Communities across Colorado live with ongoing concerns about how to keep kids safe at school. This is especially true for the students who are going through lockdown drills and sometimes experiencing threats and violence. In the final part of KUNC’s new series, Safety Plan, reporter Leigh Paterson sat down with students from Boulder High School to talk about safety. OR: In the final part of KUNC’s new series, Safety Plan, reporter Leigh Paterson joined host Mike Lyle to talk about what local students had to say.
Hannah Berns, a junior, remembers how she felt following two recent shooting threats at Boulder High School.
“I remember, I was in the hallway getting water afterwards and then the lights went off. And I was like, so scared,” Berns said. “And I walked back in and they turned back on. But I think that is when I realized that I was actually, like really worried about it [a school shooting] happening.”
Amelie Panaccione, a senior, is unsure what she would do if there was a real shooting incident.
“Maybe don't stay in place, try to find a safe place or something like that,” Panaccione said. “Like if there's a school shooting, I don't want to hide behind a desk and be a sitting duck and be like, ‘Well, I could get shot. There goes my life.”
Panaccione and other students talked about internal safety concerns, issues like drug use and weapons.
“I feel like when we walk into school, I'm like, okay, like a shooting. It could totally happen,” Panaccione said. “And I don't necessarily feel safe in the school, but I also think there's like a ton of different safety concerns here.”
“I have seen students carrying knives and stuff and just like pull in and out in class, and put it back in. like that doesn't exactly make me feel safe,” Saisree Kumar, a senior, said.
The Boulder Valley Board of Education voted to end the district’s school resource officer (SRO) program three years ago but some students say they would feel more comfortable with police back in their schools.
“I do think I can only speak for myself. I do think I felt safer having someone like that on campus,” Kumar said. “Their position, I feel like, is very valuable, especially in schools in America…And if their presence is making certain students feel uncomfortable, I think there is another way to tackle that as well, rather than removing them completely. But that is my opinion.”
“Like I remember in Centennial Middle School, we had an SRO named Jeremy and he was so cool and we would high five him every single time,” Panaccione said. “He would deescalate stuff, he would talk to us, he would come in our classrooms…But having relationships in that way where you can say, ‘Hey, how are you, Jeremy? Like, high-five, come to our class and stuff like that where they're involved in the community and they know students. And I think community is really, like, the most important thing that we need to build.”
