A Day of Discovery: Task Force put plan in place

Often times when a tragedy strikes, the initial reaction is to assign blame.

Not in Madison.

Within days of the Discovery tragedy, an independent task force was announced to assess what went wrong that day, to assess what went right and to make recommendations so that something like this never happens again.

The task force delivered its recommendations within weeks, focusing on two areas: security and communication.

After studying the recommendations, Superintendent Dr. Dee Fowler and the Madison City School Board put a plan of action into place, particularly focusing on student communication.

“We felt the communication side was something we really wanted to take a look at intensely,” Fowler said. “That was a major importance of the task force.”

Among the communication measures put into place was the text-to-protect line, which encourages students to anonymously send tips to school officials and police.

Fowler said this tip line has helped lead to drug arrests, suicide prevention and anti-bullying measures.

The school system also has a superintendent’s advisory council of students and advisory council of teachers that meet regularly to discuss happenings in the schools.

The task force also recommended a point person for security, and former Columbia Elementary Principal Dennis James was named as the system’s first student support/safety/security and communication coordinator in July.

“We want to make sure we’re making the safest possible environment,” James said. “We want to look at prevention. Prevention is much better than responding.” James said he hopes to have an independent audit of the task force’s recommendations by the end of the 2010-2011 school year.

Prevention is Key

But while the school system is heavily focused on prevention, Madison Police Chief Larry Muncey admitted that incidents like the Discovery tragedy, in which he calls the “one percenters,” are hard to prevent with security measures.

“We can’t stop it with physical securities,” Muncey said. “We have to start at the root of the problem.”

Muncey pointed out that even with metal detectors at each school and more resource officers, loopholes such as side entrances, windows, after-school events and many others still exist for someone who is determined to hurt another individual.

“If someone is content on committing a crime, there is almost no stopping them,” Muncey said.

The root of the problem, Muncey said, is communication. For years adults have been trying to communicate with their kids, but the way kids communicate has changed drastically. Gone are the days of one-on-one phone conversations and in are the days of texting and Facebook chats.

“We weren’t trying to communicate with the kids the way they communicate,” James said. “We don’t want the kids to adapt to us, we want to adapt to them.”

Moving Forward

In addition to communication efforts, several security measures have been put into place.

Additional School Resource Officers were placed in the system, and Fowler said the SROs are a great tool for building relationships between police officers and children at an early age.

“Our SROs are such an integral part of our schools,” Fowler said. “These guys have made themselves such a part of the school community. They are another adult, another person to talk to. It’s great for the kids to see the police in a non-threatening manner.”

But for all the recommendations and for all the studies that state that such an incident as the Feb. 5, 2010 tragedy is almost impossible to prevent, even with additional security, Fowler still reflects on what might have been.

“Simply, we had a child that was going through a terrible time in his life, and I don’t think the school officials knew that this young man was struggling with problems,” Fowler said. “We’ve always been very concerned about the threat of outside intrusions, when in reality the threat came from inside.”

Discovery Principal Sharon Willis said while the school and system has done everything within its power to assure nothing like this ever happens again, it still pains her that she didn’t send a child safely home to their parent that Friday afternoon.

“You feel accountable and responsible for everything. So you’re going to have regret anytime anything happens. You really feel responsible for all those things,” Willis said. “That’s just part of being a principal and understanding the fact that you’re taking care of the most important thing in the world to someone, and that’s their child.”

Although the pain and memories from that tragic day still remain, it’s the memory of Brown that keeps pushing the city forward.

“There’s not a day that goes by that we don’t think about Todd Brown,” said Muncey as he retrieved a picture of Brown from his office. “We will never forget him.”