President Joe Biden signed Executive Order 14127, Combating Emerging Firearms Threats and Improving School-Based Active-Shooter Drills on Sep. 26. The executive order addresses various gun safety and regulation issues, including school safety and preparedness. It creates a multi-department task force responsible for producing a report to inform government policy regarding these issues.
The possible effects of this executive order are numerous and may bring changes to an already changing School District of Clayton. Last year, Tier One Solutions, a third-party firm, performed an extensive safety and security audit with the help of Luke Heitert, the chief communications officer and safety and security coordinator. The audit resulted in a 200-page report on the district’s safety.
“[The audit revealed] how safe our district is, and also the areas where we can [improve],” Heitert said. “Tier One said we were doing a better job than the vast majority of school districts that surround [us], but there are things that they felt we could improve upon.”
One area the district improved was its alarm systems. It determined that the lockdown buttons installed in the spring of 2023 were ineffective. Teachers now carry Cyntegix Alert badges to report an emergency regardless of proximity to a wall-mounted button.
The district’s drills have evolved alongside its physical security. Nothing is overlooked, even the terminology used to describe the drills at different levels. Assistant Principal Drew Spiegel discussed the importance of using age-appropriate terms.
“Starting with our language, at the elementary level, we say unwanted guests; at the high school, we escalate that a bit to say intruder,” Spiegel said. “That’s what is in recognizing that trauma takes a lot of different forms.”
Last year’s audit came as a result of two shooting scares within one week in May of 2023; one at the high school involved a prop gun and another at Wydown when the alarm system was triggered by accident. These two incidents irreversibly changed how the staff and students of the district look at school shootings.
“The next day at school, it dawned on me that my brother could have died, and all my friends could [have],” sophomore Aud Shulz said. “That just made it really real for me.”
Addressing trauma was a major part of the executive order, one of its various goals is to research “how to prevent or limit trauma or psychological distress associated with active-shooter drills and support students and educators who may experience such trauma or psychological distress.”
According to this fall’s Panorama survey, 74% of students feel consistently safe at the high school.
“Our school district has done a very good job of making sure that the only people who can get into the school are people who have the IDs. There are different sections of the school so if there happened to be something going down in one of the hallways, they can contain it to that hallway, which makes me feel better,” Schulz said.
Despite not creating any concrete plans or policies, the district looks at the executive order with hope.
“I’m excited to see what the research is from Homeland Security, Health and Human Services and the Attorney General, what their recommendations are, and see if their thought processes align where ours are,” Heitert said. “Maybe they will see some flaws in the system and how we can update our protocols.”
The possibility of an active shooter on school grounds is a reality staff and students have to face every time they walk into the building. However, the district has countless people working around the clock to keep students safe and secure.
“I appreciate how intentional our students are when it comes to intruder drills and all the drills that we practice. I also appreciate the teachers, with the sacrifice of time and space that they make for these drills; they’re extremely important and can be frustrating. We’d rather be learning about whatever it is in class,” Spiegel said. “But if we don’t practice, we don’t make progress.”
