districts should implement procedures to ensure that photo identification is required of all campus visitors and volunteers before a visitor's badge is issued. (F.4, F.5.) Orange Unified School District schools are directed to check photo identification prior to issuing a visitor's badge.
F5
Many districts or school campuses do not require all teachers, staff, and volunteers to wear ID badges while on campus, making identification of authorized personnel difficult for substitute teachers, student teachers, visitors, volunteers, and first responders. The Orange Unified School District does agree with this finding as it pertains to its schools.
Related Recommendations (1)
R5
School districts should implement procedures to ensure that all faculty and staff are required to wear visible photo ID badges while on campus. (F.5.) All Orange Unified School District faculty and staff are issued photo ID badges, the degree in which they wear them on campus varies. We will remind sites the importance of being able to properly identify staff.
F6
Currently, student ID badges, which could easily distinguish students from non-students of similar age, are not required to be worn by Orange County middle and high school students. The Orange Unified School District does agree with this finding as it pertains to its schools.
Related Recommendations (1)
R6
All school districts with middle or high school campuses should consider using student ID cards in a format to be worn as student ID badges while on campus. (F.6.) Although all Orange Unified School District middle and high school students are issued a photo ID card not all schools make it mandatory for them to be worn at all time while on campus. We will consider implementing this as a practice.
F7
Campus personnel and volunteers, while on duty outside the classroom, have an inconsistent usage or availability of communication devices for emergency situations. The Orange Unified School District School District agrees with this finding. Many staff members do have radios to use to communicate on campus but not all staff members do.
Related Recommendations (1)
R7
School districts should evaluate available communication devices and ensure that custodial and supervisory personnel, as well as safety resource officers, playground supervisors and coaches, have two-way radios or equivalent communication devices with them at all times, enabling instant two-way communication with the office. (F.7.) Orange Unified School District schools all have radios that can get them in immediate contact with the District Office and each other. Each school site has their own internal radio system.
F8
There is no documentation or reporting protocol within the districts of individual security incidents, making it difficult to track, analyze, and summarize such incidents. The Orange Unified School District disagrees with this finding. Our schools are trained to log all incidents in Aeries, our student information system or prepare a summary for administration if no active student is involved.
Related Recommendations (1)
R8
School districts should consider requiring that all campus incidents of unauthorized access be recorded, tracked, and reported to the district office on a quarterly basis. All districts should share these reports with the Orange County Department of Education. (F.8.) The Orange Unified School District will require that all of our sites report incidents of unauthorized access to the District office of Student and Community Services on a quarterly basis.
F9
While every Orange County school develops a school safety plan, few schools have used an individual school security assessment to identify deficiencies or to develop the required plan. The Orange Unified School District agrees that every school has a school safety plan and not all have been assessed by independent agencies to identify deficiencies or to develop the required plan. All Orange Unified Schools use a template for their school safety plan that has been reviewed by local law enforcement and we are in the process of having all of our schools walked and plans reviewed by local law enforcement threat assessment teams. Grand Jury Recommendations with Orange Unified School District Responses
Related Recommendations (1)
R9
School Districts should evaluate requiring each school to perform a school security assessment to evaluate their current school safety plan. The Orange Unified School District has implemented the recommendation by engaging our local law enforcement agencies and Orange County Intelligence Assessment Center to review and evaluate our school safety plans. We have also employed a private safety, security, and emergency management consultant to review and revise our district safety plan. Sincerely Ed Howard Executive Director Student and Community Services cc: Alexia Deligianni-Brydges, Ed.D President of the OUSD Board of Education Gunn Marie Hansen, Ph.D. OUSD Superintendent of Schools
* This report's PDF did not contain easily extractable text and required Optical Character Recognition (OCR) for analysis. There may be minor errors in the extracted findings and recommendations due to OCR limitations with scanned documents.