In April 2023, following a Paly shelter-in-place, Palo Alto police arrested a student for posting a note with a shooting threat, the City of Palo Alto reported. According to Palo Alto Online, this September, The Primary School in East Palo Alto experienced a lockdown and search following an anonymous call threat about a school shooting. In the same month, a Menlo-Atherton student reported a tip based on a social media post that contained “detailed threats” of a potential shooting, prompting both Menlo-Atherton High School and a nearby school to begin a shelter-in-place. Police detained the student responsible, ABC News reported.

The California School Board Association reports that the number of school shootings in California has increased by 2100% from 1970 to 2022. With firearms being the leading cause of death for children and adolescents in the nation, according to Governor Gavin Newsom’s website, actively refining and maintaining emergency preparedness in schools has become even more necessary. These recent “close call” events in the Bay Area, all in a less than five mile radius away from Gunn, have localized this issue, potentially urging for maintenance of safety procedures and protocols on the district level.

PAUSD’s current safety and security measures are outlined in the Workplace Violence Prevention Plan, designed by administrators, directors, managers, supervisors and foremen, all of whom have the authority to implement such provisions. The plan outlines the WVPPA’s corrective measures alongside School Safety and Resilience Team Members to prevent workplace violence, including school shootings. Quarterly safety meetings with employees and representatives are held to review workplace hazards, which could include discussions, brainstorming and review of recent incidents and the procedures.

PAUSD Manager of Safety, Security & Disaster Preparedness Mike Jacob works to build a comprehensive safety framework for PAUSD schools. According to Jacobs, this framework is rooted in the principle of emergency management, or an organized, comprehensive approach of preparation, response and recovery to minimizing the impact of disasters. He emphasizes the approach’s balance of physical security measures, mental health initiatives and community engagement.

“While we maintain a strong focus on emergency protocols, our emphasis is equally on early intervention and community collaboration to prevent crises before they occur,” Jacobs wrote in an email.

Prioritizing mental health and connection are a key aspect of preventing disasters before they occur. Jacobs highlights the importance of building strong relationships, fostering trust and ensuring that every student has access to help, either from adults or resources to to keep PAUSD schools safe, specifically from gun violence. He mentioned a multidisciplinary threat assessment process that is used by PAUSD to identify and address suspicious behavior prior to a disaster.

“School counselors, administrators and mental health professionals work together to support students in need before  things escalate,” Jacobs wrote in an email.

In addition, PAUSD prioritizes preparedness, consisting of staff training and school wide drills, along with partnerships to assist with safety and support. Annual training for PAUSD staff focus on workplace violence prevention and  response, including the Run, Hide, Defend protocol. He also mentions the strong partnerships local first responders, such as PAPD and Stanford DPS that PAUSD maintains to provide access to support to make “more timely, data-driven, and risk-informed decisions.”

“(The annual training for staff) helps us to strengthen our capabilities and pinpoint areas for improvement, (while these partnerships) serve as a strong layer of safety and support to our district,” Jacobs wrote in an email.

District  policies are drafted by the Board Policy Review Committee. The committee receives legal updates from the state to  review and recommends updates to district policies. After being proposed by the BPRC, policies are formally adopted by the school board — both of which are conducted in public sessions, according to Jacobs.

“In matters of safety, both (policies and protocols) are guided by state regulations and shaped by input from subject matter experts and practitioners in the field,” he wrote.

Along with policies being drafted and adopted in public sessions where the community can stay informed and include input, Jacobs recommends that families share their thoughts or concerns, even anonymously, through Let’s Talk, PAUSD’s online platform.

Within these district policies, each PAUSD site also works to actively improve safety procedures and logistics. Senior Eason Lu, a member of the Student Safety Committee worked with Assistant Principal of Facilities Dr. Mycal Hixon to create a plan to “address campus risks, prepare for emergencies, and create a safe, secure learning environment for students and school personnel.”

According to Lu, the committee is addressing the biggest concern he has heard regarding emergency procedure at Gunn: the similarity in tone of emergency and regular announcements.

“People often tell us that they don’t know when it is an announcement, or when it is a lockdown message,” he said. “People are generally scared every single time they hear any of the announcements, they come over the PA. We are working to address that (by working) to differentiate the attention to each message have, like if it’s just a normal message, or if it’s a lockdown message.”

The Sandy Hook Promise found that in four out of five school shootings, at least one other person had knowledge of the attackers plan but failed to report it. According to Lu, one of the most important and often disregarded parts of dealing with gun violence is community responsibility.

Under the “See Something, Say Something” campaign which began in 2010, posters were put up around campus that include the link to Let’sTalk for students and staff to report concerns, either anonymously or not. Additionally, teachers, who are all mandated reporters, are also technically a source of open communication and assistance.

“When people report those activities, they’re far more likely to reduce (the) possibility of a school attack,” Lu said. “I think that as a person, I should encourage people to be more vigilant, to be more careful of their surroundings and to report suspicious activity.”

According to Lu, the Student Safety Committee has attempted to communicate this message to the student body but it has faced many difficulties. A potential effective approach that the committee has considered is sending text messages, instead of emails or Schoology messages.  According to Lu, however, there are many regulatory restrictions by the district that make the odds of it being implemented anytime soon unlikely.

“When we try to send emails, they just get ignored,” he said. “When we have sent split messages, they get ignored. Most teachers don’t show the weekly news announcements, and having a PA will be way too much disturbance so we have been trying to look for a solution that can effectively talk to people.”

Lu mentioned that while all dangers are regarded as relevant to the committee and district, gun violenceis not regarded as the highest concern. It is not treated with greater priority then other emergencies such as earthquakes, fires and bike theft. Lu views this as a positive, due to the likelihood of a gun-related emergency still being lower than others.

“(We) give them equal attention,” he said. “The reason I base my opinion (that this is positive) is we are far more likely to face other kinds of emergencies. I don’t think that putting disproportionate attention into gun violence will be necessary.”

Lu raised this personal concern about the current evacuation procedure, urging the campus to make changes due to its potential dangers.

“Currently, (within) the fire evacuation procedures, everyone will go to the field and decrease safety bottleneck,” he said. “(In) event(s) where people set to (out) target students, they will usually put a fire alarm. Having most bottlenecks around the field entrance is not a safe procedure. The committee has been discussing adding alternate evacuation points on campus.”

According to Jacobs, the localization of school gun violence is acknowledged on a district level. Specifically, it prompts certain discussions that sometimes lead to procedural changes, but consistently reinforces the importance and procedures already set in place.

Similarly, Assistant Principal Erik Olah mentions that when local events occur, responses to such events are never  identical. Therefore, procedures will always vary depending on the incident but are still to be assessed by the admin  team, along with district personnel and law enforcement to help carry out a plan that puts student and staff safety first.

“These situations tend to be unique so they require us to be adaptable to different responses,” Olah wrote in an email. “There is no one playbook or policy that covers every situation. Each situation is different, is taken seriously and  requires a different response. (Still), in each situation, student and staff safety is our top priority.”