Cheryl Birx

A tragic moment can be a reminder about the key role teachers, nurses and other educators play in keeping a school community safe at a scary time.

In early May, a student entered a bathroom at the 1,400-student Canandaigua Academy, a sprawling school complex in an Ontario County lakeside community. Seconds later, he took his own life with a gun.

Within minutes, a "lockdown" was announced by the school principal.

"We know what that means when we hear it, " said Cheryl Birx, president of the Canandaigua Teachers Association.

"We had practiced lockdowns and evacuation drills before," she added, "and that was a good thing."

Like all New York schools, Canandaigua Academy is covered by Project SAVE, the Safe Schools Against Violence in Education Act, which NYSUT lobbying helped make a reality.

Under that nine-year-old law, local union leaders or school personnel appointed by the collective bargaining unit should be part of a safety review plan, to be completed by July 1 of each year.

It should include evacuation plans, a designated emergency response team and procedures for contacting law enforcement and parents in the event of a violent incident.

"Because of it, we have good procedures in place, " Birx said.

School nurses key

Birx saluted all the staff on duty that day, "We really pulled together."

She and other employees singled out the two school nurses on duty that day — Kelly Smith and Donna Ryan.

They were two of the first people on the scene to deal with the sad situation.

The day after the incident was National Nurse Day. When the nurses walked into the auditorium to join their colleagues at a briefing, they received a standing ovation.

Ryan, a 17-year school nurse, described the variety of issues that walk into the nurses' office every day.

"We help kids with all kinds of medical conditions and anything else, from panic attacks, to kids whose parents are having issues, to kids who are struggling living on their own," she said.

Her advice to her colleagues in other schools is clear: If something happens, you need to be prepared.

"At the time we didn't know it was an isolated incident," she said, "but everyone worked together and it went as smoothly as it could have."

Canandaigua is a school community that recognizes the importance of school nurses, with eight nurses working with the 4,000 students in the district's four schools.

That staffing level is one of the best in the state. NYSUT has consistently called for legislation so a nurse is present in every school building.

Delegates to the union's annual convention in April also approved a resolution calling for a full-time social worker in every school because "students' social, emotional and behavioral needs are becoming more intense..."

"This tragedy was another reminder of the importance of school safety plans and the role of our members in every aspect of them," said NYSUT Vice President Kathleen Donahue. "Schools are safer places when our members are involved."