By Kristine Thomas
At its board work session on April 22, the Silver Falls School District Board received a by-school vulnerability assessment by Zach Elliott of Holvi LCC in Newberg.
Elliott said the goal of the report was to show the school district and board how to mitigate security threats. He requested the report not be made public as it contains sensitive material.
“We want to provide you with information to stack the deck in your favor,” he said.
Elliott said the study was conducted by looking at the schools, talking with administrators and staff and information provided by local law enforcement officials.
Each school in the district was assessed and scored in the following areas: client vulnerability; client recoverability; client accessibility; client criticality; impact of attack and risk to attacker.
The assessment outlined the district’s strengths and three key areas it needs to address.
If voters approve a $36.9 million bond measure in the May 21 election, some of the funds have been earmarked for upgrading security measures at each school.
Unfortunately in today’s climate, school districts have to address ways to prevent an attack and have a plan in place, if one were to happen, Elliott said.
“There has to be a change in our mind set,” he said. “We have to look at school security the same way we looked at preventing fires. No child has died in a fire since 1950 because of the changes put in place including fire drills. We need to take the same approach to mitigating the risk of violence.”
