LockDown Drill
We had our first Lockdown drill of the school year on Tuesday and it was very successful. Children were secure and safe in their classrooms within 5 minutes of our announcement. This is consistent with our excellent evacuation drill times where we demonstrated an ability to clear the building and confirm all present in under 7 minutes.
We also tested our SMS Emergency Notification System (ENS). An ENS message was sent to all parents, staff, and administration during the drill, along with a link to help you give us feedback. Click HERE to fill out that survey and let us know if you did NOT receive our message and/or to provide feedback on our system. Thanks to all the staff and students who did such a wonderful job preparing for and executing our drill.
One item that was an issue. We had a couple of parents in the hallway at the time of the drill and they were successfully gathered into the room with the children. But, we noted that this parent was not wearing their badge. It reminded us of an important point. While we are a bit flexible during normal operation (this one was left in a car), we need to stress to all parents that wearing your badge at all times while on campus is critically important, and particularly so when we have drills or emergency actions. Being able to identify the adults during an emergency is one of the main reasons we require the parent badge. Thank you to all who are doing a wonderful job of following this important rule!!
Evacuation on Tuesday
We had an inadvertent evacuation shortly after our lockdown drill on Tuesday that was the result of the action of a Middle School student pressing a hallway alarm. We have taken disciplinary action in regard to this incident including other students who were identified as encouraging and helping to plan the behavior. We need to stress that a false alarm of this nature is a serious offense and we will be reminding students that this kind of action could also result in referral to law enforcement. If the fire department had responded to the event, harsher penalties would have been likely. Please help us remind students that false reporting may put others at risk and we all want to be as safe and secure as possible.