Though the rumors that it was an ajar door that enabled a gunman to enter Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, and kill 19 students and two teachers in May of 2022 turned out to be false, the incident still inspired Southeast Local Schools to invest in increased precautionary measures.
“I’ve done this a long time, been in the school business for 36 years, and it’s just really sad. As much time and energy we spend on school safety, I just wish we didn’t have to do that,” said Southeast Superintendent Robert Dunn. “I wish school violence, gun violence, weapons, those types of things — I wish we didn’t have these tragedies because kids should come to school and feel safe and not have to worry about something like that happening.”
Southeast is not the only school district in recent years that decided to take a proactive approach to school safety. Last year, the Kent City Schools began examining ways to improve its response in safety-compromising situations after a bomb threat and an instance of a child bringing a gun to school.
The Portager spoke to a number of districts in the county about their approach to school safety. Beyond the details below, all districts in Ohio must adhere to state guidelines requiring them to practice three separate safety drills, such as lockdown or evacuation drills, and one theoretical safety drill for teachers and staff only to discuss potential safety situations throughout the year.
Southeast
Southeast has ramped up its precautionary measures in recent years, installing dozens of cameras throughout the building, a panic button to alert 911 and the sheriff’s office with a click and safety vestibules with bullet-proof glass, as well as purchasing a portable metal detector.
The district works with the Portage County Sheriff’s Office, the Palmyra Township Fire Department, Homeland Security and Portage County Emergency Management Director Ryan Shackelford to conduct biannual safety meetings.
“The purpose of that is to just go through safety protocols, to review our emergency operation plan, which is an annual review for us, and then we go through some stimulated safety drills,” Dunn said.
The district began conducting these safety meetings 13 years ago, and the amount of attendees has grown over the years to include parents and community stakeholders to get as much input as possible.
Southeast shares four school resource officers with the Waterloo and Rootstown school districts. Each district is assigned an SRO, while the fourth one acts as floater, rotating between the districts to offer extra support.
This arrangement between the districts started 10 years ago, because the budget between them was only enough to afford two SROs.
“The thinking at the time was that having two armed officers either on campus or within 10 minutes of each district was worth the investment,” Dunn said.
Eventually the districts were able to find funding to add an additional SRO, and from working closely with the Portage County Sheriff’s Department, it became feasible to have a fourth SRO.
“What we like about our partnership with Waterloo, Rootstown is if there’s something bigger that happens, we have four resource officers that can get there immediately,” Dunn said. “And they know our districts. They know your buildings. They know our personnel, because they’ve worked in our buildings, so the familiarity is really important.”
Waterloo
Being a parent himself, Waterloo Superintendent Frank Gant is familiar with parental safety concerns and knows addressing a situation’s threat level is the first step to protecting students.
Gant became superintendent at the Waterloo Local School District in 2025. Prior to that, he was a principal at Lake Local Schools for nearly 11 years.
During his time as principal, a younger student brought a knife to school, causing concern.
Once Gant and his staff learned the student was a first grader who received a pocket knife in Boy Scouts the night before, they were able to properly assess the threat level.
“Now, that kind of changes that threat level,” he said. “Every situation is a bit different, but the first priority is always to figure out what’s the threat level to the students and staff inside the building and how do we make sure it’s safe moving forward as quickly as possible.”
The district works with the Portage County’s Sheriff Office, its school resource officer and the Atwater Township Fire Department to conduct debriefing meetings after drills.
“The debrief is extremely important after a drill to find those holes and some of those problems that might arise in a true emergency situation,” Gant said.
Because first responders have family members working at or attending the schools, the district has formed a strong relationship with emergency responders.
“Whether it’s their children, or their niece or nephew, they’re walking in this hallway and they want the best for them, as well as they want them to be safe in a situation,” Gant said. “As a first responder, they want to walk in a building and not have to worry about their family. They want to know that their family is well-taken care of, while they’re doing their job.”
While at Lake, Gant would leave one-minute scenario notes – hypothetical emergency situations – in his staff and teachers’ mailboxes.
During the school day, he would announce on the public-address system: “This is the moment in time that scenario applies.” After the announcement, staff would then write their responses on the paper and place them back in their mailboxes.
The results showed Gant what required improvement, as well as if anyone needed additional support or clarification regarding safety procedures.
Knowing how these exercises kept everybody alert, he hopes to implement a similar practice within the Waterloo district.
Windham
Superintendent Michael Dobran said the Windham Exempted Village Schools works with the Windham Police Department to conduct, as well as review, drills and has an SRO frequenting the district’s two buildings, Katherine Thomas Elementary and Windham Junior and Senior schools.
“The officer will be at one of the school buildings, which are less than a mile apart, or a police station less than a mile away from both buildings,” he said. “We also have police pools and we have systems where we just hit a button and it goes directly to dispatch at the county.”
Like Southeast, Windham hosts an annual meeting at the beginning of the school year to review different possible occurrences.
“The main thing we want to prioritize with adults is: in any critical situation, make the choice that you think is best for everybody involved,” Dobran said. “Obviously in crazy situations, you can’t say if this happens, do this, or if this happens, you do this. You try to learn as much as you can and you make the best possible decision.”
To prepare staff to make these decisions, the district encourages them to think about student’s comfortability and mental health while practicing drills.
Keeping students’ mental health in mind can also serve as a deterrence as it provides students with an outlet to share their struggles and concerns to counselors and teachers.
“I think part of it is the social-emotional learning and the student’s mental health to make sure we’re properly working with our school counseling team, and then we have outside counselors that will work with our students,” he said. “The teachers work with our students everyday to create a positive environment in our school.”
To promote social-emotional learning, the district emphasizes that everyone comes from different backgrounds. Acknowledging these differences and giving access to different counseling services can help prevent students from feeling alienated or other negative feelings.
Dobran knows students are likely the first ones to be aware of potential dangers because of social media, so the district hosts two meetings a year reviewing how students can report concerns.
“Even in my 27 years of education, I always felt that if there was anything major, the students definitely tell the adults because, at the end of the day, they care a lot," Dobran said. “The students do care. In all of the districts I've been in, they don’t want anything bad to happen.”