While the primary job of the education system in our society is to prepare our young people for their lives ahead – educating them in the basics of reading, writing, mathematics and the arts and sciences, as well as developing them as human beings – that goal cannot be achieved without the students, teachers and administrators being safe and secure when on campus.

The district has added new security personnel and upgraded the physical security infrastructure – and identification and prevention of potential threats before they come to a head, the Thompson School District (TSD) is undertaking significant upgrades and greatly enhanced policies and procedures to keep students and staff safe.

“This is our number one job, educating kids is what we do but keeping them safe is the number one priority,” said TSD Chief Operations Office, Todd Piccone. “None of what we do matters if our kids aren’t safe.”

The district is implementing several new ventures to improve security – and improve it from a level that they were already confident buildings were very safe. “One of the changes is, it’s about learning from Uvalde but taking the history of different tragedies, the security team has done an amazing job of providing different coverages that are first in the state,” Piccone said, adding that the TSD’s new procedures – which will be outlined in extensive detail at a community safety event in the next couple of months and at which Piccone said the community will be encouraged to provide feedback. In addition to being one of the first districts in Colorado to embark on these new initiatives, the plans have also been receiving attention at the national level.

“The first thing that we’re really excited about is that we’ve found a way to not only increase our response abilities but also to have an increased focus on prevention,” explained TSD Safety and Security Manager, Joe Vodjansky. “We have four new individuals who are strictly patrol, they work for Thompson only, they are specially trained security officers, and they work both days and evenings to help support our elementary schools and our after-school athletics and activities, it’s a next level of security.” Vodjansky added that everything the district is doing will not come at any additional costs to taxpayers.

Already, as part of the bond measure approved by voters in 2018, all TSD schools have installed secure vestibules in their buildings. Anyone attempting to enter the school is required to provide identification and state their reason for entering the building before the locked doors are remotely unlocked to allow entrance. Upon entering, the individual must sign in with the main office and be escorted by a staff member to the location of the building they are visiting.

Furthermore, the district has partnered with both the Larimer County Sheriff’s Office (LCSO) as well as Loveland Police Department to provide additional training and guidance. Those tasked with school security received 100 hours additional school-security-specific training earlier this year as part of the new approach.

There will now be School Resource Officers (SROs) – uniformed law enforcement officers from the LCSO and municipal police departments who received specialized training above and beyond their already considerable training as law enforcement officers, to provide a physical security presence – at the district’s elementary schools. Prior to this change, the SRO program was available only at the TSD middle and high schools.

Said Vodjansky, “One of the things I really love about our SRO program is it’s really about being a mentor and a coach to them, they live by the saying ‘if you treat every student like a nail, then your only tool is a hammer,’ and they don’t like that and they want to build relationships and the last thing they want to do is enforcement, their priority is keeping the kids safe and letting them experience school as they need to.”

Each SRO will also be joined by an individual specially trained as a co-responder to deal with crisis situations, which covers everything from an illegally parked vehicle to a student or staff member undergoing a personal crisis, mental health issues and, of course, threats of violence or harm. The co-responders are licensed through SummitStone Health Partners.

The district has a dispatch center to which any district building can put in a call for service that will be promptly responded to, Vodjansky explained. The center will include a mental health specialist who is available to speak with school building personnel and intervene when a student is experiencing difficulties. Additionally, when the student returns from the crisis, the district will continue to assist with setting up peer support groups and a case management specialist who will continually monitor the situation and assure adequate care is being administered.

“The number one thing we’ve seen that changes the behavior of a student is a positive relationship with an adult,” Vodjansky explained. “When you develop a culture and a climate of safety, is that our students always report things, they always tell us things first-hand. Our kids are safer and have more resources but there were no new tax dollars for our community to pay.”