May 23, 2025

Dateline - Weaverville

School Safety Expands with Drills, Training and Collaboration

Over the last year, local Trinity County school districts and the Trinity County Office of Education (TCOE) have been expanding school safety programs, drills, and training.  

“School culture is school safety,” says Trinity County Superintendent Fabio Robles, “but even with a solid cultural baseline at any school, there are still other tasks and programs that can expand school safety.”  

While Robles reiterated that each school has a Comprehensive Safety Plan, training and drills reinforce safety as part of school culture.  “Staying aware and planning for the unexpected are essential pieces of the puzzle.”

Current School Safety programs and initiatives include:  

Led by the Trinity County Office of Education (TCOE), the Trinity Safe Schools Collaborative (TSSC) is a multi-agency action group committed to working together cooperatively to promote a coordinated effort among agencies and staff to improve the safety and welfare of youth. Collaborative members monitor processes, trends, individual events, and systems to modify and/or develop appropriate programs and services to prevent children from becoming at-risk or in-crisis.  The Collaborative also works to provide interventions for at-risk or in-crisis youth and youth who are already involved in the juvenile justice system. TCOE is also an active participant in the Trinity County Disaster Council.

School districts will also be assisting in promoting ReadyTrinity.org, the County of Trinity’s new web-based platform to assist residents before, during, and after an emergency.   

A new incident response app, DIR-S (developed by Aegix), is being implemented in school districts across Trinity County that will allow school administrators to communicate with all of their staff AND first responders in real time during an emergency incident or other catastrophic event. 

The DIR-S App also integrates the Standard Response Protocol developed by the I Love You Guys Foundation https://iloveuguys.org/.  Founded in response to a major school shooting event, the “I Love U Guys” Foundation’s programs for crisis response and post-crisis reunification are used in more than 50,000 schools, districts, departments, agencies, organizations, and communities around the world. They are created through the research-based best practices of school administrators, psychologists, public space safety experts, families, and first responders.   TCOE is hosting a live training with the I Love You Guys Foundation in Weaverville in mid-August.  Once a date and location are confirmed, details will be announced widely.  

Where natural disasters are involved, TCOE is also working with their contractor, the Trinity County Resource Conservation District, to complete a Hazard Mitigation Plan that, in addition to highlighting key hazards to address, will allow TCOE to apply for federal funding for schools for Hazard Mitigation activities, like generators, in addition to being eligible to apply for funding after any federally declared disaster.

Recent and Upcoming Drills include:

May 16:  Trinity High School and Weaverville Elementary both hosted “quiet” drills utilizing the DIR-S app, along with members of the Trinity County Sheriff's and Probation Departments mimicking the processes and procedures that would take place in an actual emergency event.  

Friday, June 27:  Live Active Shooter training
Trinity County Law Enforcement and First Responders will join school staff in an all-day session at Trinity High School with educational and collaborative sessions during the morning and incident scenario drills in the afternoon.  

Contacts for more information:
Sonni DeMello - Trinity County HHSA, Public Health sdemello@trinitycounty.org
Jeff Morris - Trinity County Office of Education jmorris@tcoek12.org

Attendees must pre-register for this event at: https://bit.ly/ActiveShooterDrill-THS-2025

August (Date and Time TBD):  I Love You Guys Foundation community training for schools, families, students, and partner agencies.  Once a date and location are confirmed, the announcement will be distributed widely.

“Even though we’re a small community, communication and collaboration are essential for us to maintain a healthy culture and the safety that comes with it,” says Robles.  “It’s great to see our community team come together.”