Review of Violence Prevention at the Chemawa Indian School

We conducted an inspection of the Chemawa Indian School, an off-reservation boarding school located in Salem, OR, to determine the quality of safety measures in place to prevent violence against students and staff from internal and external threats. We found Chemawa Indian School’s safety measures to be adequate. 

 

Specifically, while the Chemawa Indian School’s comprehensive emergency plan contained all five topics we reviewed, we found that it did not contain detailed information on hostage situations. The school provided training on violence prevention and emergency preparedness to both staff and students. We were unable to run evacuations or lock-down drills during our visit on April 28, 2014, however, because the school already held its graduation ceremony and sent students home early because of funding restrictions.  

 

Finally, of the 18 safety measures we checked for, Chemawa Indian School did not have 3 in place. While no single safety measure is so critical that its absence at an educational facility is cause for immediate concern, we found that the more safety measures not in place, the less prepared the school is to respond to an incident. We provide three recommendations to help Chemawa Indian School improve its safety measures.