School Shooting: How Prepared are Orange County Public Schools?*

Law enforcement, first responders, and The Fullerton other stakeholders have demonstrated a School District strong interest in working cooperatively agrees with this with Orange County public schools to finding. mitigate the risk of an active shooter incident; establishment of MOUs between law enforcement and school districts would strengthen this cooperation.

All Orange County public schools studied The Fullerton Partially Disagree: For the last four by the Grand Jury stated that they School District years, the Fullerton School District disagrees has conducted specific active conducted or have scheduled drills within partially with the intruder drills at each of the District's the current school year on emergency finding. schools using an outside contractor, procedures addressing intruders on Knowledge Save Lives (KSL), that The Honorable Maria D. Hernandez Presiding Judge, Orange County Superior Court Date campus, but not all have done so specializes in school active intruder specifically regarding armed assailants. drills with armed assailants. During the 2022-2023 school year, all district staff participated in these drills provided by KSL at their assigned school site or the District Office for employees who work at that location. The Grand Jury reports mentions observing one of the training in the Fullerton School District.

While all districts prioritize the safety of The Fullerton Partially Disagree: While we are not students and staff, the attention and School District able to speak about the efforts of resources devoted to active shooter disagrees other school districts, the Fullerton preparedness and response vary from partially with the School District has in the past and district to district. finding. will continue in the future to devote attention and resources to active shooter preparedness, drills, and response. The Fullerton School District will continue to devote attention and resources annually to ensuring every school and facility and the staff and students who attend there are prepared for active shooter situations.

Safety and security plans for on-campus The Fullerton Wholly Disagrees: The Fullerton before and after-school programs are not School District School District includes all before adequately addressed by school districts. disagrees wholly and after-school programs in with the finding. individual school site and district-wide safety and security plans. Before and after-school programs students and staff are included in all safety drills, training, planning. For example, when each school conducts their four-hour staff active intruder drill with KSL, the after-school programs students are sent to another nearby school and all after-school personnel participate in the drill.

While many Orange County public The Fullerton Partially Disagrees: The Fullerton schools have installed fences, cameras, School District School District has perimeter fencing and other methods to address the issue disagrees at all 20 schools with single points of of active shooters on a campus, there are partially with the entry for all campus visitors. All * The Honorable Maria D. Hernandez Presiding Judge, Orange County Superior Court Date still opportunities for improvement. finding. campuses have security cameras that have either been recently installed and/or upgraded at all 20 schools. The cameras are regularly tested and assessments are made as to whether or not the camera views need to be adjusted, repaired, moved, or added to additional areas on all school campuses. The District has also provided access to all live camera feeds to our local Police Department in the event of an emergency or active shooter and have created an MOU dictating access. Despite all of these efforts there are always opportunities for improvement.

Not all schools utilize a system for The Fullerton Wholly Disagrees: For the last six monitoring campus visitors. School District years, the Fullerton School District disagrees wholly has used the Raptor Visitor with the finding. Management system. All visitors to each school campus are required to check-in at the front office, provide a photo ID, and once the Raptor system has run a background check the visitor is provided with an adhesive ID badge with the visitor's picture on it. Visitor's on campus are required to wear the adhesive ID badge the entire time they are on campus and any visitor on campus without an adhesive badge is immediately escorted by staff to the front office.

While there is an increased awareness of The Fullerton Wholly Disagrees: Each school in the benefits of mental health counseling, School District the Fullerton School District has not all school districts have implemented disagrees wholly dedicated staff members who these programs in all schools. with the finding. provide mental health counseling to students with parent/guardian permission or through an IEP. Counseling services are provided to schools based on the needs and the number of referrals to school based counselors. Additionally, the Fullerton School District has The Honorable Maria D. Hernandez Presiding Judge, Orange County Superior Court Date partnered with community partners such as CareSolice and OCDE to provide counseling referrals for students and families to counseling providers outside of the Fullerton School District. The Fullerton School District is constantly looking for new partnerships and more ways to provide students with counseling services.

School Resource Officers (SROs) are a The Fullerton Partially Disagrees- The Fullerton valuable asset for school safety, yet many School District School District has had a history of cities/districts do not allocate sufficient disagrees an ongoing strong partnership with funds to hire needed officers. partially with the the Fullerton Police Department. finding. Beginning with the 2023-2024 school year the Fullerton School District will be funding a full-time School Liaison Officer who will work to increase collaboration, safety, drills and preparation, and outreach to support students, parents, and the community. The School Liaison Officer will support all 20 schools in the Fullerton School District.

Not all classrooms have window shades. The Fullerton Partially Disagrees- The Fullerton tinted glass, or film to obstruct the interior School District School District has shades installed in view from the outside. disagrees all of the classrooms that are facing partially with the out into parking lots, public streets, and areas with public views. finding. However, due to concerns for student safety related to sexual abuse and molestation (SAM), window shades are left open to ensure students are kept safe and school staff can visibly scan classrooms anytime they walk past the classrooms.

The camera surveillance systems utilized The Fullerton Wholly Disagrees- As noted in F5, on many campuses require repairs, School District during 2022-2023 the Fullerton replacement, or additions. disagrees wholly School District installed and/or with the finding. upgraded cameras at all 20 schools in the district and at the District Office. The cameras are regularly tested and assessments are made as to whether or not the camera The Honorable Maria D. Hernandez Presiding Judge, Orange County Superior Court Date views need to be adjusted, repaired. moved, or added to additional areas on all school campuses. The District is moving forward with a maintenance contract on cameras with an outside vendor to provide maintenance if district personnel cannot.

Many schools do not have perimeter The Fullerton Wholly Disagrees- The Fullerton fencing completely enclosing their School District School District has perimeter fencing campus. disagrees wholly at all 20 schools with single points of with the finding. entry completely enclosing each campus.

A number of school districts have school The Fullerton Wholly Disagrees- The Fullerton site administrative offices that remain School District School District has perimeter fencing unlocked on a daily basis. disagrees wholly at all 20 schools with single points of with this finding. entry for all campus visitors. The office doors remain open for parents and the community to have a welcoming environment at the single point of entry, however parents are blocked from moving past the front office by a counter and access controlled door/gate. Each school has a camera focused on the single point of entry that office staff have streaming to their computer monitor so they can see who is approaching the office throughout the day. Please see below for the responses to each required Recommendation as requested in the Orange County Grand Jury report and attached cover letter. R#