Kudlak gives debriefing on BHS gun incident

A school lockdown probably should have been done when a gun was seen at Belleville High School on Monday, March 7, School Supt. Pete Kudlak reported at Monday’s meeting of the Van Buren Public Schools Board of Education.
He said the day after the incident, there was a debriefing when Belleville Police Chief Dave Robinson and School Resource Officer Sgt. Kris Faull sat down with Supt. Kudlak to discuss what happened.
He said lockdowns were addressed although the police said the school took care of the situation well and they had a safe diffusion of the incident.
He said he was told after the student was out of the building, a lockdown would have provided a safe place inside for students.
Kudlak started his presentation with a detailed account of what happened on March 7. He said the 15-year-old student was not coming to school from home and he had contacted his brother to bring him clothes. He was changing his clothes in the restroom and another student thought he saw a gun fall onto the floor.
That student reported what he thought he saw to administration and the hallway by the cafeteria, where the restroom was, was shut off. He said a member of the BHS administration went to the door of the bathroom and called in, asking if anyone was in there. The student replied and gave his name when asked.
The student was told they wanted to talk to him when he came out. When he came out they took him across the hall to the school store and opened up his case. Then they asked to open his backpack and the teen started to get confrontational and asked to call his mother.
Kudlak said Sgt. Faull came into the room and then went into the bathroom looking for the gun and then she came out and went to talk to the other student. He said when the teen saw the officer leave, that’s when he asked to call his mother.
Kudlak said the administration had previous relations with the kid and the kid wanted to leave. They took him to the office and he walked out the front door. They felt it was better if he was out of the building. Police were notified and they found him in a neighborhood yard. He said it was 10 minutes between the time he was found and when he walked out of the building.
Kudlak said on March 7, he notified the board of the incident by a text message and the staff by email. Next time he will alert the staff to read their emails, he said. Parents were notified by text and phone three times that day, including notice of a parent meeting at 6:30 p.m. at the auditorium. Between 80 and 100 parents came to the meeting. He said there was a staff meeting after school and another staff meeting with more information on Wednesday.
He said he had the debriefing with police who said a lockdown of the school could have been done once the student was out of the building. Also, it would be better for the police to approach the student with the gun and he probably would have stayed in the bathroom until Sgt. Faull arrived.
Kudlak said if something is getting hot, the police should be involved and it depends on the situation. He said they were in an isolated area near the cafeteria at 8 a.m. when the cafeteria wasn’t busy.
He said Chief Robinson said they could have had a lockdown as soon as someone said they saw a gun. If the student had been in the classroom and angry, announcing a school lockdown could propel a student to do something.
When the student was out of the bathroom and in the school store and they were not sure whether there was a gun or not and he doesn’t want you to look through his backpack, the school could have been put on lockdown, Kudlak said police advised him.
Also, after the student left the building instead of calling his mother, they should have had a lockdown, locking all the doors, and the Early Childhood Development Center next door should have been locked down, he was advised.
Kudlak said lockdown means they announce on the public address system they are on lockdown and lock all the doors.
“We learned something,” said board member Calvin Hawkins. “It’s a lesson learned for the staff. I side with the police. I’d rather have the police handle this. We need to rethink that process.”
Kudlak said his next steps include putting the detailed account of that day on the website March 16 and sending a survey to high school parents to see if they are interested in metal detectors or clear backpacks. He said maybe only the 80 to 100 parents who attended the meeting want metal detectors.
“I’m not a metal-detector fan,” Kudlak said, noting there are a lot of articles written on metal detectors. He said he will debrief all the staffs the next day and will review with administrative teams the Emergency Operating Plan passed by the board. They will do tabletop exercises and this will be an ongoing procedure, two to three times a year.
Board secretary Darlene Loyer Gerick asked if the survey was just for the high school. She said such incidents happen in all grade levels.
A father in the audience asked if it was a standard process to search students in the office and Kudlak said it was. He said in this case the student didn’t want to be in the store and was going to be confrontational.
“They knew him and let him go,” Kudlak said.
Gerick said Chief Robinson did a good job at the parent meeting and Kudlak said he made sure the city knew how much the school appreciated him.
Hawkins said at the end of the meeting he was glad the district “didn’t duck it,” concerning public discussion of the gun incident.
In other business at Monday’s one-hour-and-26-minute meeting, the board:
• Approved $757,331 to purchases 16 buses in the 2022-23 school year. A total of $121,050 is expected in trade-ins for eight 71-passenger buses at $12,200 each, one 16-passenger at $15,650, and one 24-passenger for $7,800;
• Approve raises for 35 employees not affiliated with a union as of July 1. Kudlak said they do this every year in April or May, but this year they are doing it earlier so the employees know they are getting raises and don’t go looking for other jobs. He said all staff members had considerable raises this year;
• Heard a quarterly update on the 2019 bond projects and their progress from Rob Kakoczki of Plante Moran Cresa. He detailed this summer’s work to be done on Owen Intermediate School, which was built in 1964;
• Approved hiring Tavis Dudley as a teacher at Owen Intermediate School as of March 14;
• Approved resignations of Tiffany Tomlin as a custodian after less than a year of service as of March 4 and Matthew Murphy as administration IT after four years of service as of March 31; and
• Heard Kudlak report the school nurse has set up medical emergency response teams at each school. On March 3, a student was choking at lunch and a McBride team member did the Heimlich maneuver and after three thrusts a grape popped out. He also reported the batting cage donated by Peggy Curtis is almost ready for the teams to use. He said the bowling team was tied for eighth place in the state championship and then ended up ninth. They bowled well, he said.
Board vice president Susan Featheringill presided at the meeting in the absence of president Amy Pearce, who had tested positive for Influenza A and was not at the meeting.