By Missy Wattenbarger / mwattenbarger@crossville-chronicle.com
Members of the Cumberland County Board of Education recently commented that things could have gotten "very ugly" at Pine View Elementary nearly two weeks ago when it was believed a murder suspect was on her way to pick up her child. They thanked the Director of Schools, Principal Pat Allen and Tim Claflin, the school system’s emergency management security coordinator, for their quick response and temporary lock down of the school.
"I have to give Pat and Mr. Claflin all the credit," said the DOS. "I can tell that it has made a world of difference having Mr. Claflin on board with us…He has done an excellent job coordinating everything."
Claflin is responsible for the coordination of the school multi-hazard emergency planning as well as the teaching of school emergency plans and emergency management activities for the various schools within the school system.
Prior to the lockdown incident, he provided the BOE with an update on the progress he has made since acquiring the position.
He first mentioned that the Schools Against Violence in Education Act requires all school systems to have an emergency plan. He explained that enhancements have been made to the original plan, and he has reached his goal to have all the county schools using the same plan.
A self-assessment with a copy of the multi-hazard emergency plan had to be submitted to the state Department of Education by Oct. 1, 2008, he noted. It covered three areas, including emergency management; prevention and intervention; and policies and procedures.
“We were in compliance and one of 61 districts out of 141 that did not apply for a one-year waiver…There were eight (out of 43) indicators that we need to work on…so we’re in good shape.”
Claflin's job also requires him to develop and maintain a favorable working relationship with local law enforcement officials and emergency response agencies for the protection of everyone on school property.
He pointed out he has met with the county director of emergency management, Keith Garrison, to "seek concurrence of the changes to the plan," which was distributed to all emergency stakeholders in the county.
“I would like to say that they have been great with me,” said Claflin.
He added, "I gave him (Garrison) one of the school cell phones from Verizon, which provides me with direct assess to him without having to call his office or other numbers. Plus, the sheriff has added my contact information to the dispatchers’ notification list. So if there is any kind of incident around the school, he gets called…(and) I’m one or two underneath him."
He mentioned a state initiative that he considers "an important part of any emergency plan" — PREPARE, which stands for “providing, reaching, educators, parents/students and restoring community with effective interventions.”
"The manual was developed by Vanderbilt Community Health Center with the Tennessee Department of Education," he explained. "It’s a postvention plan to help school districts prepare to offer students, staff and parents effective assistance in the aftermath of a school crisis or incident such as tornadoes and school-related deaths."
Plans are in progress to add this to all the schools, he noted. So far, Stone Memorial High School is the only local school who has one of these plans in place.
Another effort Claflin has made to keep local schools safe is starting a hotline for students and parents
“A lot of the experts out there are talking about this as one of the top 10 strategies to use,” he said, adding how a study has found that some concerned students would have called a hotline prior to the school shooting at Columbine High School.
Calls come to an answering machine in his office, and he then takes appropriate action depending on the call. Examples include harassment of a teacher, reckless driving by a student in a parking lot and bullying issues.
“The hotline is working,” he said. “I had a boy call about being bullied. He gave me his name, telephone number, who was bullying him, when he was being bullied, and I called that school and they handled it. So it’s working. I would like to see it work a lot more but it’s working.”
In addition, Claflin has posted signs at all the schools about no weapons, violence, vandalism, harassment and bullying. In addition, he has interviewed students concerning bullying issues, fights on buses and making hit lists.
Among his other accomplishments are the Internet safety classes he has been conducting for grades 6-8.
“I completed (classes) at schools so far in Crab Orchard, Pleasant Hill, North and South," he said. "I’m working on scheduling the other K-8 schools in February. The high schools are going to be harder to do because of the large groups of kids and trying to get them all together. So I’m working on that and trying to get that done.”
Claflin said there are also K-2 and 3-5 presentations and one for parents with tips on how to keep children safe online.
He showed a brief video titled Tracking Teresa, which showed how just a little bit of personal information online can be harmful. It was followed by another movie about the fatal attack on 13-year-old Christina Long, the first confirmed death by an Internet predator, noted Claflin.
In addition to fine tuning the emergency plan, Claflin announced his main goals for the future. They include working on the eight indicators from the SAVE Act that need to be met; getting postvention teams set up for all the schools and Central Office; getting school and classroom “to go” kits together; table top drills with various departments and school principals; and training for all staff.
"And (I plan) to continue to learn and grow," he stated.
