Since the beginning of the school year, the campus has experienced at least three incidents that have caused students and staff to worry due to a lack of clear communication.
On Aug. 28, there was an incident in which a student had a firearm on campus. Parents and teachers received an email that went out at 5:45pm, after school about the incident, but students did not. There was no hold or announcement made so when students went home that day they were met with questions from parents about a firearm incident they knew nothing about.
On Oct. 17, there was a water line break in which black sludge-like water poured out a broken AC waterline and caused water damage to several classrooms. No messages to students were sent out.
On Oct. 22, there was a gas leak before school started that caused a delay to the school and no messages were sent out until an email went out about 9:15 a.m. and it only was sent to staff and parents so students once again were left out of the loop.
With these problems occurring, communication between the administration and the student body needs to be a priority, but this has not been met and has left students with more questions than answers. Incidents such as the discovery of a student with a firearm is such a scary thing to have to deal with, but it makes it even worse when you are expected to go back to school the next day without being told when dangerous situations are occurring. It allows for there to be an environment of worry and distrust when it comes to being on school grounds, which should not happen, especially considering school should be a safe haven for students.
There are things that can be done to help improve communication between students and administrators. To start, they can email students as well as parents so both parties have a way of being notified. More clarification can be done by administrators by having debriefs after a threat or incident happens where they talk about what happened and what was the result. This would help stop misinformation and rumors about these situations. This could also help with easing the minds of students who may have concerns about their safety.
On top of this, the administration could also consider trying to get an app that would notify students not only on emergencies but also on just basic daily life happenings on campus. Granted, something like this would take a lot of time and money to implement; however, there are already apps like this in use at other schools. An app to take note of is School Pass by Raptor Technologies, which has been working with Texas school districts for the past 20 years. Over 80% of Texas public schools utilize Raptor Technologies, AISD is a major user of their technologies this would include their drill manager software and visitor management system. This system has helped keep our schools safe and with this app, it would allow for the community to be more alert. This app in particular also has a feature that keeps track of attendance for students and will alert parents if their kid has any absences as well as emergency safety notifications. This app would address two big issues that our campus has revolving around attendance and communication.
However, there is another party when it comes to communication with our campus and that would be the downtown offices. As Principal Herbin stated, when it comes to an emergency there are multiple offices and people that have to approve messages that are sent out to parents and the community. The full process that is involved would be for Herbin to take the information from the police and create a draft of what could be sent out. That draft has to then be edited and approved by the assistant superintendent of schools, executive directors, and the communications department. So this process takes a lot of time just for the information to be released. If this process could somehow be shortened to allow principals the ability to send out information after making sure the information is accurate this would also help.
For example, it’s not always the principal’s decision when to call for a hold or send out an emergency message to parents. In some cases, the Austin ISD police department makes the decision.
For instance the situation with the firearm earlier this year wasn’t deemed to be serious enough for there to be a hold, according to Herbin.
“It was basically reported that there was a weapon on campus, reported to us. We immediately notified the police,” Herbin said.
The police immediately went to the classroom, pulled the student out, found the weapon and that was it. At the time since they found the kid and the weapon, they didn’t view it as a major threat, which explains the lack of a hold. Herbin said that the School Resource Officers, the sergeants, lieutenants, and even the chief of police step in to control the situation.
This doesn’t mean that Herbin can’t call a hold. It’s just when it comes to these scenarios he isn’t the person overseeing every operation. That is left to the police since he isn’t in charge of certain situations.
When it comes to hosting debrief meetings with students and staff, Herbin said he isn’t against doing it.
“I don’t think necessarily that it’s a bad idea. It could be a good idea to just clear up any misinformation.”
He said it could help stop “rumor mills that run amuck after these situations.” He said it could be beneficial for him to have a central location where he can talk about the situation for both students and teachers having “an official communication that goes out, that says exactly what the details are “this would be extremely helpful, especially to those who have questions”, Herbin stated.
Communication between administration and students is always essential for a campus to run smoothly. It is crucial that students can feel safe and comfortable at school without worry.
We just need the tools and support from Austin ISD district leaders to help our administrators communicate during emergencies. Clear and regular communication can go a long way to stop the spread of misinformation and to make kids feel safe and valued in their school.
