The William S. Hart Union School District discussed campus safety following the shooting at Saugus High School in November 2019.

At their regularly scheduled meeting the William S. Hart School Board discussed enhancing campus safety with Prince Kallin Consultants.

Patrick Prince,  Associate Vice Provost and Chief Threat Assessment Officer for the University of Southern California, Joseph Wright, Director of Security for Lincoln Public Schools in Lincoln, NE, and Ben Kallin, Threat Assessment Officer at the University of Southern California, visited District school sites and conducted town hall meetings and presented their recommendations with the board.

Prince Kallin Consultants made recommendations in the four categories: mental wellness, site security, policy and training and communication.

“The district has done good things, we are not coming into an environment with glaring deficiencies,” Prince said.

Prince made reference to research that shows that once someone who intends to cause harm enters a school campus, they are going to, and the goal then is to mitigate the harm.

“It is a painful but nonetheless true fact, once an attacker has entered, the focus is limiting harm,” Prince said. “Our goal is to prevent this before it comes on to our campus… The primary focus is preventing people from moving down this pathway.”

The first mental wellness suggestion was to establish a district wide assessment team: a growing body of experts.

“People do not suddenly erupt, these acts are an outcome of decades long pathway,” Prince said. “If we can identify we can move people off this path.”

Social and emotional learning modules were also suggested, as components in the required health curriculum for incoming freshmen. It was also suggested to assign licensed therapists, at Masters or Doctoral level, an expansion of mental health capacity.

As part of Site Security, Joseph Wright addressed teaming up with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department to provide School Resource Officers that get training from National Association of School Resource Officers (NASRO), trauma informed response and emergency planning.

Another three major site security changes suggested  included developing a “robust” parent and visitor management system, enhancing perimeter security and obtaining and integrating camera systems.

“There are some items that will take money to do them right and that is why we have applied for grants ahead of time,” said Dr, Nielsen, Chief Administrative Officer.

“Some of these items are already in the process,” added Mike Kuhlman, Superintendent. “Including making our cameras available to local law enforcement.”

Regarding Policy and Training, it was recommended that safety is treated as a  shared responsibility amongst all staff, “to be upstanders, not bystanders,” according to Wright.

It was suggested school staff train for behaviors of concern, to recognize and help students that need it.

Kallin covered the communication section of the presentation, which promoted a communication platform for impacted staff and family. The platform would allow anonymous contact of district staff as well as contact during an incident with a focus on format and frequency.

Following the presentation, members of the Board asked how the suggestions would be prioritized but no actions were taken.

“I think 90 percent is identifying kids with serious problems,” said Linda Storli, Board President. “Wellness and mental health everyone agrees is our number one (thing) we need to take care of here, to keep something from happening like the tragedy at Saugus.”

The full board meeting, including the safety report can be viewed here.

KHTS FM 98.1 and AM 1220 is Santa Clarita’s only local radio station. KHTS mixes in a combination of news, traffic, sports, and features along with your favorite adult contemporary hits. Santa Clarita news and features are delivered throughout the day over our airwaves, on our website and through a variety of social media platforms. Our KHTS national award-winning daily news briefs are now read daily by 34,000+ residents. A vibrant member of the Santa Clarita community, the KHTS broadcast signal reaches all of the Santa Clarita Valley and parts of the high desert communities located in the Antelope Valley. The station streams its talk shows over the web, reaching a potentially worldwide audience. Follow @KHTSRadio on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.