RIDGEFIELD — Nathan McCann has been a superintendent for eight years, and in the days after the Parkland, Fla., shooting, it was the first time he ever had parents reach out to him out of concern.
They wanted to know what he was doing to keep students safe in the Ridgefield School District, which he has led the last four years. Before that, he was a superintendent in Arizona.
“The (Parkland) students’ voices in the aftermath got folks thinking about this,” he said.
One of those folks was Kimber Webb, who has a second-grader at Union Ridge Elementary School and a 5-year-old about to enter the district. She emailed McCann with an idea shortly after the Parkland shooting, and a few weeks later, Ridgefield School District hosted its first Safety Night.
Webb wanted to organize a night where parents could learn about what the district is doing to keep kids safe, and what they can do at home. McCann jumped on board immediately and got a few other parent, administrative and community volunteers to start organizing Safety Night, which drew about 200 people to Ridgefield High School’s common area Wednesday night.
“Safety is about more than guns or fences,” Webb said. “It’s about understanding what is going on in kids’ lives.”
The night featured booths about things going on at the school, such as safety upgrades coming to the district’s elementary schools and anti-bullying programs, plus booths with information for families out of school.
Ridgefield High School junior Nolan Brown, 17, manned a booth on the topic of video games. While the discussion around video games in relation to safety typically focuses on the graphic violence sometimes depicted in games, Brown took a different angle. He was mostly focused on the communal aspect of gaming, especially playing online.
“Anyone can be on there playing with kids and saying anything,” Brown said. “You have to be careful.”
Brown said he’s been playing games online for about five years but doesn’t really talk to people, especially ones he doesn’t know. He said it’s important for parents to know they can set it up so that kids can’t play online, can play online only with friends or can play online but not communicate with others.
He said parents should also monitor how frequently kids are playing games, and that he tries to play only on weekends.
Amber Lutes, a school counselor at Union Ridge Elementary School, said it’s important to start instilling good behavior in students early. That’s the idea behind the Ridgefield chapter of Second Step Bullying Prevention program. The eight-week program has counselors go into schools once a week for 30 minutes to teach empathy, impulse control, how to make friends and how to treat others to students in kindergarten through sixth grade.
Lutes said there’s a program for middle school students in the district that continues that training, and she often sees kids become more confident after going through the program. They know the concepts of treating people with respect, but don’t always understand them, she said.
Jane Wageman of Camas and Marilyn Billinger of Battle Ground had a booth to talk about Moms Demand Action’s Be Smart program, which teaches people about gun safety.
“We’re against gun violence,” Billinger said. “You can have guns, but just keep them safe. Keep them away from kids. Keep them away from teens if they’re not supervised.”
Billinger said the Clark County chapter of Moms Demand Action usually sees 15 to 20 members at their monthly meetings. At the meeting after the Parkland shooting, 115 people showed up. She said the group hopes to keep bringing the Be Smart program to schools and summer fairs, where they can talk to people about how to safely own firearms.
McCann said the group felt it was important for Safety Night to focus on more than active-shooter threats. As part of the night, guests were asked to fill out a safety and security survey, asking about their concerns for specific schools in the district, as well as what they’d like to learn more about, with options for things like bullying, gun safety and social media. The idea is to hold more meetings in the future on topics families are interested in learning about.
He added that safety is an “evolving process” in a growing district, like Ridgefield. The district currently has an armed guard at the high school, and is adding another armed guard in the fall for the start of the 2018-2019 school year.
“Safety and security is the top priority in a school system,” McCann said. “Without it, it doesn’t matter what else you’re doing.”
