PORT TOWNSEND — School district staff is taking measures to upgrade campus security, said Superintendent David Engle after questions were raised in the wake of a teacher who had been banned from Port Townsend High School entering his former classroom and being removed by police earlier this month.
Math teacher James Keith Miller, 52, faces a trial May 16-17 in Jefferson County Superior Court at the county courthouse at 1820 Jefferson St., Port Townsend, on charges of one count each of burglary in the second degree and harassment-threats to kill.
Prior to that, Miller, who remains in the Jefferson County jail on a $150,000 bond, will have a mental competency hearing.
Miller will remain on administrative leave until the legal matter is resolved, Engle said.
The morning of March 18, Miller, who had taught in the district for five years, made a death threat against Principal Carrie Erhardt, who took out a restraining order against him.
In the afternoon, he entered his former classroom, where students were present, and began removing personal items from the wall, appeared to be talking on his cellphone, described personal details of his life to students and started asking the teenagers if anyone had been talking about him since he was placed on leave earlier in the year, according to police.
No one was hurt during the incident, but the fact that a person who had been banned from the campus got onto it alarmed one member of the public, who sent an email to the Port Townsend School Board and superintendent asking if the district would consider hiring a security expert to provide a plan for increasing safety at the high school.
“Personally, I am sorry to diminish the open quality of our small-town campus,” Lisa Crosby said.
“But improvements in campus security seem necessary in light of the fact that a person who made a personal threat to the principal in the morning was able to make his way into a classroom of students later in the day.”
Engle responded with an email outlining measures that had been taken.
He said that last year, the district had become a charter member of a cooperative for smaller school districts, and that had led to changes in security measures.
On Monday night, the School Board read aloud the two letters. It did not take any action.
Miller’s actions were unexpected, Engle said.
“He is a trusted and respected staff member who went off the rails,” Engle said.
“He has five years of trust built up, and people aren’t going to respond to him the same way they would with a total stranger.”
Engle said the staff should watch for signs of mental illness in each other and offer help before the situation escalates.
Because other situations might not be as benign, district officials are counseling a change in staff mindset, especially if faced with a shooter on campus, Engle said.
“The old school recommendation is to lock the room, turn out the light and hide in a corner,” Engle said.
“The new methodology is very different. It advises that people should use active resistance when you make the decision to run or make noise, which is the total opposite of hiding in the corner.”
Police say a shooter is usually an amateur with poor aim, so any distraction will throw them off, Engle said.
The change in mindset will require training, Engle said, and will take awhile to become standard behavior.
“People will be as courageous as they need to be,” he said.
“They need to start thinking about their best chance of survival and whether the odds are better if they run away.”
In the short term, the district will take steps to provide up-to-date active shooter training for the entire staff and increase building security with the installation of remote door locks and security cameras.
The new Grant Street Elementary School, funded by a $40.9 million school bond that voters approved in February, will have built-in modern security equipment “from the ground up,” while the high school and Blue Heron Middle School will require a retrofit.
While increasing security is necessary, it can get in the way of education, Engle said.
“It makes it more difficult to conduct the kind of teaching and learning we want to have, but it is what it is,” he said.
“We live in a country that is heavily armed with no safety net for the mentally ill and has an unholy deal with social violence.”
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Jefferson County Editor Charlie Bermant can be reached at 360-385-2335 or cbermant@peninsuladailynews.com.
