Castaic Union School District staff met with Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff’s deputies recently to discuss campus safety and security, following a recent threat to student and faculty welfare that was posted on social media.

Castaic Union School District Superintendent Steven Doyle, Captain Robert Lewis of the Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff’s Station, Castaic Elementary Principal Stephanie Beach and members of the Board of Trustees convened on campus to review safety and security methods.

Law enforcement and school officials walked the school grounds to explore any areas of the security system already in place that could be improved.

Lewis spoke with school board trustee members about adding security cameras around Castaic Elementary School’s perimeter to increase the level of security on campus.

Over the weekend, a Castaic Elementary School teacher received a message from her spouse implying threats to both her and the school where she works.

The threats stemmed from a domestic dispute that took place over the weekend, said Doyle.

Related: Castaic Elementary School And Teacher Threatened By Spouse

Beach explained what measures were taken once faculty learned about the threat on school safety.

“From the second we found out early Monday morning that there had been a threat against one of our staff members and school, we have been in contact with law enforcement,” said Beach. “We’re just going over our safety measures we’ve had in place to make sure everyone understands what to do in case of an emergency.”

Doyle arranged a conference with LASD deputies to confer on campus safety and training methods to keep the school secure.

“Our campuses (are) closed campuses to ensure the safety of all our students,” said Doyle. “What that means is that all the exterior gates and doors are locked during school hours so someone can’t access a classroom that doesn’t belong there. Additionally, this site (Castaic Elementary), because of it’s layout, we’ve added a buzz-in system to the front.”

Castaic Elementary School is equipped with a security system which uses a camera to capture a photo of those who ring a doorbell at the front door. 

Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff’s Station Deputy Toby Coe shared active shooter training and drills that have been used to prepare faculty and students for real-life emergencies.

“We work with training with the schools to do lock down drills, whether it’s an immediate threat actually on campus or if there is a threat outside of campus,”said Coe. “We do surprise visits with the schools … unannounced with four or five deputies. We say (if) you have an active shooter on campus, we want to see how fast you can lock down the school.”

Beach explained how the Raptor security system installed at Castaic Elementary School’s front office scans visitors’ ID to instantly check a nationwide database.

“When visitors or parents come on campus, they scan their ID through the system,” said Beach. “It checks with the national database and issues a name tag with photo, their name and where they are going on campus so we can identify all people on our campus at all times.”

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