Antioch Unified Superintendent, Police Chief Provide Update on School Safety

On Wednesday night, the community received an update from the Antioch Unified School District Superintendent Stephanie Anello and Antioch Police Chief Tammany Brooks regarding school safety.

The update came during the Superintendents Report during the Antioch Unified School District Meeting and on the heels of a series of events at multiple schools which included, but are not limited to:

1. Deadly Shooting during a basketball game at Deer Valley High School
2. Fight with a Firearm Discharge on Antioch High School Campus
3. Park Middle School issuing an update regarding a threat deemed not credible.
4. Parent coming onto Dallas Ranch Middle School prompting a police response and lockdown on Tuesday

Here is the comments made by Superintendent Anello:

Good evening,

So I want to update the board while we develop a more comprehensive plan for addressing safety that includes the students, staff, and the community. I wanted to take a moment to share some interim measures that we are taking in light of the recent events that threaten the safety of students and staff at both Deer Valley and Antioch high schools.

For the foreseeable future two extra site safety personnel will be on each campus along with two extra administrators. Yesterday we walked, the Deer Valley campus to determine if additional cameras are needed to address safety concerns. As you’ll recall, Antioch High cameras were updated with Measure B Bond funds recently.

We’ve also increased the lighting on campuses and are working to install gates to the main entrance of the Deer Valley parking lot. I’ve also been in contact with Chief Brooks of the Antioch Police Department and he is working to see if there can be an increased presence on campus of the police department.

Beginning next month, our Say Something app will go live so that everyone in the community will have a way to anonymously report information that can be routed to school personnel, law enforcement, etc.

And additionally, as mentioned previously, the chief of police and I are working on a grant to add school resource officers to our schools as well as a police presence at particular sporting events. And finally, we’re going to do a perimeter assessment to determine if upgrades are needed and to secure our premises and are working to develop a parent community volunteer corps so that they can also help us.

Finely, each school is going to be addressing school safety at all of their ELAC meetings, their school site council meetings and their PTSA meetings so the parents have an opportunity to provide input and we’ll also be meeting with the leadership teachers at both sites as well as students.

I just want to address we received a few calls from individuals from Antioch high who were concerned about the information that was released regarding the possible weapon on campus and then the subsequent information released by any police department. So I invited you folks here this evening. I don’t think a lot of people understand that during an active criminal investigation how communication works amongst the school district and the police department.

Here are comments made by Antioch Police Chief Tammany Brooks:

Good evening board.

I just wanted to touch on just a couple of things and I had received information that there were some people who thought that it was misinformation that was given by the school in regards to the incident. And I’m talking about an incident that occurred at the Antioch High School actually a week ago today if I’m correct. And the question had to do with the information that was provided by the school administrator, principal Rocha, that there was a weapon involved in some people question why the school district is not more specific regarding the fact that it was a gun.

What I wanted to explain, what a lot of people are unaware of is that during the course of the incident and then the subsequent investigation, it wasn’t known for a fact whether or not it actually was a gun. So, for principal Rocha to have put out timely information that day, it would actually be irresponsible of him to say if it was or it wasn’t. He was general and that it was a weapon because really that’s what we can confirm. But there was no confirmation as to whether or not it was a real firearm or not.

So in an effort to get that information out timely, he actually had been in contact with our staff. So the information was actually part of a collaboration. He wanted to verify what in fact he could say and whether or not we could confirm at that time it was a real firearm, at which point we could not. So the information that he drafted that day, the day of the incident was accurate.

Obviously, as with any criminal investigation, through interviews, through video evidence, and through additional information gained from statements of victims and witnesses and responsible parties, we learn additional information. So obviously with any criminal investigation information changes as we conduct our investigation. So we have to be very careful and what information we present, to make sure that it’s as factually accurate as possible at the time we provided. So I just wanted to share that information with the board and let them know that the information the principal Rocha would put out that day, it actually had been vetted through the police department and was accurate based on the information that he knew at the time of the posting.

Video Note – Superintendent Report begins at the 17:59 minute mark.