Hedrick Middle School student Gabriel Gibbs was in English class Wednesday around 1 p.m. when he heard an alarm go off that told everyone there was someone inside the building. The school’s lockdown procedures had been initiated.

Gibbs hid behind a desk in his classroom with dozens of his peers, who waited anxiously for the all clear. 

“We just sat still. Some people were on their phones,” said Gibbs, who noted he had left his device in his locker.

Authorities and district officials later determined that a key fob that school staff carry in the event of an emergency triggered an accidental activation of the emergency alarm system.

The key fob malfunctioned and was not accidentally pressed by anyone, Ron Havniear, executive director of security, leadership and facilities for the Medford School District said in an interview Thursday. The key fob, carried by select school staff, has been taken out of service and replaced, he said. 

The incident at Hedrick Middle School, as well as four instances combined of students possessing handguns at North and South Medford high schools, have reignited discussion of security protocols within the district.

That was evident at a special school board meeting Thursday, when members met in executive session to “consider matters relating to school safety or a plan that responds to safety threats made toward a school.”

Under Oregon law, members of the news media may attend executive sessions of public bodies as long as reporters do not publish the contents of those meetings except to state the general subject of the session.

Numerous district parents and teachers spoke out on the issue of school safety in the public portion of Thursday’s meeting.

Donovan Donnally, a parent of a Hedrick Middle School student, asked the board to have district staff “revisit protocol for the events that frightened everyone involved.”

Lone Pine Elementary teacher Jennifer Mock spoke about student behavior at all levels of school. Sometimes, she said, students get hold of a weapon “and awful things happen.”

“Many times, people knew that child and knew there was a problem,” Mock said. “Staff may have even reported this child as a concern over the years.”

She asked the board to look at what meaningful policies and actions can be taken to keep students safe.

“Because if we can’t provide safety, what else matters?” Mock said. 

Havniear spoke with Rogue Valley Times ahead of the school board meeting. The conversation came moments after the Hedrick Middle School lockdown and almost three weeks after a student who allegedly brought a handgun to campus was apprehended Feb. 5 by School Resource Officers — Medford officers placed in the district to provide school safety and student outreach.

“Obviously, we don’t ever want to find weapons on our campuses, but this is the world that we’re living in right now and unfortunately, incidents do occur,” Havniear said. “So, I think we want to do everything we can, to the fullest extent possible, to make sure that this does not ever happen — and when it does happen, we want to mitigate the impact of that and make sure we have an appropriate response.”

In handling the incident — as it did with three others at South Medford High School — the district utilized a school board policy which, in part, says that students determined to have possessed a firearm in a school will be expelled from campus for at least one year. The policy also says the superintendent may modify discipline requirements on a “case-by-case basis.”

Havniear noted that the four high school students who allegedly brought guns to North and South Medford high schools were not active shooters.

That said, Havniear added, “we don’t ever want to minimize the impact of having weapons on campus.”

South Medford High School student Josie North said in an interview she does not feel safe at her school for various reasons, ranging from “violent fights” among students to lockdowns due to a “plausible threat to our safety.”

North, the student body president at her school, said she has approached South Medford administrators with ideas for safety solutions but “nothing happened.”

“I had brought up the feeling of not feeling safe … and … tried to start a conversation, and that conversation hasn’t happened,” North said. 

After she graduates, she hopes to keep proposing solutions for her high school’s safety by participating in a youth panel with Rogue Valley Mentoring.

In an interview prior to Thursday’s school board meeting, Medford School Board Chairwoman Cynthia Wright noted the district’s weapons policy.

“I think it’s sad that we live in a world where these kinds of things happen right now, and that’s why our school district has made this a priority to do all that we can to make school a safe environment,” Wright said. 

She pointed to the June 22, 2023, active shooter drill at Oakdale Middle School involving 30-plus agencies and departments from around the Rogue Valley along with more than 450 volunteers to simulate plans of action to handle multiple shooters on campus.

Aside from drills, Wright said the district teaches students that if they see something suspicious, tell someone about it.

“That’s empowering for students so that they can take some responsibility for their own safety and the safety of those around them,” Wright said. 

She described district policies around safety as “good” and the board should always review practices.

“Because policy and practice are two different things,” Wright said. “It certainly doesn’t hurt to look at policies again and see if they’re adequate, but I think how we interpret those policies and what we do as a result of them is the most important thing that’s going to have the biggest impact.”