Just days after students in Homer demonstrated support for victims and survivors of the recent school shooting in Florida, a middle schooler in Ninilchik made threatening statements about bringing a gun to school.
The 12 year old male is currently in custody at the Kenai Youth Facility. District Communications Liason Pegge Erkeneff says the district won't consider other disciplinary actions until after a state trooper investigation is completed. She said counselors were on hand if students wanted to share concerns about school safety, as they did in Homer earlier in the week.
Students at Homer High aligned themselves to form a large number 17 on the football field, in recognition of the 17 students killed in Florida last week. Unfortunately, that’s not the first time kids have felt compelled to make a show of support in the wake of a school shooting.
“We saw a little bit as well after Sandy Hook. Soldotna High School made a really big heart with all the kids and shared their compassion and thoughts with that community," Erkeneff said.
Schools, she says, are accommodating for such events.
“We see this across the country with kids wanting to come together. Within the context of the school, they’re not organized by the school, but the school is working with students so that the students who are expressing a desire to do this are doing it in a safe way and outside instructional time.”
Of course, the school district and the borough are in the opening rounds of what may be a contentious fight over education funding. The district has cut a number of administration and support positions. But school counselors and psychologists, who are often looked to to find warning signs of potentially violent behavior, have so far been spared. There are 14 and a half full time counselors and a dozen psychologists in the district.
“As there are reductions in staff, and we’ve tried to keep them far away from the classroom, we also know that in the classroom, those relationships are foundational for people. So, who’s falling through the cracks, what are we not seeing? That comes from a student perspective and it comes from teachers and counselors and we are definitely paying attention to that. And we actually did have a conversation this week about, well, what would happen at a district level if we had someone who was working on school safety. But there’s not funding right now in our budget for that.”
Nor is there likely to be any time soon, given the district’s ongoing budget shortfalls and the borough’s reluctance to fund the district to the state cap. The opening rounds of budget negotiations between the district and the borough are suggesting things may get a bit heated.
“We’re having a different set of conversations. We’re not saying immediately ‘no’. We’re actually analyzing and looking at what do we need, how can we be better, how can we best serve our students and create safe learning communities.”