Latest news with #DeerValleyHighSchool
Yahoo
08-07-2025
- Yahoo
Glendale police learn to prioritize students over themselves in active shooter training
The Glendale Police Department hosted an active shooter training within Deer Valley High School to teach officers how to navigate an unfamiliar campus when a shooter threatens the safety of students. 'Every officer's got to be ready for this, especially our school resource officers and our patrol officers," said Glendale police Sgt. Trevor Goode, who led the training July 1. "They have to be ready to respond to this terrible situation that could occur." Glendale schools are not immune to gun violence. In 2016, two 15-year-old students were killed with a gun in a murder-suicide at Glendale Union High School District's Independence High School. All officers, sergeants and lieutenants in the Glendale Police Department are required to undergo active shooter training, but this was the first training many officers had conducted on school grounds, according to Officer Jude Soine. 'The last time we did training like this was years ago, shortly after Columbine," said Soine. "So it was totally different and slower-paced than what this is. This was much more aggressive." Unlike the Glendale Police Department's training facility, which officers know well, using Deer Valley High School for training allowed police officers to interact with an unfamiliar layout, much like they would in a real active shooter situation, Goode said. To recreate a realistic scenario, classroom doors were locked randomly, and hallways included trip hazards. At the beginning of some training scenarios, an officer would fire a weapon from somewhere within the school, and actors would scream for help and sprint from the scene. Officers would then try to locate the shooter using indicators, such as running crowds, gunshots, gunsmoke and shell casings. The training was supposed to evoke a high-risk, high-stress environment, Goode said. Officers were taught how to safely make their way down school hallways during a lockdown and enter a classroom potentially containing the shooter using a technique called 'the rabbit and the hero,' where an officer enters a room quickly to draw fire while a second officer trails them to take the shooter down. 'We have to be able and willing to drive into the threat to face that gunman down,' said Goode. 'I do want my officers coming in as fast as they can. I do want them to risk a lot to save a lot because there's kids in here that are completely innocent.' Throughout the training, Goode told officers that what was being taught was not the safest way to handle the situation, but the fastest, prioritizing the lives of students over their own, and that it may feel "foreign." 'When we respond to something, we're trained to keep ourselves safe, but also preserve life, protect property,' said Sgt. Moroni Mendez, a Glendale police spokesperson. 'But when we have an active killing, an active threat, that kind of goes out the window.' Prioritizing speed over officer safety is in large part a response to criticism of police response to past school shooter incidents, such as Uvalde, Texas, in 2022, where law enforcement officers faced criminal charges for failing to intervene promptly, according to Sgt. Brian Hoskin. In Uvalde, 19 elementary students and two teachers were killed. Nearly 80 minutes passed from the time the shooter began firing until he was killed by police. "We're training this so that people have it in the back of their minds just in case we ever have to come across this," said Hoskin. While the training was conducted within a school, the benefits translate to any populated area, Mendez said. 'It's really impactful," he said. "It has been for my career because it paints a vivid, clear and realistic picture of what I could potentially face when that threat is present at one of our schools, one of our malls, one of our public areas or spaces." Coverage of education solutions on and in The Arizona Republic is partially supported by a grant from the Arizona Local News Foundation's Arizona Community Collaborative Fund. This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Why police were training inside a Phoenix-area high school
Forbes
25-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Forbes
Daveed Diggs On The Power Of Mentorship In College Admissions
OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA - MARCH 16: Daveed Diggs arrives at the Premiere of PBS documentary "The Class" ... More at The Grand Lake Theater on March 16, 2025 in Oakland, California. (Photo by) Amid the chaos of the Covid-19 pandemic, a small but powerful documentary series quietly captured one of the most defining student experiences of our time. 'The Class,' now airing on PBS, follows college advisor Mr. Cam and his students at Deer Valley High School as they navigate the complexities of college admissions during the first year of the pandemic. Executive produced by actor and musician Daveed Diggs, and Lafayette College President Nicole Hurd, the series underscores the enduring power of mentorship, community, and resilience when the usual rules—and supports—suddenly disappear. This docuseries itself could have been a victim of pandemic. Instead, Hurd, who also founded the College Advising Corps, pressed the production forward with a smaller crew in place. What follows is a powerful portrayal of resilience. The students remained committed to sharing their stories in the 2020-2021 academic year, even as the world around them was unraveling. Diggs, reviewing the raw footage from his own pandemic isolation, was struck by the determination he saw on screen. 'I'm sitting at home drinking wine at 10:00 a.m. and getting these dailies from students who were fighting tooth and nail to get through their final year of high school and figure out how to go to college,' he reflects. 'It was inspiring at the time. And I find the story even more crucial now in a lot of ways." The docuseries highlights the critical role mentors play in students' lives, especially during times of isolation. For parents, this underscores the importance of fostering multiple supportive relationships in their children's lives beyond just family. Diggs reflects on how the pandemic disrupted traditional mentorship opportunities: "When we locked everything down, we, in a lot of ways, lost community. We'd sort of figured out how to scrape by without people. And what you watch Cam and those students doing is figuring out how to have that in spite of the fact that they were not allowed to gather." In my research on college access for low-income and first-generation students, I found that mentorship doesn't flourish by accident—it's the result of an intentional school culture. The Class offers a compelling visual example of how this culture can be cultivated—even in the most difficult of times—through trust, persistence, and shared belief. For parents, this docuseries a call to action: cultivate opportunities for your child to build relationships with mentors—teachers, coaches, counselors—who offer fresh perspectives and affirmation beyond the home. Diggs credits his own success to mentors who guided him, including during his college journey to Brown University. In one pivotal advising conversation at Berkeley High School, an advisor pointed him toward Ivy League institutions and mentioned Brown University's open curriculum. 'For the kind of weirdo, artsy kid I was, it [the flexbility and culture] sounded right up my alley,' Diggs recalls. Both Diggs and Hurd encourage parents to share their own educational stories—especially the imperfect, winding ones. 'Don't be afraid to tell your own story,' Hurd advises. 'That's the power of this [docuseries]. It's the power of watching Cam tell his story to these students and then having them be inspired.' For parents, this highlights the value of sharing their own educational journeys—including the struggles and detours—with their children. The documentary shows that success rarely follows a straight line—an important lesson for parents who might be anxious about their children's educational trajectories, a narrative that my book'Get Real and Get In' shares as a theme. Hurd stresses, "None of us has a linear journey. I don't know why we think we do. And I think if you're going to help young people apply to college, you have to remind them their journey is not going to be linear either, and that's okay." This perspective can help parents release rigid expectations and support their children through inevitable changes and challenges. As Hurd advises families navigating the competitive admissions landscape: 'College is what you make of it and there are a lot of amazing colleges in this country.' For parents raising children in an increasingly digital world, the docuseries offers insights on balancing technological tools with human connection. Hurd distinguishes between the "transactional" aspects of college advising that AI can handle and the "relational" elements that require human interaction: "There's the things that are transactional, the things that you need, and AI can help you with in terms of, you know, when are the tests, what are the deadlines... And then there's what, and I think this is what you'll see in the docuseries, there's a relational piece… And that's never going to be AI, because that's actually relational. It's about somebody looking you in the eye and saying, 'I believe in you.'" Parents can apply this wisdom by helping their children leverage technological resources while ensuring they maintain meaningful human connections that provide emotional support and inspiration. Perhaps the most profound lesson for parents is the essential value of community in education. As Diggs emphasizes: "Community is really important and it can go away. We take it for granted and it's already been snatched away from us once and we should be also protecting that better." This insight encourages parents to actively foster community connections for their children and to recognize that education is not solely about academic achievement but about belonging to something larger than oneself. As Hurd puts it, "We belong to each other in these really beautiful and profound ways... when we believe in each other and take care of each other, magical things can happen." Through "The Class," both Diggs and Hurd offer parents a powerful reminder that supporting their children's educational journeys in college admissions and beyond requires both practical guidance and a commitment to building and maintaining the communities that make meaningful learning possible.
