School districts implement new safety measures as academic year approaches

SPOKANE COUNTY, Wash. – In less than a week, students will return to Seth Woodard Elementary for the new school year, but West Valley School District’s safety team is already at work preparing for their arrival.

“We don’t just start the day when the school day starts, we do a proactive patrol first thing in the morning,” said Bobby Loweree, Safety and Security Director for the district. His team consists of a resource officer and an armed resource deputy.

“We have had instances where we had to rely on that,” Loweree said. The West Valley School District’s Resource Deputy is centrally located at West Valley High School. “If I need him at the middle school, he’s there, you know, he’s there within minutes.”

The district has implemented new safety features this year for West Valley High School. Its front doors are now treated with ballistic treatment, making it much harder for someone posing a threat to enter the school.

“It’s an important upgrade these days,” Loweree said.

While West Valley and several other districts in the region maintain some form of armed presence, Spokane Public Schools moved away from that approach several years ago. The district now uses a campus safety team instead of law enforcement officers.

Kaitlyn Painter, supervisor for the campus safety team at Spokane Public Schools, works with 23 other team members to provide security across the district.

“Our campus safety team provides a daily presence in all of our K-12 sites,” Painter said. “They know that because we are more in that mentorship and allied role, that they can bring any of their concerns to us.”

Despite their different approaches to school safety, both districts share the same priority of keeping students safe while building strong relationships.

“Our team works really hard on building really positive relationships with our students,” Painter said.

West Valley School District also prioritizes personal connections between security personnel and students.

“All our officers know the kids’ names. They know what sports they play. They know what they’re good at in the schools. And I really encourage that,” Loweree said.