Student safety and well-being is a top priority for me. In my time on the board I have seen and heard the societal and individual issues plaguing our students and understand the significance of how these issues play a negative impact on student success. These issues affect not only the physical but social and emotional well-being of a student.

Ways to increase student safety and well-being that I support :

• School Safety Measures To Include Conceal Carry
  • I support the district’s CKA (conceal carry) policy to protect our students from the potential threat of physical violence. Our district’s policy is robust and allows staff to carry on school property upon completion of extensive psychological testing and marksman training and recommendation from the board.
  • As a school psychologist I am well aware of the statistics of response times from first responders and the outcomes when an active shooter enters a school property- it’s catastrophic! The facts are most active shootings end before police are even present on scene.
  • It is my hopes that this policy act as a deterrent for an individual considering to engage in such a horrific act, but it is not enough! I support several other safety measures in our schools including ALICE training, front office check-in system, etc.

• Random Drug Testing
  • I voted to pass the district’s JICHA (drug testing in extracurricular) policy  requiring students in extracurricular activities to be subject to random drug testing. The Board of Education for Fremont County School District #1 values students’ participation in extracurricular activities.  My intent for approving this policy if the hopes that it will reduce student substance use in three ways—by deterring substance use, by detecting substance use, and by having spillover effects on other students in the school as they observe and are influenced by the behavior of their peers. 
  • With the prevalence of substance use on the rise the last few years it is imperative that as a community we support any and all measures to discourage students from using. This also includes ensuring that students have the mental health support to cope in a healthy way with life stressors that may lead the to consider using to begin with.

• Enhanced Student Supports
  • Students need to feel safe in the learning environment to ensure efficient learning. I do not support or tolerate any bullying or mistreatment of students. I support the district’s practices of Safe2Tell and encourage parents and student to report any such incidents.
  • Students should be engage by the families and school support staff to seek supports if they are facing mental health issues. School staff should be available for individuals when needed.

• Cell Phone Usage in Schools
  • Cell phone usage in teens has been shown by many research studies to have a detrimental to their mental well-being. It has been shown to increase anxiety, decrease self-confidence and create body image issues as well. See here If parents choose to allow their children to have access to smart phones that is a personal choice. However, cell phone usage in the schools have no place. They are a distraction from learning and I support creating a policy that bans cellphone usage on campus. Recently, and to my surprise, Los Angelas Unified School District voted to remove cell phones from campus affecting almost 600,000 students and families they serve.