CVUSD Concerns: Parents, students call for safety in schools amid rise in incidents
It was a full house with parents and students voicing their concerns about school safety at Thursday night's Coachella Valley Unified School district board meeting.
"As parents, we live in fear thinking that our child might not come back at night," said parent Elizabeth Tabarez.
Sophomore Kyonnie Hall spoke out to the CVUSD board, in a room overflowing with parents and students who share her concerns.
“I will stand up for the students here and for the teachers and the parents who are afraid to send their kids to school. The students who are afraid to come to school," Hall said during the meeting.
Hall tells us several incidents in recent months had herself, her classmates and parents on edge.
“All of the students and all of the faculty feel unsafe," Hall said. "If more students spoke up and showed up, then we would get a better chance at getting the student safety that we need our school and for our teachers working at our schools.”
The most recent incident happened on Tuesday, when Coachella Valley High School went into lockdown.
“I was worried," said parent Ramon Avalos.
He tells us his daughter was in school at the time. Avalos described his first thoughts when he heard about the lockdown.
“My daughter, is she okay? What happened? What’s going to happen? And we see it all over the news, shooter goes in and then decide to kill random kids it’s like the first thing," Avalos explained.
Some parents were calling for School Resource Officers, known as SROs, be brought back to school campuses.
“When they were in middle school and in high school, there was school resource officers. None of this ever happened," said a mother during the board meeting.
Parents told us SRO's would help ensure a safe environment for their children.
“I grew up in a school where we had a sheriff and you know, it didn’t affect me in any way. I didn’t see myself as a criminal, I felt safe because a sheriff was there," said Tabarez.
Tabarez fears for her daughter’s safety and wants to see active shooter training in the classrooms.
“I have pushed for a whole year to get ALICE training in the school and it’s something that’s barely done... Why does it take this long to prepare when it’s going to be a year since Uvalde and we’re not ready for an event like that," she said. "We need change and we need it now.”
CVUSD tells us they have developed safety plans and procedures, as well as updated their security equipment.
