“Keeping Schools Safe”

Jennifer Brockwell – Principal

South Lake Elementary School

Brevard County, Florida

Brockwell.jennifer@brevardschools.org

As an administrator, you know that you have many roles, but the number one priority is student and staff safety! You must have a plan in place and practice, practice, practice. The key is to ensure that your staff and your students know what to do in many situations. All employees have the authority to keep our school safe, but they need to know what to do so having plans are critical and revisiting those plans are a must!

There are many no cost or low-cost strategies that you can implement now to keep your campus safe. 

·         Keep doors and entrance gates locked – teachers always need to understand the importance of keeping their doors locked. If you have someone that opens all the gates at arrival and dismissal, change that policy. The employee that supervises that gate should be the only one that opens it and they stay there until they are the one that closes the gate. This way, if you have an employee absent, the gate will never open or the backup plan you have in place will go into effect.

·        Classroom checklist/emergency binder for all employees – In a true emergency, the emotional side of the brain can take over and the logical side may be less active. Having an emergency binder made for all employees is an important item that can easily be done. Have in the binder important information for the employee to quickly reference. If you call a shelter in place, lockdown, or evacuation, the employees need to know what to do. Even though you practice these many times, in a true stressful situation, having something for the employee to reference may help. Also, if you have a substitute teacher in the classroom, this tool could help them to keep your students safe.

·         Having a “Safe Corner” in every classroom – Ensure that your teachers have identified a “safe corner” in the classroom for students to be out of sight as best as possible. During drills have help ensuring that your teacher has identified the best spot in a critical situation. You may also want to contact your local police department to come out and walk the campus with you. They will have other ideas to share that you may not have thought of because of the line of work they deal with more frequently.

·         On-going Professional Development – It is imperative that all faculty and staff know what to do in the case of an emergency (active assailant, fire drills, school lockdown, etc.) On-going professional development sessions covering all types of potential emergency situations on campus need to be continually covered. At my school we talk a lot about “Situational Awareness” and being aware of our surroundings. I start every faculty meeting with safety by asking my employees if they have any questions related to safety and then we conduct our meeting. We always start with safety first.

·         Conduct Meaningful Drills – Similar to ensuring all faculty and staff know what to do in case of an emergency, students need to know what to do as well. On-going, meaningful drills need to be conducted to make sure all students and staff know what to do in case of an emergency (of any kind). We have many mandatory drills, multiple times each year. After student school hours, I will call teachers randomly to make an “all-call” from their classroom phone to test that they know how to use the features to put the entire school on a lockdown if ever needed. They also wear microphones that have a “Safety Alert Feature” and we conduct drills where the teacher activates their safety button and the front office jumps into action.

·         Executive and Front-Line Staff Planning Sessions – Planning and preparation are key!  School leadership needs to have well thought out security policies and procedures (clear and well written emergency plans, codes, drills, etc.) to make sure emergencies of any kind are planned for and considered. All school leaders need to know what assignments are in place and who is responsible for each role. If a key leader is not on campus at the time of an emergency, coverage needs to be assigned in advance. Your school is successful when it runs well while you are not on campus.

·         Law Enforcement Collaborative Partnership – Walk the campus with local police officers and the fire department. They can give you suggestions and tips that will help make their job more efficient if they need to come on your campus for a critical incident. It is invaluable to have collaborative meetings between district and police department personnel to provide a common front in support of school safety. Consistent police involvement in the school fosters a strong, trusting relationship.

·         Reunification Plan – Parent/student reunification plan establishes a place and procedure for providing emergency information to parents who come to the school when an emergency (or perceived emergency) occurs. Work with your local police department and district security to ensure that you have a well thought out plan. Many times, they may give suggestions to better enhance your communications and plans.

·         Good Communication with All Stakeholders - Communication with parents, staff, students and all other stakeholders is vital. It is important to let them know that safety and security of students and staff is the number one priority. Letting everyone know about school security policies and procedures is good, but we don’t need to discuss too many specifics with the community. Ideally, it would be good to have joint school and police communications to show a united front.

My teachers wear a microphone but it’s not just any type of microphone, it has a security enhancement built in. Teachers are trained to use discreet notification buttons on the side of their teacher microphone in any emergency. Teachers push and hold the alert buttons for three seconds. This is a discrete way to request help and not escalate the situation. This is an immediate way to get help for any number of situations. A signal is sent to the front office, a digital screen alerts and shows the location, the principal, Assistant Principal, and School Resource Officer receive a text alert, and the teacher receives a signal that help is on the way. This is a SAFE system classroom package that I purchased through Audio Enhancement, Inc.

In closing, I would like to thank you for taking the time to read my post. As administrators, our main goal is keeping all our students, teachers, staff, and volunteers safe during an emergency. Repetition with drills each month will help to ensure compliance and efficiency at the time of a true emergency. Yes, you can practice over and over and in that emergency something else may happen but having that repetitive practice and situational awareness will help with decisions that need to be made or altered quickly. If a true emergency does happen on campus, there will be Law Enforcement agency members coming from all over to assist. I know saying, “remain calm and remind students to be calm” is certainly easier said than done but we can try our very best and having practice helps to build that courage and confidence need in critical situations. I tell my parents that it’s my job to do my very best to return their child the way they dropped them off to me that day. Do all that you can to keep your students and staff safe!