If Highline schools administrators had recommended taking guns away from security officers, they might have packed the place.

But since the final recommendations left in place the current arming levels and, instead, emphasized security officers as “role models-mentors” for students, barely two-dozen people showed up for a May 20 public meeting on the new proposed security plan.

Yellow feedback forms placed on tables throughout the district headquarters boardroom were not used. Feedback was delivered orally. Many of the participants were security officers or district staff.

District officials said the security review’s guiding principles were the same as they had been working on long before the tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary School.

But the review was first presented on Dec. 12, two days before a gunman killed 26 students and staff in Connecticut.

The public and media’s attention shifted to the fear that the district would disarm security officers.

District staff regrouped with Superintendent Susan Enfield meeting with local police chiefs and later hiring ex-Des Moines Police Chief Roger Baker to expand the review.

At the May 20 meeting, Baker noted the vast majority of school districts do not have armed security guards.

Six months after the initial presentation, there is no change to who will be allowed to carry guns.

“Sandy Hook caused us to rethink some assumptions,” interim chief operating officer Don Waring, said May 20.

Remaining armed are commissioned police officers who serve as school resource officers, school safety and security officers who cover an assigned area during the day and night/weekend security officers who patrol the grounds when schools are not in session.

Campus safety and security officers who remain on high school campuses during the day will stay unarmed.

An overall safety and security administrator will be hired to coordinate the new plan.

Waring said an overall security review was needed.

He said the district did not have district-level policies and standing operating procedures. There were incidents of physical force involving students and staff as well as drugs and weapons in the schools.

With a diverse enrollment, there was also a need for cultural competency training. The district has also set a goal of eliminating out-of-school suspensions.

At the meeting, Superintendent Enfield noted the goal does not mean a student who is a danger to himself or others won’t be removed from the classroom. Separate in-school areas may be set up for the student so learning can continue.

“The goal is to change how adults relate to the students,” Enfield added.

Waring said the guiding principles for the district’s safety and security are building strong relationships and trust with students, developing professional staff training and using best practices to reduce conflict and force.

Security director Scott Logan said the district wants to implement a cultural shift in the officers so students feel free to talk to them if they are having problems.

“We want them to create hope in these students that the officers believe in them even more than they believe in themselves,” Logan declared.

In answer to a complaint from a campus security officer, Logan said the district will provide “one-point” communication equipment so everyone will be able to communicate in an emergency.

Logan also assured officers that other district staff will be trained in security procedures.

A night security officer complained about the review.

“We know what to do,’ the officer said. “You can start (a review) when you get complaints.

“We know when to shoot and when not to.”

He said an entirely different type of person goes on school grounds at night. Night officers have recovered thousands of dollars of district equipment about to be stolen, according to the officer.

Superintendent Enfield responded, “We assume that was what was happening but we couldn’t leave it to chance.”

Logan concluded, “We have amazing people in the (security) department already. We are going to build on those strengths.”