Glen View incorporates new procedures in response to 7-year-old
wandering in search of classmates
Gilroy – The disappearance of a first grader who wandered off the Glen View Elementary School campus in search of her classmates who she believed were on a field trip at Christmas Hill Park, has led to the development of new safety procedures. Gilroy Unified School District officials are working to upgrade safety policies on schools sites districtwide this summer and are using the incident as an unfortunate learning experience.
Lisa Galvan, 7, was found wandering near the levee on Uvas Creek Drive by a Gilroy police officer June 7 – nearly a mile from the school. She had visited the nurses office and was sent back to class by a secretary only to find an empty classroom. Instead of returning to the office, she checked the library, before taking off on her own to meet up with her class.
Galvan’s family was horrified to learn she had wandered that far from campus without detection by school officials.
“We couldn’t believe that it was so easy for her to get off campus,” Lisa’s mother, Lindsey Galvan said. “And as easy as it was for her to leave campus, it’s just as easy for someone to wander onto campus unnoticed. We felt that the teacher should have called (the office) and said ‘We’re not going to be here,’ or the nurse should have called to make sure the teacher knew she was coming.”
Lisa is a top student and does not have a history of wandering off, she said.
The Galvans met with district Superintendent Edwin Diaz and Glen View Principal Marilyn Ayala June 7 to discuss school safety procedures before sending their daughter back to school.
“We couldn’t believe that there wasn’t something implemented beforehand,” Lindsey Galvan said.
As a test, her husband walked onto the school campus during school hours, was never approached by anyone and never questioned about why he was there.
“That still makes me a little uneasy,” Lindsey said. “It’s just so easy for someone to be on campus. Because of the history of the area – the felons who live near by, we’ve been on Megan’s Law (Web site) – it’s just scary that something could have happened.”
Every school site in the district requires visitors to sign in at the office. If campus supervisors or staff don’t recognize someone on campus they are supposed to approach them and escort them to the office.
“All of them have to have some system set up where they approach a person if they aren’t wearing a visitor’s badge,” said GUSD student safety officer Roger Cornia. “It’s already in place at the schools. It’s just is it being followed? By the fall, it will be.”
Summer school begins Monday at Glen View and school officials have developed a new procedure that requires more communication between the teachers and the front office.
According to Principal Ayala, the school has tightened up its practices and reiterated procedures with staff members.
“This is a rare occurrence, but obviously this has been a learning experience,” she said. “There’s the expectation now that (nurses and secretaries) will call the classroom so that we don’t let 10 minutes lapse and we don’t know where a student is.”
Students traveling to and from different areas of campus will be announced by staff members on hand radios, and those leaving the office will be instructed to return if their class is not there when they get there. There is a perimeter of tape lining the playground which designates the area they are not allowed to leave without permission.
A new policy in place requires the front office or the nurse’s office to call the teacher to give an update on the student’s whereabouts.
Lisa Galvan’s situation was an unlucky twist of fate where she was sent to the nurse almost immediately after she arrived to school and missed when her class regrouped from morning meetings about 8:30am. She was sent back to her classroom on the one day a week her class meets at the technology center instead.
“I think what happened made us realize that this can happen,” Diaz said. “It does make us stop and think and make sure that we can feel that we’re doing the best we can.”
The district’s safety plans and emergency procedures will be upgraded over the summer and the issue of strangers walking onto campus will be addressed, Diaz said.
“You do the best you can, but unless you completely fence in the campus, there’s no guarantee,” he said. “You try to make the best plans you can and try to be as vigilant as you can.”
The Galvans felt comfortable enough with the school’s new procedures to send their daughter back to finish out the school year.
“We just want to inform people that this happened,” Lindsey Galvan said. “Maybe people should be aware of what their own school policies are. Thank God (Lisa) was OK and nothing happened to her. It’s just one of those things that I never would have thought of until it happened.”
