What happened since Monday?

Students and staff alike should feel safe when they go to school, yet that is not how many felt on Monday. Several fights took place on that ended with injuries and a major police presence.

Deloris Brown acknowledges that Monday was “shocking, disappointing, and embarrassing but [she] can not allow the poor choices of a few students supersede the responsibility [she] has to be an instructional leader and to ensure a safe and secure atmosphere for the students.”

Police officers have been placed around the school as a cautionary measure.

“After the initial incident, it is important that there is a visible showing of making safety and security a priority which a police presence provides sometimes,” Brown explains.

The police will be here until at least the remainder of this week, possibly longer. Brown wants to get “input from all stakeholders before moving forward and increasing [police] presence after this week.”

A meeting will take place to address the incident within the next week. Brown explains that “with the school as big as it is, we have to be very strategic and it has to be very structured.”

The lack of a structured plan led to poor communication with staff, families, and students. Brown explains that it is difficult to deal with a problem, while at the same time informing people about the problem. “How can you be the firefighter putting out the fire and yelling there’s a fire?” she said.

The incidents that happened on Monday have shown that something needs to change.

“We are coming up with a system,” Brown says, to plan for how to deal with future chaos. “We need a collaborative effort to come up with a real and practical communication plan.”

“As of right now I have my secretary to relate messages to central office and also to parents.”

Humans learn from their mistakes and adapt; through this process hopefully we can make UHS a safer place.