An unusual safety film complete with student stars and Lego dramatizations could premier next school year in the Tucson Unified School District.
It’s a lighthearted way to convey a very serious message to their peers throughout the district about on-campus safety. The project, a collaboration between Tucson High Magnet School film and TV students and the district’s safety and security department, is completely student-produced.
Whether it ever gets shown to students in the district, however, depends on approval of administrators and the TUSD board.
Sam Martin, a TUSD school security officer, first approached Rosie Zwaduk, Tucson High’s film and TV teacher, about putting the video together.
Zwaduk told her students about Martin’s proposal.
“They absolutely were interested. And we took the original video, which was adults talking, and had some fun, “ Martin said. “We don’t need adults talking at them.”
“They wanted a remake of the safety video that was by students for students,” said THMS junior Lunabella Iturralde-Kaae, who is a member of the film and TV class. “The original video was done by TUSD staff and that’s kind of why Mr. Martin wanted to remake it. He wanted to it be more personal.”
Joe Hallums, director of safety and security at TUSD, said his department discussed the possibility of a student-led project, later deciding to move forward.
“We felt we needed to reach out to the students after a couple situations, we saw that there seemed to be some confusion,” Hallums said. “We’re trying to create that culture of safety, we want to make sure that everybody’s involved, and everybody has awareness of what to do during some of these situations.”
“Our goal is to appeal to the younger, and the older people,” Iturralde-Kaae said. “It is a great way to appeal to everyone in every grade — and who doesn’t love Legos?”
The video — forecast to be about four minutes long — covers different levels of taking cover on campus, including sheltering in place and going into lockdown.
“We shared the information we wanted to convey to the students and they just took it from there,” Hallums said.
Information from TUSD safety and security team and the original safety film helped guide the project.
Every aspect of the safety film is done by students. It was directed by Birdie Baer, who graduated early. Iturralde-Kaae has helped take on Baer’s role for the remainder of the project.
“The original video was very point blank, like, these are the rules. This is what you do,” Iturralde-Kaae said. “We remastered that and made it kind of entertaining and fun to watch.”
Parts of the film use stop-motion animation featuring Lego men and structures to illustrate some of the protocols. Zwaduk said, “They wanted to jazz it up and keep everybody interested in it.”
Arthur Pedack, a THMS junior, edits footage. His duties include cutting footage and finding music for the film. Pedack was also a member of the crew. There have been about 20 students involved in the safety video since its inception, said Zwaduk, the Tucson High teacher.
Zwaduk said the project — like many in her class — is done entirely by a team of students. “If you walk around, everybody’s working on different things. They all have their own personal projects, and they really hone in on what their interests and specialties are.”
“They don’t need me in there,” she said, proudly.
The safety film, if approved by administrators and the TUSD governing board, will also be shown to teachers before next school year kicks off.
What has been a fun project has serious undertones. Those are not lost on the film and TV students. Iturralde-Kaae said, “Our goal is to keep people safe. That’s the purpose of the video, but you want to do it in a fun way that isn’t as dim as other safety PSAs can be.”
“I think students are more engaged when their peers are talking to me as opposed to somebody like myself or the superintendent or a principal,” Hallums said. “I’m hoping that peer-to-peer engagement will convey the information that we want to convey and make it more memorable.”
Zwaduk said her students understand the gravity of the subject matter. “They know it’s going to affect everybody. They want to make sure that that everybody stays safe.”
Pedack said it’s a look at protocols that have become common in many schools, nationwide.
“All these safety measures we take — we grew up with all those fire drills and everything … it puts that all into perspective.”
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