This story is part of CoastAlaska’s series, Evolving Education. Other stories in the series are linked here.
School shootings have been on Mikki Angerman’s mind. She’s been teaching at Wrangell Public Schools for 14 years, at both the middle and high school. And she says that lately, teachers have been asking for safety improvements like locked doors, plans and training.
“You’re thinking, ‘How do I keep kids safe?’ Like, what if that happened in this class period or that class period, or in this room versus that room? What am I going to do to make sure I can keep the kids in my care out of harm’s way? So it’s sad and scary to think about,” Angerman said.
She says that part of feeling safe for her would mean having stricter policies, like limiting how many ways people can exit and enter the school.
“We live on an island, we have a tight knit community,” Angerman said. “I understand why it might seem annoying to some people, but for the people that are in here [Wrangell schools] every day, it could seem a little scary to have so many access points they can get in and from who knows where.”
The number of school shootings in the U.S. has increased dramatically over the last decade. Last year, there were nearly 350 of them, according to a national database. In Wrangell, school and city officials are trying to get ahead of the problem by working on new plans and training to keep schools safe.
Psychological indicators before violence
Gene Meek is Wrangell’s new chief of police. He arrived in the small island community this summer. Since then, he’s been on a mission to increase security efforts, including in schools. Lately, he’s been working on something called Left of Bang.
“By Left of Bang, what I am talking about is before a shot is ever fired,” he said. “And let’s face it, most shootings or most hostile threats aren’t knives. They’re not pipes, they’re not wrenches — they’re guns.”
Meek said there are certain psychological indicators before someone decides to act out violence.
“It’s not hidden,” he said. “98% of every hostile threat, people knew about it before it happened.”
Meek said most perpetrators come from unstable homes that could have domestic violence, addiction or neglect. Not all, but most. And most perpetrators are not diagnosed with a mental illness. Instead, they’re going through a mental crisis, which is different. They could be experiencing chronic and severe emotional problems, like being bullied or socially rejected. And many have experienced significant loss and carry a grievance.
He said a grievance doesn’t have to be real, it can be perceived.
“When does a grievance become a problem? When it becomes an ideation,” Meek said. “What I’m talking about is when the focus becomes so great that they start attaching violence to it.”
Meek said school safety for active shooting incidents has been overlooked here in Wrangell and neglected nationwide.
“We don’t want Wrangell to become another one of those national statistics,” he said. “So it’s important to educate and get that mindset.”
In a small town, everyone knows everyone. But do they know who’s in a crisis?
Meek said that in a small town like Wrangell, the community will be able to tell if someone seems like they’re going through a crisis. He said that if someone seems off, it’s important to say something so they can get help. He said Wrangell’s size can make that easier – everyone knows everyone.
“When you find the plan is when it’s very important that you saw something,” he said. “Now you have to say something.”
But Wrangell’s superintendent Bill Burr said safety concerns can be harder to manage in a closed community like Wrangell. He said that a school employee could open a locked door for a familiar face, not knowing if that person is in crisis.
“Most people in town aren’t going to be strangers, which would be different from a road system where somebody might arrive in town that we don’t necessarily know,” he said. “Most people who come to our schools are connected in some way.”
He said they’re always looking for a balance between school safety and school accessibility. They are planning to install key card entrances on the side doors next summer. But because the borough owns the school buildings, they will have to work together.
Borough Manager Mason Villarma said the borough is ready and willing to do that. He said you can’t put a price on protecting faculty and students.
“If they want doors, if they want buzzers, if they want locks, we’re here for it and we’ll find a way to fund it,” he said. “It’s just about what makes sense for them operationally.”
Alaska public schools have to practice emergency drills every month
Deena Bishop, the commissioner of the state’s education department, said that Alaska’s public schools are required to practice emergency drills once a month.
“This could be an earthquake drill, it could be a fire drill. And most recently, I would say, within the last 20 years, some of them, during the year, have been around what you stated as a hostile intruder,” Bishop said.
She said school staff are also required to practice lockdown drills. That involves locking everything down, but also being alert, listening for instructions and knowing when to evacuate.
Bishop said the drills have faced pushback — some parents say the drills can be traumatic for their children. But she said it’s necessary for schools to communicate with parents and teach them what an emergency drill is.
“It’s meant not to frighten children, but to empower them and to understand that danger does exist,” she said. “And a lot of times what they learn in school translates out of school.”
Wrangell Police Chief Meek said safety training in Wrangell will probably take a couple of years to get right, since the community is just learning the process.
