PANAMA CITY, Florida (WMBB) — In the current climate, many parents are concerned about safety when sending their children to school. Bay District leaders said they are working to inform parents without unnecessarily alarming them.
Local leaders believe they are doing everything they can to keep their children safe.
The people in charge of school safety in Bay County are incredibly busy, dealing with threats, medical issues and more.
“Every day, every day we have first responders who can come to our campus, whether it’s a paramedic,” said school safety coordinator Vernon Barth. “Whether it’s a fire department or possibly the police.”
Barth handles multiple issues each day, tracks them, and then reports monthly. With more than 27,000 students, administrators describe the district as a small town. Just like the first responders in their cities, teachers, administrators, and security officers face challenges in their small towns.
“We have a lot of partners and agencies that we work very closely with and we just want to make sure kids are safe and secure and that you know parents can feel good about their students coming home every day.” Barth said.
According to the district, five students were compromised with mental health issues during the first month of school and another 90 were referred for mental health treatment.
District leaders have emphasized the need for mental health services for students still dealing with the emotional fallout from Hurricane Michael and the pandemic.
“I see a lot of students who don’t know how to handle situations,” Barth explained. “I see a lot of students who are not emotionally equipped to be able to handle difficult situations, so they lash out verbally or physically when the time comes, resulting in more threats and more school violence.”
Paramedics answered 26 school calls in the first month. District officials and law enforcement officers investigated 50 threats.
“No one wants to hear that call, this is an important district security update about your child’s school today, we had a threat today or we had a dangerous object today,” Bay District Communications Director Sharon Michalik said.
However, not all threats generate the same level of concern.
“If a student, for example, brought a plastic toy knife to school, we want parents to know that it was a plastic toy rather than a real knife because there is certainly a difference in the level of alarm,” Michalik said. .
It should be noted that district officials said they are in constant contact with other districts across the state and the nation.
They said that while we have some unique challenges, all school districts are dealing with these types of issues.
