Hey, everybody. I'm Doug. That's Connor, and this
is the Bethel School District Presents podcast.
The new school year is here, and families,
students, and staff have a million things on
their minds. And a big one is always
safety and security.
Joining us today is Brian Streleski, our director
of athletics and security, and Pierce County deputy
Vicki Morrison, one of our intrepid school resource
officers or SROs. These are basically Pierce County
deputies that are assigned to the district. Vicki
is one of 4 SROs in our district
that help our students and staff stay safe.
And one thing our SROs help out with
are school lockdowns, and that's a word that
can make many families nervous. So let's break
that down a little bit. There are actually
2 different types of lockdowns, a modified lockdown
and a full lockdown. Vicky, could you tell
us about the differences between those and what
they're used for, and what do parents need
to know? Sure. Sure. When we talk about
safety and security, we talk about ensuring a
safe learning environment.
That's our top priority. There's that threat on
the outside of the school.
That's why we put the school in a
full lockdown.
And we do that until we get more
information, and we can determine with some certainty
that a modified lockdown
is more appropriate.
Modified is less restrictive,
and modified is used for
many
things rather than just
threats. So we'll talk about modified. School occupants
are isolated from potential outside threats.
They remain inside the building.
Again, the exterior doors
are locked, which
they should always be. Right?
Entry and exit into the building is limited
to those who have authorization.
Obviously, if there's a threat on the outside
of the school
and we're in a modified lockdown, we're not
gonna allow people to come in. We just
can't because we don't want potential threats entering
inside.
The good thing about the modified,
lockdown is teachers can still teach. If we
just need to control a certain area and
we don't want kids
coming and disrupting
or teachers being disrupted,
sometimes we use the modified. So I know
it seems like a really scary
word, the lockdown,
but it is trained just like a fire
drill. Vicki mentioned the modified lockdown and based
on our video access system that we use
for our community, we're basically in a modified
lockdown at all times because our exterior doors
are always locked. We want to keep the
the people outside of school that are aren't
supposed to be there. We wanna keep our
students inside,
and we use that modified lockdown
when we go into one. It's a it
does,
close the blinds and some of the different
things on the exterior of the of the
school, but we're basically in a modified lockdown
every day, all day to try and keep
our students and staff safe. Maybe the biggest
difference is the hallways are closed. Kids have
to stay in their classroom. They're not going
to lunch or just to the bathroom, things
like that. So it's it's not as scary
as it sounds. That's really what I wanted
to get across for parents because there's any
number of reasons that we could go into
a modified lockdown. Like you said, a student
or staff member needs support in the hallway
and you just wanna keep the area clear,
things like that. There could be a a
police situation, you know, a couple blocks over
or something, and we're just being extra safe.
So I think that's good for folks to
know. Yeah. The majority of our lockdowns are
not school related. Yeah. But we've gotta protect
our students and staff at all times. And
so those are we end up in in
lockdowns
situations because of that. Absolutely. Yeah. You mentioned
that we do train our students for this.
As the students come back, there'll be all
kinds of drills. We have fire drills. We
have earthquake drill that's generally in October, and,
of course, we do have lockdown drills. Our
SROs are involved in those drills, Vicky.
And before I ask you the question,
Connor actually was part of a lockdown drill
by accident. He just happened to be taking
photos at one of our schools. So what
was it like being inside? Like, you're basically
a student at that at that point. Yeah.
It was interesting. It was the first one
I'd been in. I was at GK to
take a photo and I just they said,
actually, you're not going anywhere because we we
have a lockdown drill starting.
So I went into a kind of a
large supply closet with, a few staff members
and a few students and we turned the
lights out and put coverings over the small
windows.
And we were absolutely
quiet
for 20 to 25 minutes. No one said
a word,
completely dark. And then the I see a
door finally open, a light, and Brian Strelisky
and Vicky Morrison right there going door to
door. Brian probably they do this so much
they probably don't remember the relief on my
eyes, but,
it was a really interesting experience. And so
I did have that unique experience that staff
and student get some time, but you guys
are on the other side of this. You're
out there kind of sweeping the hallways, I
assume.
So my question is, what's what are those
drills like on your side? What are you
doing as you go through the buildings? I
will have to say that, first off, I
know that you had mentioned that it's really
dark and it was probably scary for you,
but I just want you to know that
in different schools, especially like elementary, we take
that stuff into consideration, especially if they're securing
in a location
that if you do shut the door, it's
gonna be super dark. And we don't wanna
cause triggers or concerns,
with the kids. We don't want them to
be afraid. So, you know, the the older
kids and the bigger kids and stuff like
that, they train a little bit different.
So just wanted to put that out there
because that probably was a bit much for
you. I wasn't crying. Okay. I don't care
what anyone tells you. I wasn't crying. What
I heard. But okay. So so, yeah, so
what we do is law enforcement, we come
and we call it running the drills. So,
the participation
is by everybody, including admin,
office staff, nutrition.
Everybody's running them. So they follow their proper
procedures. Right? Their school procedures, what to do
at a site like nobody's home.
So we go as law enforcement officers go
around and we check the doors to see
if they're locked and secured. We also will
enter into the classrooms.
We announce so we're not trying to scare
anybody. We're just trying to prepare.
So we'll enter into a classroom and see
the setup, see how they're setting up or
see if we can see them.
So we walk through and talk to the
classes during that time. So that's probably why
it took a little bit of time
because
if we see a classroom that
may need some support,
we address it. And we try to address
it then and there depending on how many
SROs are there. But that's what we do.
We walk around and we do the safety
checks to see, you know, what's working, what's
not. And we gather a lot of information
there. If you think about it, like, the
teachers themselves, they just they do such an
amazing job. And then at the older level
school,
even middle school and high school, kids are
participating.
Like, they're involved in that barricading and locking
it down. It's just amazing. I love it.
But if you were to just walk through
the school, it's super quiet. I mean, no
one's home. It is so quiet and it's
it's bizarre. Like you said, it was just
a little different. It is. It's but I'm
just like, wow. This is people are studying.
This is it. Schools like this all the
time. People are studying, but, yeah, it was
people are quiet. But our our staff and
the students, they just do a great job.
As Vicky mentioned, we're testing the the students
and staff to make sure they're doing what
we've kinda trained them to do. But we're
also testing all of our systems to make
sure that they're in place. Communication systems are
in place. Our connection to law enforcement through
our alarm systems are in place. We're testing
all of our systems to make sure that
we're prepared. If something does go bad, that
we're ready to we're ready to help and
we wanna get to our kids and our
staff as fast as possible, give them the
best chance possible of having a successful event
and being able to come out and say,
hey. We did it. We practiced this, and
here we are, you know, and and families
know that we're doing everything we can to
keep them safe because
everybody I got kids in the school district.
I want to see my kids come home
every single day. I want every student to
come home safe every single day from school.
And so we have to practice those things
no different than we do with a fire
drill, we do with a lockdown drill. We
just gotta practice, practice, practice, and we wanna
make sure that all of our systems are
in place. So if something does go bad,
we have all the systems in place. We're
ready to go. Everybody knows their role and
can take care of each other. Absolutely. That's
so important. Vicky, you mentioned that if you
see something that needs adjusted or corrected as
you go through your working with the teachers,
then did the schools get an after action
report of, you know, successes and areas for
growth? Yeah. Actually, we call it debriefing. So
after every lockdown drill, whether it's the full
or lockdown or the modified,
we then, meet with admin,
and we go over the pros, the cons.
And so the drill itself might not take
as long, but we do spend a lot
of time debriefing afterwards. You know, when SROs
are talking to the teachers, they say, well,
what about this? And we'll bring it back
to the team and say, if it's working
in this classroom, it may work in the
other classrooms. So, yes, we do a debrief
after every single one. And each school building
is unique. They're all set up differently. Every
classroom is different. Every doorway is different. And
so making sure we're working with staff individually
to, you know, find the best way to
stay safe for keep their students safe. And
what is the next step as you kinda
move through those the scenarios that that are
happening in our lockdown drills? Because we wanna
do everything we can, and everything is so
unique. Each school building is so unique that,
the SROs do a great job of teaming
with our admin group to debrief,
come up with solutions,
celebrate
how well we're doing as a whole to
make sure that we've got everybody protected. Excellent.
And and and we all do this because
as Doug has mentioned, it may feel like
we're harping on this, but safety and security
is job 1. There we can't have these
schools if people aren't safe and secure in
them.
So we obviously have a lot of staff
members who listen to our podcast. So what
can they do to help keep kids safe?
Any tips or tricks for them? Yeah. I
would say the number one thing, and Vicky
alluded to it with the SROs of building
relationships, but I think our number one thing
that we have in our schools is building
strong relationships. That's strong relations between students. It's
strong relations between staff and students
and staff members with other staff members. So
we learn what is a trigger for a
student or a staff member. We are continuing
to see what is gonna happen next. We
hear this phrase a lot in our harassment,
intimidation, bullying. In everything we do, if you
see something, say something.
And the way that somebody wants to come
forward and say something is because they have
a positive relationship with somebody in that school
building. In our community, we have our we
wanna build that same thing with our parents.
If you see something, say something, let us
know. We can't correct something that we don't
know that's going on. Come in and let
us know because that's how we continue to
get better. It's not about a punishment or
anything like that. It's about keeping our kids
safe. Mental health is is a real struggle
in in our world. And our kids with
social media and all of the things that
are going on, we wanna really support those
kids. If you see something, say something, but
that strong relationship with an SRO, with a
counselor, with a teacher, with the custodian is
really important to have them come forward and
and do it, say something
to an adult because that's how we fix
it. That's how we make it better for
our kids. And I think that's the most
important thing we can do,
is build those positive relationships with all of
our our families and all of our students
and staff. Bethel School District for safety and
security is ahead of the game. We really
are. And we've been practicing this a long
time, but we just don't wanna get
lazy or fall back on, oh, well, it's
just for a second I'm gonna prop the
door open.
K. No. We're not gonna do that. Propping
an exterior door is no longer having the
whole entire school secure just for that moment.
So I would say that that would be
my number one. Hey. Think about this. Having
a little bit of situational awareness when you're
at school. And, again, back to the say
something, see something, we use that for everything
because look how many
kids there are versus teachers,
versus then
admin, versus then law enforcement. 4 of us
for the whole district.
We need the support from
the entire school, staff, students, everybody. So when
we talk about that, see something, say something.
If something just doesn't look right,
it probably isn't. If staff is like, wow.
They don't have the visitor sticker or they
don't have a pass. I need to let
somebody know. Yeah. Absolutely. And that ties it
right back around to the because you're not
gonna communicate if you don't have a relationship
with someone that you can trust. Fantastic. That's
great. Thank you both. This has been some
really great stuff. But, Brian, you also do
a little double duty because you're also our
director of athletics, and we wouldn't be doing
our jobs if we didn't get a little
preview of the football season. So what can
we expect this year? I think everyone expects
big things from GK because that's always, but
what's how's GK looking? How's Bethel looking? How's
Spanaway Lake looking? Well, we're on we're on
an exciting year this year. The first time
in 8 years, we've got all three high
schools are in the 4 a SPSL again.
Wow. So that's exciting for us. Brings back
all of the rivalry games in all sports.
And so we're we're really excited about it.
It'll be a little bit different for our
community, but we get to see our kids
playing against each other more and really competing.
There's nothing better than having, you know, kids
that know each other compete really hard on
the field, walk off giving each other high
fives. And this is we got a great
opportunity out of all 3 schools in the
same league doing that at the high school
level. So that's very exciting for us.
Spinner Lake is, looking you know, they're one
of the most athletic teams in the league
always, so we're excited to see what they
can do. Coming up from the 3 a
and how they can compete in the 4
a level is gonna be amazing.
Looking forward to that. Bethel High School is
coming off a playoff run last year. Also
bringing back one of the high profile recruits
in the state of Washington.
And, Zadris Rainy Sale,
excited to see the UW commit out on
the field again, and so they're looking to
be strong once again. GK is gonna be
strong. They have a little reload. We got
a young quarterback, some young receivers,
but they're looking to reload and compete again
for the league. They aren't we're in 2
divisions, so there it'll be a little bit
different playing this year, but super excited to
have them all back in the same league.
But, we got some strong teams coming, volleyball,
soccer.
We're looking to make some playoff runs potentially
to the state playoffs for our volleyball and
soccer teams. Very exciting about that. And we
always have qualifiers for our cross country and
golf into the state tournament. So got some
great athletes doing great things.
The great part about this is is what
the dual role of director of athletics and
security is is we have we put some
precautions in play at Art Crate Field also.
So when we have our football games at
Art Crate for the 3 high schools, we
got clear bag policy.
We're we're all we're monitoring what people are
doing, bringing in. We employ our SROs there
also to make sure that we've got people
there to protect us, make sure everybody's safe.
So we wanna make sure that we do
that and, keep everybody safe while enjoying some
great competition across the area. And our teams
are looking strong, and we're gonna continue to
compete.
What's really crazy is the the sheer number
of kids we're trying to connect to adults,
and that is our number of kids that
participate in athletics. Our middle schools are gonna
see a 150 plus kids in the fall
season alone
running track and field, playing baseball, playing softball.
Our high schools are gonna be running 2
to 300 kids out in all the different
sports. And that's a connection to our community.
It's a connection to our staff, and it
really builds a a sense of community for
us. That's a lot of competition. It's a
lot of high fives. It's a lot of
frustration. There's some tears in there. But, man,
it's it's really fun to see those kids
come across the finish line, win a baseball
game, a softball game, whatever it may be
in the middle schools and seeing our kids
at the high school, you know, move on
to the playoffs. And so it's a great
opportunity, though. Lots of kids participated in the
fall. That's great. That's great for the students
too. Some for some students, sports is why
they show up at school. So Educating the
whole student is really important. Yeah. And athletics
really is a portion of educating the whole
student. And it, you know, it kinda wraps
in the the life skills. It wraps in
to discipline and some of those things that
are gonna come up the rest of your
life, not to mention the healthy habits of
eating right and and being able to compete,
stretching. All of the things that make you
able to move through your adult life is
you're learning at a young age, but you're
also doing it in a safe environment with
people that really care and want the best
for you. Yeah. And keeping your grades up
so you can stay on the team. Like,
it it all ties together. That's fantastic. Yeah.
A lot of great athletics coming out. Everyone
get out there, watch some games, support our
kids, and we wanna thank you both so
much for coming. What a great conversation. Thank
you very much. Thank you.
Well, thank you once again to Brian Streloski,
our director of athletics and security, and Pierce
County deputy Vicki Morrison, one of our intrepid
SROs.
And we'll be back with you next week
for another great episode.
Brian, you mentioned already we have 4 school
security officers or SROs in our district to
help students and staffs
to help students and staffs say say to
help students and staffs say You just do
do that whole thing over because he said
school This is terrible. School resource officers. Thank
you. School
resource. What did I say? You said security
officers. Thank you. Oh, and SSOs. That's not
what it is. Thank you. No disrespect. It's
just that I work hard here, but okay.
We have 4 school resource officers or SROs
in our district to help our students and
staff say stays safe.
This is kind of a tongue twister, right?
You wrote this. I did. Boy, that's a
lot of s's altogether. To help students and
staff stay safe. That is a bit of
a tongue twister. Wait. Just a bit though.
You said it just fine. Well, I'm a
professional. You are.
What can they do to help kid so
what can they do to help keep kids
safe? Are there any tricks or tips, you
know, are there any
pulling a dug here. That's what we that's
what we call it.