MARYSVILLE – The school district has a daunting task: Trying to explain the inexplicable.
The district has been asked to give a presentation to state school board members on what it learned from the shooting at Marysville-Pilchuck last year.
District leaders and school board members brainstormed ideas on the presentation at a work session Sept. 20.
Board Member Chris Nation said when he heard of the tragedy he wondered what his role was. Board members Bruce Larsen and Pete Lundberg said they thought they should be at the district office to give moral support.
Nation said it was important for them to step back and let the experts handle it. He said there was no way they could plan for a disaster of that magnitude. Five students ended up dying in the tragedy.
“Even if we had the greatest plan in the world it would get altered because so many things change,” Lundberg said.
Nation said the tragedy months before at the Oso slide helped Marysville deal with its own tragedy.
“We knew how to respond,” he said of first-responders and community leaders.
Superintendent Becky Berg said one bit of advice the district could give other school boards it to build relationships with first-responders.
“We knew the fire chief and police chief,” Board Member Tom Albright said.
Berg added it is important to be involved in community groups such as Rotary to build a “trust bank.”
“That way when you ask the hard questions you get an honest exchange,” Albright said.
Even though many top school district leaders were out of town that morning, employees were allowed to do what they needed to do.
“It was the perfect storm,” Nation said.
Berg’s assistant, Jodi Runyon, who played a major role with her boss out of town, said, “You never know when something is going to happen.”
Hierarchy could have been a problem.
“It was obvious people knew what they were doing,” Lundberg said. “They didn’t run over each other.”
Albright added, “We could have gotten in the way.”
Lundberg said each district will have their own issues. A small district, for instance, may need board members to be more involved.
“Every community is unique,” Larsen said.
One important aspect is the school leadership must be unified. There is time for discussion but after a tragedy like that the district must act as one.
“I didn’t feel there was any armchair quarterbacking,” Berg said, adding it was an emotional roller coaster. “I was a fragile piece of nothing.”
Albright said the community helped by rallying in support.
Nation said another thing that was learned was not to trust on social media.
“That was evident in the first seconds,” Runyon said. “It’s amazing how fast it gets out there.
Lundberg said students should focus on telling their folks they are OK, and where they are going.
Albright said the other school board directors should learn about incident command.
“The fire and police chief are in charge, we’re not,” he said.
Lundberg said he knows kids get sick of practicing different disaster drills, but they need to learn to be prepared.
“You’re not getting out of it,” Larsen said of the students. “When you’re out of school at work you still have safety drills.”
Berg said processes need to be in place.
“It goes on and on and on,” she said, adding a student the previous week was upset because she has a class in the same room where she was in lockdown after the shooting last year.
