ABOVE: Granada-Huntley-East Chain School Resource Officer, Chris Gerhardt, speaks to students in the Minnesota State University- Mankato CJ101 Criminal Justice course he teaches for college credit at the school. Gerhardt said while he has an office, he prefers to always be out and about in the school building. Submitted photo.

MARTIN COUNTY – School back in session means students are focused on learning, and the schools are focused on their safety.

Granada-Huntley East Chain (GHEC) School Resource Officer (SRO) Chris Gerhardt is entering his sixth year as GHEC’s SRO.

A critical part of the building itself keeping people safe is defined by Gerhardt as ‘space’.

“You’ll find recessed entry points, which make it difficult to drive vehicles close to the front door, which creates that space,” he said. “In law enforcement, we always talk about space, space to understand what’s happening, space to be able to respond rather than immediately react.

Adding to this space includes entryways that have double and triple sets of locked doors, as well as security cameras.

In emergency situations, Gerhardt said their focus is to contain, control and communicate.

“Whatever happens, the attempt is to isolate that danger, educate everyone else that there’s that danger, then communicating outside to get the appropriate resources there,” he said.

This can be implemented from anything to someone having a heart attack to keeping a family member who isn’t legally allowed to see a student, from said student.

GHEC Superintendent Doug Storbeck said something like an accident, injury, or other medical situation in the hallway would be classified as a code yellow.

“To make sure there’s easy access in and out to help assist the person,” he explained.

For something like an active shooter, Storbeck said they use code red protocols.

“We work with a local SWAT team to train our teachers on what to do if there is an intruder,” he said. “We talk about, is it the right situation for them to leave their classroom, get away from the building as quickly as possible? Is it a situation where somebody’s in close proximity and you have to lock yourself in to keep your students safe and barricade the doors if necessary?”

Classrooms also have interior devices that lock and reinforce doors as quickly as possible.

Throughout the year, the school conducts five lockdown drills, a combination of code red and yellow, in addition to several fire and tornado drills.

“We go through all the scenarios,” Storbeck said. “We’re always hopeful that we would never run into that, but we review them to keep our minds fresh about those types of actions if they are needed.”

As an SRO, Gerhardt said he has interacted with a variety of situations.

“Everything from medical emergencies to just kids having a bad day and just needing a space to breathe and process what they’re going through,” he said. “Nine times out of 10, if you allow another human being to ensure their shared understanding of what they’re going through, the problem truly resolves itself.”

Storbeck said counselors are also a key part of keeping all their students safe and in a good mindset while working with students who need help with negative behaviors.

“We have a student support group that includes all of our intervention teachers,” he said. “Our group meets on a weekly basis, and we review student behaviors we’re seeing that are concerning. If they are occurring over and over again, we will identify those students to receive behavioral interventions and provide them opportunities to sit down and talk with our school counselor and social worker.”

Looking over all of the safety and security features present at GHEC, Gerhardt and Storbeck said safety and security are well in hand.

“As a parent of three kids, I have little to no worry at all,” Gerhardt said. “I’m very confident in not only the educators and the police officers and school resource officers in Martin County, but also in the community and the parents and the neighbors to keep this environment as safe as possible.”

“I know that each one of the parents wants their child to return home every night,” Storbeck said. “That’s why safety is at the top of my priority list,” he said. “It can even be annoyingly so. If a student opens an exterior door to allow another student, I will talk with them about that. We really take the safety and security and keeping that tight throughout the day very seriously.”

Martin County West (MCW) Superintendent Cori Reynolds said they also have crisis management plans, the details of which she said they prefer to keep confidential. Outside of crisis situations, Reynolds said they have security measures in place for student safety at all times.

“Block the exterior doors during the school day, ask visitors to check in and out of each office before they go to classrooms,” she said.

For parents who are concerned for their children and school safety, Reynolds said it is at the top of everyone’s mind at MCW.

“There obviously are no easy answers,” she said. “We thought about it very deeply when we were planning our new building. We have a building full of grown-ups who care deeply about every student who walks in our doors and are thinking about their safety and security constantly.”