Santa Cruz County Grand Jury
• 2017-2018
• Agency Response
Assessing the Threat of Violence in our Public Schools*
⚠️ 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.
Note: Missing finding numbers detected: F6, F7, F8, F9
Findings 2 findings
F5
Seven of the ten districts have a specific threat assessment plan; those districts without a plan are less able to respond effectively to threats. All of these reported that local law enforcement was aware of their plan. AGREE X PARTIALLY DISAGREE – explain the disputed portion DISAGREE – explain why Response explanation (required for a response other than Agree): The City is committed to maintaining our positive relationship the Soquel Union Elementary School District. Staff has established threat response protocols and clear channels of communication with critical school personnel. In January of each year, investigators from the Capitola Police Department's Criminal Investigations Unit (CIU) meet with designated staff from Soquel Union School District facilities to review and update the School Emergency Management Plans for each of the schools in the district. Liaison personnel are identified and emergency contact information is disseminated with specific instructions related to the rapid mobilization of necessary personnel in the event of an emergency, perceived or actual. This process has proven to be effective during previous known and/or predicted threats of violence associated with school facilities or individuals. In addition, the Capitola Police Department has cooperated with the Santa Cruz County Sheriff's Office and engaged in training scenarios emphasizing the likely need for a mutual aid response to credible threats of school violence and "active shooter" emergency response and protocol. The City does not have records of what level of threat assessment planning other school districts in the County have completed. It should also be noted that the ability to effectively respond to a "threat" is, in part, dependent on details of the actual threat (if known), credibility of information and intelligence, and the severity of the threat presented, perceived or direct. Some threats, such as bomb threats delivered by unknown persons or unsubstantiated sources, via social media for instance, are often effectively handled outside of the structure of a Threat Assessment Plan but within the structure of law enforcement standard best practices. Whereas, a credible and/or confirmed threat of pending violence at a school location, or actual violence occurring (i.e. active shooter) at a school location are likely to be handled more effectively if all responders are operating under known and practiced emergency response protocols some of which are likely contained in a Threat Assessment Plan. Respond by August 14, 2017 Assessing the Threat of Violence in our Public Schools Capitola Chief of Police
F10
Not all local law enforcement agencies have personnel trained in assessing threats of school violence, leaving them less able to assist schools. X AGREE ___ PARTIALLY DISAGREE – explain the disputed portion DISAGREE – explain why Response explanation (required for a response other than Agree): Respond by August 14, 2017 Assessing the Threat of Violence in our Public Schools Capitola Chief of Police
Recommendations 5
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R1Email the completed Response Packet as a file attachment to grandjury@scgrandjury.org, and
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R2Print and send a hard copy of the completed Response Packet to The Honorable Judge John Gallagher Santa Cruz Courthouse 701 Ocean St. Santa Cruz, CA 95060 Report Published June 13, 2017 Assessing the Threat of Violence in our Public Schools Capitola Chief of Police Instructions for Respondents California law PC § 933.05 (included below) requires the respondent to a Grand Jury report to comment on each finding and recommendation within a report. Explanations for disagreements and timeframes for further implementation or analysis must be provided. Please follow the format below when preparing the responses. Response Format
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R3However, if a finding or recommendation of the Grand Jury addresses budgetary or personnel matters of a County department headed by an elected officer, both the department head and the Board of Supervisors shall respond if requested by the Grand Jury, but the response of the Board of Supervisors shall address only those budgetary or personnel matters over which it has some decision-making authority. The response of the elected department head shall address all aspects of the findings or recommendations affecting his or her department.
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R4A Grand Jury may request a subject person or entity to come before the Grand Jury for the purpose of reading and discussing the findings of the Grand Jury report that relates to that person or entity in order to verify the accuracy of the
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R6A Grand Jury shall provide to the affected agency a copy of the portion of the Grand Jury report relating to that person or entity two working days prior to its public release and after the approval of the presiding judge. No officer, agency, department, or governing body of a public agency shall disclose any contents of the report prior to the public release of the final report. Respond
* 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.