The Abbotsford School District has completed most of the actions recommended by a review that followed 2016’s fatal stabbing at Abbotsford senior secondary.
But a few items remain outstanding, while there won’t be any immediate action on two recommendations.
A review led by superintendent Kevin Godden and completed last June had suggested 31 actions to improve the city’s schools.
A year later, the school district says 23 of the actions have been completed, ranging from the construction of a barrier between the Fraser Valley Regional Library and the Abbotsford senior library to a review of traffic on school property during emergencies.
Read the district’s update.
Work on four of the items is in progress. Three revolve around reviewing emergency communications plans and procedures, the fourth is ongoing emergency procedure training for non-school-based staff. One recommendation – the development of a lockdown instructional video to be produced alongside the Abbotsford Police Department – hasn’t been started.
And no action is being taken yet on two items.
The review had recommended the district consider equipping classrooms with first aid kits and training for basic first aid. But an update delivered to the board said that isn’t being implemented “at this time,” with the training component left with individual school safety committees for consideration.
The school district says it was determined to be “impractical to provide universal training across the district.” A spokesperson said there is already a protocol in place “to ensure a minimum number of first aid kits and trained staff at each school.”
The safety review had also recommended that the district review how to schedule the time of crisis support staff “to better ensure they remain effective for the duration of the support period.”
Godden’s report to the board this month said: “Further review of this recommendation is required. Due to the specifics of every critical incident, it is not possible to apply a consistent framework to address staff effectiveness and time.”