Gulley makes recommendations

The deadly Valentine’s Day shooting at a Florida high school sparked discussion about improving security in Jay School Corporation. Following a local school threat this week, superintendent Jeremy Gulley has released his recommendations.

The seven-page document is expansive in its scope, outlining goals such as training for identifying risky behavior, creating secure entrances connected with school offices and providing some form of armed security in each building.

“I am concerned about our current gap in school security to counter the active shooter threat,” Gulley says in the introduction to his recommendations. “There are vulnerabilities that must be addressed.”

Gulley’s full recommendations and a survey in order to provide feedback are available at bit.ly/JSCschoolsafety and bit.ly/JSCSecuritySurvey, respectively.

The plan sets up what Gulley calls three “security pillars”:

•Education, awareness and communication

•Hardening schools and facilities

•Increased armed security

Perhaps the most controversial of the steps he outlined involves the possibility of giving “trained volunteer staff access to school-owned firearms secured in biometric safes.” It’s included as part of an effort to increase armed security, which would also involve creating a full-time school resource officer position and utilizing retired police and “other qualified and trained individuals” in school security roles.

“As a part of my security assessment, there’s a clear gap. And that’s with the response time of police officers to get to schools to stop the carnage,” said Gulley. “And we can’t wish that away.

“Response time is key. The active shooters that I studied … they will continue their active shooting until they run out of victims or they’re confronted. When they do, they typically stop their attack.

“I think the approach that I’ve recommended here is a sensible middle ground that provides a response to that active-shooter threat without the downside … of having an armed teacher, concealed carry, in the classroom.”

He added that local law enforcement leaders have endorsed the approach.

Jay County currently has a school resource officer — a rotation of off-duty sheriff’s office deputies — regularly at the high school. Gulley’s recommendation calls for assigning a single school resource officer whose responsibilities would include helping coordinate school safety.

In order to “harden” schools, the recommendations call for creating a single point of entry, connected to the front office, at each school, with increased video surveillance. It would also require that all classroom doors be able to be locked from the inside and that doors and windows have “bullet resistant qualities.” Each school would also be equipped with the ability to send an instant lockdown alert to dispatchers.

Both the building modifications and addition of armed security would come at significant cost.

Gulley indicated short- and long-term funding options, including making modifications through planned school construction projects, using money from a bond-refinancing that was completed last year and utilizing funds available through school safety grants.

“Anyone who looks at that is going to know that comes at a cost,” he said. “My intent is to get the ball rolling with the dollars that we do have.”

The “education, awareness and communication" would involve establishing a countywide threat assessment team that would focus on identifying potential threats, determining their seriousness and creating intervention plans. There would also be training via an online platform and preparation, with local law enforcement, to implement the state’s “red flag” law that allows confiscation of guns from individuals believed to be a danger to themselves or others.

Gulley said he expects the recommendations will be discussed over the next several school board meetings.