As schools across the nation grapple with high-profile safety issues related to technology and mental health, Orland Park High School District 230 officials hope a professional dedicated to security will create positive change.
The district recently hired Mary Pat Carr, previously assistant principal at Stagg High School in Palos Heights, as director of safety and security beginning July 1.
“Unfortunately we’re all experiencing, every school district, safety and security elevated to a level of we really need to be focused on it,” Superintendent Robert Nolting said.
Nolting said the issue is more than critical areas, such as active shooter drills and working with police departments.
“We’re also seeing student discipline just experiencing more challenges,” he said. “We’re talking about having systems in place that probably weren’t built for modern day students.”
The district also includes Sandburg High School in Orland Park and Andrew High School in Tinley Park.
Nolting said Carr’s position was created to improve communications among departments such as counseling and administration to prevent problems with individual students from escalating. District officials have noticed trends in recent years of more students transferring from school to school and experiencing a wider variety of stress, often related to their online presence.
“I think we need someone from the inside who reaches outside to get those pieces of information and has a strong background in educational structures and says what can work, what might not be able to work or what’s coming next,” Nolting said.
Carr began her career at Stagg as a French teacher and has worked in the school for more than 20 years, serving as dean of students, head dean and finally assistant principal, a role she began in 2020. She said has a strong interest in school safety, and focused on school violence prevention when she earned her doctorate degree at Joliet’s University of St. Francis and as a faculty adviser for the Sandy Hook Promise National Youth Advisory Board.
She said she plans to lead by streamlining strategies to let community members know of emergency situations and include them in efforts to improve security, with prevention being key.
“We’ll definitely take a look at our school discipline and identify areas of concern, places that we really want to put our efforts and our work toward,” Carr said. “You don’t want students in the system; you want to keep them out of it as much as possible. And then when there are issues, what is the resolution and do we prevent recidivism?”
In a statement, District 230 said Carr’s role will also include promoting a generally positive school environment, serving as liaison between the school and law enforcement or other emergency services, and implementing cybersecurity measures while addressing any technology-related safety problems. Carr said the district has monitored student social media use since 2017, and she will continue keeping up with how high school students use various platforms.
Carr said she will examine how the district responds reasonable to any issues it comes across.
“We’ll be partnering very closely with our technology department to identify any areas of improvement there and ways we can use technology to support that,” she said.
Carr said she’s excited to begin and to develop strong relationships to promote a secure learning environment at the three high schools in the district.
“I’ll be tapping into my background in discipline and attendance as well as hearing to our stakeholders, listening to our students, what their perspective is,” Carr said. “Each of our communities is very similar, but they each have nuances … How do we make sure each school has their needs met?”
ostevens@chicagotribune.com
