COEUR D'ALENE, Idaho — For Coeur d’Alene Public Schools, safety is one of their top priorities.
Over the last several years, the school district added and expanded several safety measures in the school.
For Coeur d’Alene High School, it’s something that can be seen as visitors walk in.
Just before the front door is a blue light bulb. While it wasn’t flashing Thursday, it would be if there was a lockdown to warn visitors to leave the area.
It’s one of the safety measures implemented at CHS.
Safety measures in Coeur d’Alene Public Schools include buzzed-in front entrances for visitors at the front entrance. First-time visitors to a school will also get their driver’s licenses scanned. Cameras are also used to monitor campuses.
In addition, school district officials say there are nine security resource officers throughout the district. The SROs are sworn law enforcement officers from both Coeur d’Alene Police and the Kootenai County Sheriff’s Office and are armed with service weapons.
There are also four campus safety officers (CSOs). According to officials, CSOs are not law enforcement and therefore are not armed with service weapons.
Seth Deniston, director of technology, safety and security for Coeur d’Alene Public Schools, said, “As kids are in our schools each day, like, that’s the most important thing to us that they’re safe and that they’re secure and that they’re learning.”
According to district officials, Coeur d’Alene Public Schools were one of the earliest adopters in the area for SROs, starting around the mid-1990s.
Meanwhile, the campus safety officers are a relatively new addition made within the last few years.
Campus safety officer Charles Keisel is the campus safety officer at CHS. According to him, his work includes patrolling the school building and parking lot, as well as keeping an eye on the student entrance.
“We have robust entry and exit systems. We have a very robust observation system within the building and we can actually monitor what goes on inside the building from outside of the building,” Keisel said.
School district officials say they also have safety protocols in place, including fire drills, safety holds for external issues, such as weather, animals and nearby law enforcement activity, as well as lockdown drills.
Deniston said lockdown drills are usually done a couple times a year.
“Our students are trained to get into the closest classroom and then get as out of sight as they can and silence phones," Deniston said.
While Deniston said it’s likely too soon to say if the recent shooting Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas will lead to any safety changes for the, it is a conversation they will likely have.
“Anytime something happens nationally, we’re debriefing it and talking about what are some things that we can learn," Deniston said.
School officials say levies have helped to pay for a big part of their safety measures, including the SROs.
The next levy for the district will likely take place early next year.