Inspire Shasta, Episode 18: Safety Through Preparedness & Partnership

In this powerful and timely episode, we explore what safety really means for schools and communities — not just in theory, but in action.

Hosts Maggie Joyce and Jenn Cobb sit down with:

• Ayla Tucker, Safety Director at the Shasta County Office of Education (SCOE)
• Jennifer James, Region 3 Regional Disaster Medical Health Specialist with the Sierra-Sacramento Valley EMS Agency

Together, they discuss how collaboration, communication, and proactive planning are strengthening safety and preparedness across Shasta County and beyond.

🔍 In This Episode

🤝 Building Safety Through Partnership

• How SCOE supports districts internally and externally to enhance preparedness
• Why collaboration between schools, law enforcement, EMS, public health, and fire agencies is critical
• The importance of relationship-building before disaster strikes

🚨 What Counts as a “Disaster”?

From wildfires and floods to infectious disease and power outages, disasters look different depending on where you stand. The conversation explores:

• How rural and regional realities shape emergency response
• Why resources and scale matter
• The importance of after-action reviews to improve future responses

🏫 Schools as Community Hubs

Schools are more than places of learning — they often serve as:

• Emergency shelters
• Communication hubs
• Points of medical distribution
• Community gathering centers

This makes integrating schools into regional disaster planning absolutely essential.

📢 The Power of Clear Communication

Jennifer shares what matters most to her as a parent:

• Timely, honest communication
• Clear explanations of what happened and what’s being done
• Sharing the “why” behind safety decisions

The conversation highlights how strong communication builds trust and reduces misinformation.

💻 Navigating the Digital World: Online Safety Initiative

Ayla introduces SCOE’s upcoming three-part online safety series in partnership with Common Sense Media.

The initiative will:

• Provide tools for families, educators, and school leaders
• Focus on empowerment rather than fear
• Address social media, AI, online predators, and digital well-being
• Include a community panel discussion at Mercy Oaks

The goal? To bring the entire community together to better support youth in today’s rapidly evolving digital environment.

🏢 Safer Schools Coalition: Standardizing Campus Safety

One exciting new initiative involves collaborating with law enforcement to implement a standardized campus building numbering system across Shasta County schools — modeled after a battle grid system.

Why it matters:

• First responders may not be familiar with every campus layout
• Seconds matter in emergencies
• Standardization can improve response time and outcomes

💡 Key Takeaways

• Safety is not a single program — it’s a system built on relationships.
• Preparedness requires practice, planning, and honest evaluation.
• Communication is often the most critical (and most challenging) part of any response.
• Everyone plays a role — even small contributions matter.
• Human connection remains one of our strongest protective factors.

🌟 A Hope for the Next Generation

The episode closes with reflections on mentorship, service, and the importance of simplifying life in a fast-paced world. Jennifer shares her hope that future generations prioritize real connection, community involvement, and meaningful contribution — even if it’s just an hour a day.

Transcript

Episode18: Safety Through Preparedness & Partnership

Maggie Joyce: [00:00:00] Welcome back to Inspire Shasta podcast. Today we're talking about something that impacts every family, every educator, and really every member of our community: Safety. But just not safety in theory, safety through preparedness and partnerships, we are having the privilege of speaking with Ayla Tucker, Shasta County Office of Education Safety Director, and Jennifer James, who works for Sierra Sacramento Valley Emergency Medical Services Agency as the Region 3 regional disaster medical health specialist. Welcome to the podcast, guys. 

Ayla Tucker: Thank you. Happy 

Maggie Joyce: to be here. Thank you. We're happy to have you.

Jennifer Cobb: So to get things kicked off here at Inspire Shasta, we always start with our signature question and so. For both of you, if you could go back to any grade in school for a day, which one would it be and why? Start with you, Ayla. 

Ayla Tucker: Oh, I know the answer right away. Um, it would be kindergarten. I went to Shasta Union Elementary.

Jennifer Cobb: Oh. 

Ayla Tucker: And I actually now serve as a board member, which is really fun. So Cool. And [00:01:00] the point to mentioning that is I had a fabulous kindergarten teacher. Her name is Mrs. Casey. And it was just a blast. It was, I remember only positive things about kindergarten. She made that experience so fun, so magical.

And now I get the pleasure of serving with her on that school board. So it's been a full circle journey and, um, yeah, she's, she's just the best. 

Maggie Joyce: I love that. That's great. Local educators. Shout out. How about you, 

Jennifer James: so this was a tough question for me. I loved elementary school and I had some phenomenal teachers.

I did not grow up in Shasta County. I'm from Monterey County and went to a little school called Tularcitos. Um, but fifth grade was probably my highlight year. My teacher, I had actually grown up with sort of, and, you know, knew her through the horse world. We spent a lot of time together through the horse world and we stayed in contact well into my thirties, which is just a magical [00:02:00] experience, um, to have the horses in common and have that relationship outside of school. But she also did a ton of just fun things in her classroom, including bringing her horse to school on show and tell day.

Maggie Joyce: That's cool. 

Jennifer James: But we did a lot of different you know, fun group activities. She took us hiking in a place called Garland Park. So we got outside a lot and she just, she just gave a phenomenal fifth grade experience, um, that I will never regret, and I just loved it. 

Maggie Joyce: That's awesome. Amazing. I feel like, um, we live in a pretty big recreational area and it, it doesn't seem like we get to do a lot of exploring like that in the classroom. So a horse and hiking. That sounds fun. Yes. Um, we would love for each of you to share with us and our listeners a little bit about your role and talk about how your work connects, um, and how does the partnership between your two agencies strengthen safety and preparedness across Shasta County?

Ayla Tucker: So my role as a safety director is really to help [00:03:00] not only the Shasta County Office of Education, but also our districts enhance preparedness. Mitigate risk where we can, and then also build capacity. So my position does a lot of partnership building and the agency that Jennifer represents is really integral when it comes to disasters and emergencies and.

And so just collaborating, sharing networks with one another has been really valuable. We'll communicate if there's a training going on, she'll tell me about it. Um, she's brought me into some meetings that were school-based because she's also a parent and. Heavily involved. And really just working together on those little things here and there that pop up and creating a collaborative system has been very valuable overall. 'cause there are so many things that in the emergency management world, we all have our own roles. And sometimes they can be siloed, but the emergency management world is small. And when a [00:04:00] disaster hits, it's important that the left hand knows what the right hand is doing.

Even if we have separate functions, and we have our own roles and responsibilities to come together to know what those roles and responsibilities are beforehand, really make the difference during an emergency. 

Jennifer James: Yeah, I agree with that completely. So my role is a little bit different because I work on a regional perspective and regional meaning California.

So I work with 13 counties all the way from the Oregon border, so Siskiyou and Modoc counties, all the way down to like Yuba, Sutter, Colusa. All the way over. Not the coastal counties, but think, um, Trinity, um, Tehama. So 13 counties total. It's a large 

Maggie Joyce: region. 

Jennifer James: It is, yeah. And we work primarily with medical and health entities.

So public health, hospitals, clinics, anything that has to do with the public health and wellbeing of the people of our region. So we are really at that regional [00:05:00] level. We do connect a lot with our locals, so our local public health folks. Um, we Ayla and I reconnected at a active shooter exercise at a school up in Trinity County.

So that's just one avenue of the things that we do. We really have our hands in emergency preparedness in many different ways. One of those things though is connecting with the locals and from the regional level, we're really trying to help the locals connect at a local level also.

Um, preparedness looks so different depending on where you're standing, but like she said, you really need to understand what the other hand is doing in order to be successful and have a good outcome should something go awry. So schools play an amazing role in that, especially depending on the community.

We have a lot of very small rural communities and they rely very heavily on their school, especially when it just comes down to having good communication because you know that half their adults work at the school. Or it could be they use that school site as [00:06:00] an emergency shelter or um, a point of dispensing site if they have something going on.

So there's lots of different resources. I think it's important for the schools to be tied in with their health and medical systems. So with their EMS partners, their emergency medical services partners, as well as the hospitals, um, those are great contacts to have, um, and great relationships to build as well as with law enforcement.

Again, you know, should something go awry or if there's an issue, no matter what it is, having some familiarity there and understanding what the process is, is incredibly, incredibly valuable. 

Maggie Joyce: Sounds like the, you both have a lot of collaboration with each other, but also with other agencies supporting one another.

So that's great, especially in the safety and disaster preparedness lane. 

Ayla Tucker: Yeah, absolutely. 

Jennifer Cobb: Yeah. Um, so the Shasta county office of education has four pillars, excellence, success, supported and safe for all. So Ayla how does this commitment specifically shape SCOE's activities that you oversee? [00:07:00] And can you tell us more about that?

Approach in creating a safe environment for all? 

Ayla Tucker: Yeah, absolutely. Uh, so the four pillars that have been adopted, specifically the Safe for All, that's really, , how my position was developed. I've been in my role for about a year now, and, initially they did recruiting. For this position, I think in 2024.

And then I stepped into this role in 2025. Um, and so within that, there has been a lot of development figuring out how I can best support the districts and how I can build upon the safety programs that already exist. 'cause when you think of safety, that's a huge bucket. Right. You know, and people are like, well, what, what exactly does that mean?

And it can mean a lot of different things to a lot of, um, different people depending on what's. What the activity that they're responsible for or how it's impacting their lives. Mm-hmm. Um, and I know we have different programs like substance abuse programs and, um, you know, other critical supports that we provide to [00:08:00] families and schools.

And so my job is not to duplicate that work, um, but to focus on building capacity, um, focusing on creating, uh, systems that are stronger really. As I'd mentioned before, those building those partnerships, and so I've taken really a two-pronged approach. Um. Building on those existing supports that already exist, um, to achieve the goal.

So really when I talk about my role, I talk about it in two ways. I talk about the internal support that I'm providing to scoe and also the external support that I'm providing to districts. Um, and so really focusing on scoe staff facilities and our programs that support the students that SCOE specifically serves, and then also the programs that we have internally, like injury prevention and, and illness prevention for staff as well.

And then externally supporting districts and school sites helping do vulnerability [00:09:00] assessments, , helping them with their comprehensive school safety plans. Really hoping to build capacity. 'cause as a lot of individuals know, um, the schools have. You know, they're there to educate, right? Mm-hmm. But they have a lot of other responsibilities that are tied up into that.

And so I wanna do whatever I can to come up behind them, support them, in mitigating risk enhancing preparedness and building capacity so they can focus more so on their, their primary objectives. And they don't have to worry as much about, everything else that is critically important, but maybe they don't necessarily have the capacity to do on their own, on a day-to-day basis on a campus.

Maggie Joyce: Yeah. 'cause educators go into education to educate. And safety isn't really, it's a top priority of keeping students safe, but it's not their, um, expertise. Yeah. And so you come in along the districts to support them in that and then connect the resources that you. Learn about in your other community [00:10:00] partnerships to the districts?

I think that's fantastic. 

Ayla Tucker: Yeah. 'cause there, there are so many agencies, like the agency Jennifer represents, or county OES or Cal Fire, that have really great programs and resources that are available. And sometimes it's just about making that connection, tapping in, and seeing where there's a nexus where there can be collaboration.

Maggie Joyce: Yeah. That's fantastic. Jennifer, from your regional perspective working across multiple counties like you shared with us, how important is it for the education systems to be fully integrated into the larger disaster planning scope? 

Jennifer James: I would say it is absolutely critical. We have counties that are small, less than 10,000, and then we have larger counties like Shasta and Butte that have quite a fit, mu quite a bit more than 10,000.

Maggie Joyce: Mm-hmm. 

Jennifer James: And kind of going back to what Ayla was saying about other agencies and having resources, we have a lot of great partners within our region and within Shasta County [00:11:00] specifically, and sometimes we don't know what resources are available to us, so that's good point that interconnected. It's all interconnected.

Right. If we haven't, you know, if you look back at a wildfire, anyone or a flood. You don't just have people that are affected by that. You have people that are also parents of children at the school. You have people that are also first responders and who are actively involved in ending the incident.

You have folks that are also involved in the incident, but maybe in a different capacity, maybe at, they're at the hospital or they're at public health, or you know, they're in the background doing things and they may also have children that are affected. You know, children are a huge piece that we actually plan for in this world.

There's just so much that goes along with it and the schools can be a very critical tie to that, you know, especially when it comes to, you know, a lot of the things that we really don't wanna have to think about, but there are some of us that we do have to think about it because stuff does happen and it can be a small scale or large scale, you know, really [00:12:00] anything.

Um, but having plans in place and understanding who your contacts are and how is this going to work when something happens. This is an interesting concept I've as a parent to think about because I've always thought about all these things for work. 

Jennifer Cobb: Yeah. 

Jennifer James: And then you throw in being a parent. I have a second grader at Turtle Bay.

I look at things very differently. I 

Maggie Joyce: bet, yeah. Changes when you become 

Jennifer James: a parent, doesn't it? Yes, absolutely. Um, things definitely change, so I just see things in a totally different light. So I'm really excited about all the things that you've talked about so far and what the school district is doing. And as just as a parent, that makes me really happy that the conversations are being had and there are things happening.

From the work side of it, I understand that this is no easy feat. Like you need to have everybody involved and everybody has this piece to contribute, right? It's not just one agency or a couple agencies doing all the work. Really, everybody has to [00:13:00] come together. Even those who think they have a small role, they still have a piece of that pie, so to speak, and in order to have it full circle and all come together. Everybody plays an important role because you just never know when what you have is gonna be integral in having a successful outcome and whatever it is that you're doing. 

Jennifer Cobb: Yeah. Um, so when I think of disaster, I'm thinking wildfire flood, and that's kind of where my brain stops.

So, and but you said large scale and small scale, and I'm thinking like. How many disasters can there be? But is there like, like, 

Maggie Joyce: let me tell you. 

Jennifer Cobb: Yeah. Is there like, I don't know. Yeah. 

Jennifer James: So yes, and it's entirely dependent from where you sit and how you're looking at it, because you can have a large scale disaster, like think the Carr fire, which that, that was huge.

Yeah. On any scale. Right? Yeah. But if you look at counties that are maybe are a little bit smaller mm-hmm. And they don't have as many people, they don't have [00:14:00] as many first responders. Or you take a county like Trinity County and they have a lot of volunteer first responders. The very same disaster can look very different.

Um, and we use that when we are looking at, you know, the scale of a disaster, we're looking at, okay, where is the disaster? What is happening? What resources do they have? And resources is a big piece of it. Yeah. If they don't have the resources they need in order to solve the problem, that's a large scale disaster.

Yeah, that makes sense. And it's, we always think of flooding and wildfires and things that we can see, but there's things like infectious disease and Yeah. You know, power outages that can be catastrophic. Yeah. Snowmageddons in cities that weren't really built for snow. 

Maggie Joyce: So, and rural counties where it's hard access is already difficult to get to some of the, um, residents.

Yes. I would imagine that would play a factor as well. 

Jennifer James: Yes. And on the flip side, again, it comes down to location because we have a lot of, like Northern California specifically, we handle winter pretty well. And we just kind of joke, well, we're, it's, it's winter and region three, like we've got snow and. [00:15:00] Um, it's a day-to-day issue when those roads are impacted, you know, ambulance drivers, they, they go around like they can figure it out. Yeah. But other areas, in other parts of the state where they don't have that weather and it's uncommon and they experience it, that can be a big problem.

Yeah. And they don't have the tools in their tool belt, so to speak, or they really have to go outside the box to get that problem solved. We're up here like, well, it's. It's not a problem for us. So yeah, 

Maggie Joyce: it's sunny and 70. 

Jennifer James: Our experiences, as long as we can learn from them, they can bring us, um, there's a lot of benefit to that.

Maggie Joyce: Yeah. Ayla, earlier you mentioned, um, internal and external support, and so how do those partnerships with agencies such as like law enforcement, for example, play a role in your work and what does that look like? 

Ayla Tucker: Yeah, so law enforcement, EMS agencies. Cal fire, various response agencies, agencies like SHASCOM, which serves as our dispatch or one of our dispatch agencies.

Um, it's important that I collaborate with them [00:16:00] because, um, as Jennifer mentioned, schools are kind of a hub for different emergencies that can happen, really hubs and, and life forces to communities in general. Mm-hmm. And so I work with law enforcement. I work with EMS agencies, dispatch agencies, Cal Fire on a regular basis.

One to help build that capacity. So if there's resources, there's knowledge, there's expertise that can be brought into a school environment that we wanna make sure that we're doing that. But then down to a practical level, specifically here at SCOE, I look at our emergency action plans for each of our facilities and evaluate, you know, is this the best plan, right? Mm-hmm. Are there areas that we can improve? And so I work with the fire marshal on those and we look at our evacuation routes to make sure that they make sense. Do we need to update those evacuation routes, our staging areas? And meeting points? Do they make sense depending on the various incidents that might happen in an evacuation [00:17:00] circumstance?

Um, when it comes to. Supporting districts, not only do I help to try to connect resources, um, but there are situations that schools experience where they may need support with law enforcement for a very specific issue, and they may not know that exact connection point. So they'll come to me and then I can go through my contacts and figure out, okay, what exactly do they need?

Who's gonna be the best point of contact at that agency. Mm-hmm. And I try to connect those dots together. So it's not so much me getting involved in their business, but it's like the 

Maggie Joyce: connector 

Ayla Tucker: too. Yeah. Yeah. But me, me helping them find, um, the right route and navigating to the right resource so they're not spending their time doing that.

I'm doing that for them. And hopefully that takes a load off of their shoulders. 

Maggie Joyce: Yeah. I think that's critical in so many things, but I would imagine more so in preparing for disasters, because if you don't know who to go to for [00:18:00] something, there's already a gap in that service or communication or whatever it is that, that there's a gap in, and that could cause a lot of problems, I would guess.

Ayla Tucker: Yeah. And I mean, in a, in emergency situations, um, time matters. Mm-hmm. Seconds matter. And so preparing and thinking through all of those things in advance and collaborating in advance, hopefully, increases a positive outcome in a worst case scenario. 

Jennifer Cobb: Yeah. Uh, Jennifer, when it comes to being a parent, um, what information and communication about school related safety and emergency preparedness issues help you feel most connected and informed as opposed to overwhelmed and, um, all of that, like, what would be ideal for you to see?

Jennifer James: Well, first off, I love everything that Ayla just said, like as a parent. Yeah. That all speaks to me and all. Through, you know, my professional [00:19:00] life also, you know, we, we practice the way we are going to respond and all of that comes from that relationship building that we do in the forefront and understanding what the plan is.

And so looking at it from a parent's perspective, you know, one of my biggest things, because we know this is an issue in anything that goes wrong, right, is it comes back to communication. And so. I'm definitely , I'm all for good communication. I like clear, honest, um, time timely communication. So when something happens at my son's school, I really appreciate it when they are upfront about what happened and, you know, the steps that were taken to solve the problem, how it was handled.

And as a parent, I also know there are a lot of details that can't be shared, especially if a specific student or somebody is involved. Mm-hmm. 

Maggie Joyce: That's a good point. 

Jennifer James: Understanding. How they got it solved and what they're going to do should it happen again. That's what I look for. And I, we've had some, you know, I don't wanna say small instances because when your child is involved, they're not small [00:20:00] instances.

It's, you know, it's, it's their safety, 

Ayla Tucker: right? 

Jennifer James: Um, but I have given them some positive feedback, like, Hey, you know, you guys shared some information on this that happened a week ago, and I really appreciate that. I would love to have that information available to us sooner next time. And you know, there were a lot of questions and people love to go to social media Yeah.

And make assumptions. So I feel like if you don't put the information out there, somebody will, and it may not be what I would consider Intel, it's going to be whatever they came up with or making assumptions. 

Maggie Joyce: Might cause more panic, right? Yes. Like 

Jennifer James: depending 

Maggie Joyce: on what the situation is. 

Jennifer James: Yes. And I think a lot of times it just comes down to lack of information and people having to guess and figure it out on their own.

And you know, we've got parents from all walks of life who may understand certain things, especially when it comes to safety. So communication is the big thing I like. And I also like to know, you know, what are staff doing to train for various things and. How [00:21:00] prepared are they and, oh, I noticed they put up new fences.

Why did they put up those fences? So I love when those details are just shared and the why is heard, because I think that helps get everybody on the same page and understand the bigger picture too, and you know that there is a goal behind it. 

Maggie Joyce: Yeah, I think that's an interesting point, even with the fences, right?

Like you, that that small thing might be overlooked, but sharing the why. Even with why did you put up a taller fence? Or there wasn't a fence there before, you know, like there could be a lot of questions about that, but just sharing the why front loads all of that. So then everybody's aware. Mm-hmm. And then you can be like, oh yeah, that makes sense.

And they understand that they're wanting to do something to keep the students safe. 

Jennifer James: Yeah. And I'm using a couple kind of specific examples from our school just because, and I'm one of those parents, like I like to know what's going on. I'm not like super nosy, but I will ask questions. Especially if I'm not understanding, and I'll try to frame it in a way, like I'm not understanding why this is that way or why this was done, but I would like to, so I do like to ask, ask [00:22:00] questions.

Help me understand. Yes. Help me understand. 

Maggie Joyce: Yeah. Paint the picture for me.

Ala, we've heard mentions as SCOE staff of an upcoming online safety series, that we'll be launching soon and so we would love for you to share with us a little bit about that. 

Ayla Tucker: Yeah, this is super exciting. , It's something I've been working on in partnership with other staff here at SCOE and also with Common Sense Media.

We are partnering with them and hopefully it'll be launched if not late spring , in the beginning of the fall. It is our online, it's gonna be a three-part online safety series. For families, educators, and then also school leaders and really just the community at large. Because online safety is an issue for everybody.

It impacts all of us. And we want to try to provide some tools and support and resources that are gonna be reliable and not [00:23:00] fear-based, but empowered based. And so with Common Sense Media, we are going to have a community panel discussion on March 12th. It's going to be at Mercy Oaks from 5:30 PM to 7:30 PM and we're gonna have various partners there to talk more about this initiative that we're launching, calling, navigating the Digital World.

But then also create a space where parents, community leaders, um, law enforcement agencies, child safety agencies or advocacy agencies where we can all get in the same room, have honest discussion about what our children are facing, challenges that school leaders are facing in the classroom, challenges that parents are facing at home and discussing how can we develop tools and supports and come together and rally behind this issue so that we can hopefully support our kids and families in [00:24:00] this environment that is, is ever changing. Yes. Yeah. Rapidly changing from AI to, you know, online predators that exist to bullying, to creating that connection between online life and. Real world life, you know, because they're connected, you know? Yeah. It used to be this environment where you could go on when I was growing up and it was like, ah, online, this is a whole nother world.

Mm-hmm. Um, but now what you do online really matters. And the things that our children are experiencing, the stressors from, you know, social media and everything else really matters. So we're hoping to build support, hoping to tackle this issue together and feel more prepared as a community, as a whole.

Maggie Joyce: I love that you're involving the community in that, right, because it, it's everywhere like you said. I mean, it's at your fingertips and the stuff that our students are, our kids are exposed to is a way larger world [00:25:00] than we were ever exposed to growing up. And that can come with positives, but it can also come with a lot of scary negatives.

And so I think that's fantastic. We hear in our line of work with the youth that we work with and the schools that we work with, that, that online safety and things that our kiddos are being exposed to online are really, really scary and a lot of parents, because it's so rapidly changing and apps change all the time and one, one no longer is the one and another one pops up and maybe something's disguised as a calculator and it's not really a calculator.

It's so hard to follow mm-hmm. As a parent that the more education we can do around it, the better. And our youth are even saying that. 

Jennifer Cobb: Yeah, 

Maggie Joyce: yeah. 

Jennifer Cobb: Yeah. We just had a long conversation with our youth commission about the dangers of online and we just looked at 'em with our mouths open, like, and then what happened?

And then, yeah. It's, 

Ayla Tucker: it's 

Jennifer Cobb: wild. Yeah. 

Ayla Tucker: It, it can be exceptionally terrifying and I mean, I am no expert in it and I don't know if any of us [00:26:00] can really deem ourselves as experts 'cause things are rapidly changing. Right. But that's kinda the point is no one person, no one agency is an expert, but let's all get in the room together and put our brains together and figure out how we can do this.

You know, again, not from a fear-based way 'cause that can be extremely overwhelming, but what are the best practices? What are the tools that are out there? What are the conversations that we should be having? Yeah. So that we all can kind of link arms and, and, you know, help create safer outcomes for our kids.

Jennifer Cobb: Yeah. Yeah. That's amazing. Fantastic. Jennifer, from your experience, what lessons have shaped how we approach disaster preparedness, specifically in Shasta County? 

Jennifer James: Well, I think we have seen our fair share of disasters here. Yeah. Um, everything from natural disasters to, you know, infectious disease. Um, and I think the biggest piece is being able to [00:27:00] look at how that went.

Jennifer Cobb: Mm-hmm. 

Jennifer James: Um, no matter where you're at, whether you're a part of the response or you're just somebody who is affected by it, but being able to look at how you were affected and how can we do it better this time. And that's something that professionally I focus on a lot. 

Jennifer Cobb: Yeah. 

Jennifer James: We call it an after action report, um, is the document that we create at the very end, but we really examine, we do what's called a, a hot wash.

And we examine all the things that went really well and the areas where we need to fix some things, we need to make it, um, we need to do better. And there may be various reasons for that. Right. I mentioned communication is almost always a downfall in any type of incident. And I think that's just the way it goes.

You can never communicate too much, but putting a big emphasis on fixing that communication, whether it comes down to your resources, you know, your supplies, your radios, your phones. Yeah. Or whatever your communications plan. And if you're a family, I mean, every family should have an [00:28:00] emergency plan. 

Jennifer Cobb: Yeah, 

Jennifer James: they should.

It's not fun. It's not something what we wanna think about, but we should all be planning for the worst, so to speak. Given where we live, you know, we live in an area, we know we could experience wildfires, we know we could experience flooding. If you're near there, um, extreme heat is another one. 

Jennifer Cobb: Yeah. 

Jennifer James: And just having a plan in your mind, especially, you know, are you going on vacation?

Are you going somewhere where you might experience these things? Um. Is your, the aunt and uncle coming in to watch the kids for the week where you're gone. And there, there's all kinds of things to look at, but having a plan and then coming back afterwards and figuring out how to do better and reexamine that, and fix what needs to be fixed, it's not always easy to admit what things weren't.

Done well, 

Maggie Joyce: but probably critical to, to 

Jennifer James: do so. Absolutely. 

Maggie Joyce: Yeah. 

Jennifer James: Yes. And again, it comes back to having those relationships also and being able to do that together. And I love the idea of, of that for the online piece that's [00:29:00] such a. Fast changing. I feel like anything but an expert, I mean, that's, I can't 

Maggie Joyce: keep up.

Jennifer James: No. And I've had numerous conversations with my son about online safety and topics like that can be really hard because I don't have experience with it. Like, you know, I had to go through various trainings because I have a work computer, that kind of things. So I have some basic things that I understand and because of what I do for a living, I can have those conversations with my child to a degree.

Maggie Joyce: Yeah. 

Jennifer James: Takes a lot of deep thought and figuring out how to talk to him in an age appropriate way about some pretty difficult topics, whether it's online safety or something else. And for me, as a parent, I think that's a big thing too, is how do we talk to our children Yeah. About this? 

Maggie Joyce: And a lot of us don't know how to even start that conversation.

Right. A lot of parents don't feel equipped to, so. Even, you might not even know you're doing it, but avoiding the conversation is, is easier than being [00:30:00] uncomfortable with it. 

Jennifer Cobb: Yes. 

Maggie Joyce: Yeah. 

Jennifer Cobb: I'll just start it when they're older is my favorite line. 

Maggie Joyce: Yeah. And I think like, um, as someone who has been evacuated for several wildfires, 'cause I live, um, in a little bit more rural area of Shasta County, I feel like even the response times for wildfires to get them under control have greatly increased year after year after year.

Like it feels like. A fire happens and there is an air tanker on it, and within minutes, which I know it probably isn't that fast 'cause it takes a while for that to get going. But, and that doesn't happen without looking at like, what was the response time before? What we could we Yes. Have done better? And I appreciate that as a community member.

So 

Jennifer James: absolutely I do as well. 

Maggie Joyce: Yeah. 

Ayla Tucker: In the, uh, emergency management world slash disaster science world, um, there is this accepted idea that risk is socially constructed. And when I say that it means. We have, [00:31:00] we've developed the environments that we live in. You know, we live in a physical world, but then we have environments, buildings, cities, um, schools that we have developed.

And a lot of times, specifically it's the two scholars that really research this are named Dr. Meti and Dr. Kathleen Tierney, and. When we think about disasters that our schools face or, um, risks that our schools are faced with, and we talked about fencing being one. Well, you know, 57 years ago when a lot of our schools were developed, they were open campuses.

Yeah. Mm-hmm. And then we started seeing these risks, right? You know, oh, maybe we wanna address that. And so we, you know, socially, for a lot of different reasons, those risks emerged and we thought, okay, well we should put up fencing, right? And that was how we took a step to mitigate that risk of having an open campus.

Another example of that is earthquakes. You know, we live in an earthquake prone area, and, but we. [00:32:00] We've built here, you know, we've built a civilization, towns, communities here. And so how do we mitigate that risk of the environment that we now live in? And so we practice, you know, what to do in evacuation.

We enhance building codes so that buildings are stronger in the event of an earthquake. And so it's, it's, this conversation is really fascinating to me to look at that. And when you start walking into an environment, whether it be a school or a home, and you think, okay. Risk is socially constructed.

How can we mitigate that risk from employing different tactics or reinforcing different systems safeguards, you know, driving in cars is dangerous, but what do we do to mitigate some of that risk? Yeah. Airbags, um, seat belts, you seat belts, things like that. And so I try to approach the work that I do with different agencies and the schools that same way.

Like there is inherent risk, but how can we mitigate that risk? 

Jennifer James: And just to tag onto that, I think another big [00:33:00] piece is the training and having some familiarity, understanding what your plan is, right? Because no matter what happens, if you haven't trained for something or if you have no clue what the plan is, I mean, speaking for myself, I'd be a little bit more stressed out if I was trying to figure out what the plan is and what I'm supposed to do in the heat of the moment versus if I understand at least the basics of what I'm supposed to do, and maybe I've had a little bit of training and I know like if we're talking earthquakes, an evacuation route and I understand which way I am supposed to go versus if I'm trying to figure it out in the moment. 

Maggie Joyce: Yeah. One probably breeds a lot more chaos than the other.

Right? Yes. Like practice. If you practice it, then you know your brain at least knows what to go to almost automatically without thinking about it. Maybe not, maybe not everything that you're experiencing in a disaster, but the basics. 

Jennifer James: Exactly. Yeah. Building some sort of muscle memory so that we have an idea.

Ayla Tucker: Yeah. Yeah. Critically important. 

Maggie Joyce: I agree. That's [00:34:00] why those drills are important and not just a, oh, it's just a drill. Right? Like we need to take those, the drills seriously as well. 

Ayla Tucker: Yeah. 

Maggie Joyce: So we're prepared. Yeah. Um, recently SCOE has been working with districts and law enforcement, and you've shared a lot about that today, Ayla regarding a Building safety Initiative.

Yes. And so what exactly does that effort look like and how will that enhance school safety? 

Ayla Tucker: Yeah, this is another. Project that I am really excited about. So when I started my role, I talked to a lot of different partners, and specifically for law enforcement because they're the ones that are, you know, most likely going to be on campus first.

If there's an incident, whether that's a medical emergency, or you know, an intruder situation, whatever it, wherever it may be, they're, they're gonna be the first ones there and some schools already have. School resource officers or probation officers that are, that are working on campus. But when I posed the question to them, I said, if you could address one issue on our school [00:35:00] campuses and you had a magic wand, what would it be?

And they all said, oh. The building numbers, it's very confusing. If you are, you know, 

Maggie Joyce: some, some have no rhyme or reason, 

Ayla Tucker: right? Yeah, 

Maggie Joyce: yeah. Because we add buildings. And we add buildings. 

Ayla Tucker: Exactly. And you know, they're all laid out differently and unless you are familiar with that campus, you know, going back to seconds matter in an emergency, if you are not familiar with that campus, your response is going to be delayed.

Mm-hmm. And so through our Safer Schools Coalition, which is a group of public safety agencies. Myself, different SCOE staff, school district staff as well. We work collaboratively to tackle some of these issues. We developed a working group to see what solutions were out there, and we identified a potential solution that we're working through that's basically like, a numbering system shaped like a battle grid.

So no matter what campus you go onto, if I say a one. If you've played the Battleship [00:36:00] game, my battle. You're familiar with that? Yeah. Yeah. And we're working towards that now. And of course, you know, districts are going to have to decide whether or not they wanna opt into this process. But the, the districts.

You know, I seem to be very excited about that. The ones that have been on this working group are large advocates for that. Law enforcement is excited about it too. And so, um, hopefully we don't have a timeline or anything like that, but we wanna get it done sooner than later to where we have a standard that's implemented throughout all of the schools in Shasta County. Again there's a lot of things that we have to work through to make sure that that comes to fruition , but, 

Maggie Joyce: but you heard a need and you're doing something 

Ayla Tucker: about it. Yeah. Yeah. And the goal is to be collaborative in, in doing that. 

Maggie Joyce: Fantastic. 

Jennifer James: That's really exciting because I've professionally participated in numerous exercises that have taken place at schools in different counties.

And that's always something that comes out on the back end is one, they want to do the training [00:37:00] with their people there at the school because they wanna understand the layout of the school, they wanna know what doors go to where, and mm-hmm. You know, just have familiarity with it. And then that's always been something that's come up in the after action as well, is.

Every school seems to have a slightly different plan and a different way of doing things, or a different numbering system. So having one streamlined process so they don't have to understand however many different schools way of doing things. They can have one general process. 

Ayla Tucker: Yeah. 'cause I mean, in Shasta County, we have what, 91 public and charter schools. Yeah. Yeah. So as a EMS or law enforcement going onto a campus right. You're probably not gonna be familiar with all 91. Yeah. So how can we standardize that, and make it effective so that we could try to get that best outcome in an emergency? 

Maggie Joyce: Yeah. 

Jennifer Cobb: Well to wrap up this fascinating conversation that we've [00:38:00] had, we have a core value at SCOE and it's to be hopeful and helpful.

And so, um, for our closing question, we have. Two questions. You can pick one, answer both however you want. But it's, what is your hope for the next generation or, who is someone that has been helpful to you in your specific career journeys? 

Ayla Tucker: Oh my gosh. That's such, that's a tough, hard one 

Jennifer Cobb: on the spot.

Ayla Tucker: I'm gonna go with who has been helpful and someone that I consider a mentor in my career. , He's since retired, but Shasta County, CEO, Larry Lees, I really started my career, um, working in his office and, you know, he actually got me in. I probably didn't realize it, but he helped me really get into the field of emergency management during the Carr fire, and that really ignited my passion.

He, like I said, was just such a mentor and [00:39:00] just really helped give me opportunities that I probably would not have had otherwise. I call it like baptism by fire, literally, because that's what the Carr fire was Yeah. For me. And really put me on a trajectory for the career path I'm on now and really why I'm sitting here today.

So I would say that that's one individual that, that really was transformative in my professional career. 

Maggie Joyce: Thank you for sharing that. 

Jennifer Cobb: Yeah. 

Jennifer James: So I'm gonna pick the other question just to mix it up a little bit. Um, so my hope for the next generation is I think to try to simplify things. You know, we live in such a fast paced world and I look my childhood and I can't help but compare it to my son's childhood now and all the things he's exposed to when it comes to technology and, you know, expectations just in life in general.

And there's a lot more going on. 

Jennifer Cobb: Yeah. 

Jennifer James: And I, it's one of the reasons I was really excited about this opportunity today is its real connection. And as a mom, that's something that's personally important to me. It's [00:40:00] why I participate at my son's school, you know? And I think that every parent should participate in their own way to the level that they can.

I think that looks different for everyone based on what they have going on in their life. And sometimes that might just be sitting down for an hour and doing homework together, but looking at those opportunities where we can connect. And I really try to set that example for my son that I, that's really what matters at the end of the day, are those connections that we're building.

And you know, we're building a future for your generation Son, um, but also for what's to come after you also. And I think, you know, it just, it is so fast paced these days. Mm-hmm. And there's so much going on and picking out what's really important and you just can't replace. Human connection and conversation and I think there's a lot of opportunity for growth in that, and I think that's how we get stronger as a community.

Maggie Joyce: Yeah. 

Jennifer James: You know, it takes, it just takes enough people who are, are willing again, to be a part of that pie and like do their little piece and even [00:41:00] if it is just an hour a day, that's something. 

Maggie Joyce: Yeah. 

Jennifer James: And I think that's really important, and I think sometimes that gets overlooked is sometimes people think they have to do a lot more in order for it to be valuable. And that's just not true. I think what they're doing in their day-to-day life is enough, and I would love to see more of that moving forward. So I was raised, I had a grandmother who was very influential and taught me the importance of, you know, volunteering and giving something back.

You can't give everything, but you do what you can do. So just trying to instill that message and that that looks different to everybody and it's absolutely possible and it can be very rewarding. 

Maggie Joyce: Yeah. Well and spending time with people is creates that real connection Right. In the same physical space if you can.

And just putting the screens down and having some face-to-face interaction. 

Jennifer James: Yes. And all for promoting that, the change we want to see. Yeah. As opposed to the change that's happening. [00:42:00] 

Maggie Joyce: Yeah, I would agree with that. I, I also would love that to be the hope for the next generation. well we are so happy to have you guys here today and we just thank you for the work that you do every day to make Shasta County and, and our regional neighbors safe and not only safe, but supported and connected to our community and to each other.

So thank you guys so much for being here on Inspire Shasta. 

Ayla Tucker: Thank you for having 

Jennifer James: us. Yes, thank you for having us.