Office of the Superintendent*

Overall, the San Diego County Schools studied are prepared to handle many kinds of emergencies, including active shooter situations, due largely to mandates from the State. The Sweetwater Union High School District agrees without comment.

Overall, law enforcement, first responders, parents and other stakeholders have shown interest to work cooperatively with San Diego County school studied in the prevention of possible active shooter incident. The Sweetwater Union High School District (SUHSD) agrees with Finding 02. SUHSD schools benefit from outstanding partnerships with our local law enforcement partners. The ٠ district has formal funded SRO MOU's in place with CVPD, NCPD, SDSO Imperial Beach SRO and a strong working relationship with SDPD Southern Division JST Officers. All four of our local Fire Departments, CVFD, NCFD, SDFD and IBFD actively support school safety efforts. SUHSD schools benefit from outstanding partnerships with multiple federal local law enforcement ٠ partners from work with the Law Enforcement Coordination Center (LECC) to DHS, DEA and others. The Security Coordinator and Advisor is an active member of the local InfraGard chapter. Recently, SUHSD received the Federal Attorneys' "Excellence in the Pursuit of Justice" award for cross-border drug smuggling prevention efforts. As part of the SD County DA's effort to develop SD standardized protocol for targeted school violence prevention, response and recovery, upon invitation SUHSD helped shape the education sector's input and share experiences implementing items. The resulting protocol presented to all SD Country Superintendents and their teams presents a critical joint cooperation between federal law enforcement (LECC), county law enforcement, mental health (PERT) and education. SUHSD has formal partnership agreements with South Bay Community Services (SBCS) that provide comprehensive student support, to include many aspects of student mental health and other "Putting Students First" Sweetwater Union High School District "programs and activities shall be free from discrimination, harassment, intimidation and bullying against an individual or a group based on age; gender, gender identity or expression, or genetic information; sex, actual or potential parental, family, or marital status that treats students differently on the basis of sex; race, color, religion, ancestry, national origin, ethnic group identification, physical or mental disability, sexual orientation, immigration status; the perception of one or more of such characteristics; or association with a person or group with one or more of these actual or perceived characteristics." SUHSD Board Policy 0410 ٠ Grand Jury Report SUHSD Response August 9, 2019 safety-related services. SBCS also helps support multiple local law enforcement agency juvenile diversion programs.

At the site level, there appears to be some lack of interactive collaboration with community stakeholders on the actual development of the plans. The Sweetwater Union High School District (SUHSD) agrees with Finding 03 as a general characterization for San Diego County schools, but SUHSD has undertaken multiple collaborative efforts. Developing meaningful stakeholder engagement in all aspects of the organization is a priority for SUHSD, which is why the district and school sites engage stakeholders in the process of annually reviewing and revising their Comprehensive School Safety Plans. The process is interactive and authentic. Every SUHSD school site is required to have a student and parent representative on the school safety committee that helps define school safety priorities and goals. School site parent organizations vary in composition throughout the district, but most schools have • active Parent Teacher Associations (PTAs), District English Learners Advisory Committee (DELAC) and District Parent Advisory Council (DPAC) (language acquisition stakeholders), and some have Culture and Climate groups—all who provide authentic feedback on comprehensive school safety. In Coordination with State and Federal Department, the district Security Coordinator and Advisor • enjoys a strong relationship with the DELAC and DPAC parent teams.

The Grand Jury found that some of the schools reviewed had conducted a vulnerability study of their premises. The Sweetwater Union High School District (SUHSD) disagrees wholly with Finding 04, as it relates to the schools within our district. Vulnerability assessments have been conducted for ALL SUHSD schools.

Valuable learning from the recent Florida and Texas shootings is not fully reflected yet in the existing CSSPs. The Sweetwater Union High School District (SUHSD) agrees with Finding 05. It can take many months of study in the aftermath of an active shooter event before official findings and recommendations are published. The Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Commission's initial report was published on January 2, 2019, and no official report has been released on the attack on Santa Fe High School in Texas. The SUHSD is committed to developing high quality emergency operation plans for active shooter events and works closely with police agencies and other stakeholder groups to update these plans as best practices emerge. SUHSD has established protocol recognized by this report as being firmly grounded in the most up- to-date research from FBI, DHS and other scholars and national subject matter experts. Moreover, guidance from National Association of School Psychologists (NASP) and School Resource Officers (NASRO) have been heavily utilized.

Overall, school districts in San Diego County indicated a more focused approach to active shooter response through their efforts to improve communication, add site safety precautions and adopt guidelines for Options-Based Responses in this year's or next year's Comprehensive School Safety Plans/Emergency Operations Plans. Sweetwater Union High School District (SUHSD) agrees with Finding 06. SUHSD has made significant investments to prevent, respond to and recover from an active shooter event. District staff helped contribute to the San Diego County Office of Education's (SDCOE) "Options- • Based Response" Training of Trainers course. During 2013-2017, the SDCOE convened a small Grand Jury Report SUHSD Response August 9, 2019 work group to study extant research, guidance and best practices in an effort to develop guidance for options-based protocol. SUHSD played a key role throughout. SUHSD's Security Work Group will host its eighth annual two full-day training sessions mandated . for all school safety committees. A significant portion of the training is centered on options-based responses to not only active shooter threats, but also many other more common threats to schools, e.g. suspected weapons possession, bomb threats, etc. All schools participate in two lockdown drills per year. • District and site Mental Health Crisis Intervention Teams have been trained by SDCOE staff using • the National Association of School Psychologists' PREPaRE model.

All San Diego County Schools in the Grand Jury study claimed to have conducted or have scheduled drills within the current school year on emergency procedures directed towards intruders on campus, but not specifically armed assailants. Sweetwater Union High School District (SUHSD) agrees with Finding 07. Since 2013, all SUHSD schools have been required to conduct at least two lockdown drills annually in addition to other required security and safety drills, e.g. Secure Campus, Clear Room, Earthquake and Fire.

Drills (conducted or planned) center mainly on the presentation of procedures but are progressing toward becoming more realistic and dynamic, which helps create a "mental model" for preconditioning staff and students to act with immediacy. Sweetwater Union High School District (SUHSD) disagrees partially with Finding 08. It may be read to imply that "realistic and dynamic" drills are appropriate for ALL students. However, in their "Best Practice Considerations for Schools in Active Shooter and Other Armed Assailant Drills" the National Association of School Psychologists and the National Association of School Resource Officers offer the following guidance regarding drill intensity: "For some participants, this intense exposure and practice may empower them with experience, options, and a sense of control. For others, this type of drill may be emotionally traumatic (Frosch, 2014). (p.4)" California Education Code gives local school site councils the responsibility and authority to revise and approve the Comprehensive School Safety Plans (and the Emergency Operations Plans included therein). The SUHSD Security Work Group, comprised of an interdisciplinary team of educators, ٠ psychologists, and district officials, prepared guidance set out to interpret the guidance from NASP and NASRO. District guidance was prepared to help school teams structure training and drill progression from basic, intermediate, to advanced skills across the secondary ages. Additional precautions were offered for students with special needs or those for whom more stressful training may be inappropriate. These concepts were shared with the SDCOE work group. Decisions about the type and intensity of emergency drills are best evaluated at the local level with • informed district guidance to help move progressively from simple to more stimulating options-based drill formats, in a developmentally appropriate manner. SUHSD believes that training elements that may be highly appropriate for tactical and psychological • preparation of law enforcement and some adults such as gunfire simulation, wound simulation, for example have less objective-oriented purpose and are even less developmentally appropriate for students. Further distinctions can be drawn between what is appropriate for staff versus student training. For example, after several years of gradually building capacity district-wide with options- based approaches to the "Run" and "Hide" elements beyond standard lockdown, we only recently felt prepared to provide formal practical instruction in the "fight" piece in 2018 (only for adults in SUHSD). Grand Jury Report SUHSD Response August 9, 2019 As with any sound curricular design, SUHSD believes that safety training decisions are ideally accompanied by considerations of whether the skill is beginning, intermediate, or advanced. Furthermore, consideration should be made whether the training is intended to build awareness, intermediate or even advanced individual proficiency and/or organizational capacity. Lastly, general perishability of the skillset should be considered. Safety training is most efficiently and effectively approached with a general progression of skills in mind. Is this a skill all members must know? (E.g. recognize attack indications and to be able to move to safety as an individual or a group.) Districts should avoid expending precious resources of time and money on skillsets that are advanced, taught without key foundation skills, or that are highly perishable. Such items may be inadvertently conflated with being "realistic" without offering substantive training value. Lastly, SUHSD believes that all districts should be wary of dramatic, made-for-media coverage, full- ٠ scale exercises (sometimes suggested by law enforcement who are under community pressure) that tend to use staff and students as static actors, with the major training benefit for law enforcement. If conducting these types of "realistic" full-scale exercises, the specific training objectives for ALL participants should be clearly delineated in the planning sessions. Scripted events are less valuable than being more engaged in carefully structured options-based scenarios that encourage more opportunities for thinking under pressure for ALL participants.

As a note of recognition, Sweetwater Union High School District has gone above and beyond state requirements for safety training by demonstrating excellent and thorough levels of preparation. The Sweetwater Union High School District (SUHSD) agrees with Finding 09. Sweetwater Union High School District is honored to be recognized by the Grand Jury.

Funding for active shooter response and preparedness is given high priority for some districts. The Sweetwater Union High School District (SUHSD) agrees with Finding 10.

Before and after school programs need to be better addressed in safety plans. The Sweetwater Union High School District (SUHSD) agrees with Finding 11. Since 2017, emphasis has been placed on standardizing and building capacity in After School Programs (ASP's) comprehensive school safety. ASP's have been equipped with the radios that share compatible programming and emergency all- • call features with the main sites. ASP staff from South Bay Community Services, YMCA and ARC attended a 2-hour comprehensive safety training tailored to the ASP environments. Coordinated with the Assistant Principal responsible for campus safety and security, ASP staff develop a structured emergency call list specific to their site and program. As of 2019-20, this is embedded within the larger site CSSP.

Many districts expressed a need to train all adults on campus in safety procedures. The Sweetwater Union High School District (SUHSD) agrees with Finding 12.